Design your own spiced rum

[Edward Hamilton]

If you could make your own brand of spiced rum what would you make it.
What would be the dominant spice, ginger? cinnamon? nutmeg? clove?
What proof would you make it? 80, 86, 92, 96, 99 US proof?
Would you make it a little sweet, or as dry as you could make it?

[Paulipbartender]

What a huge question Ed! The mind races in any number of directions based on mood and what gap in the Market you wanted to fill.

What about an overt Aperitif with Ginger and lemongrass, then a digestif with chocolate, honey and nuts?

Love to be sitting with a distiller for a few weeks playing on that project!

[Edward Hamilton]

Paul, seems great minds think along the same path. I was thinking about ginger but your idea of lemongrass adds that missing dimension to ginger as I desire more than a sweet ginger flavor.

Originally Posted by Paulipbartender

Love to be sitting with a distiller for a few weeks playing on that project!

Ah, dreaming of tasting flavors at a (dare I inject sunny, during the coldest days of the year if you're north of the equator) distillery for a few weeks. But the reality is that even if you could spend a few weeks with all the flavors in front of you after you've finally made the perfect flavor combination, by the time you got it back to your cold loft in England to share it with your mates, who you've tempted with your tempting poetic descriptions of your perfect potion the flavors in your flask will have failed to remain in that balance you perfected only days before.

And while you vainly try to explain to your laughing loft mates that it was perfect only days before, you will have deftly demonstrated one of the most frustrating facts of the blenders art. It takes time for flavors to marry and like a good marriage, blending flavors can not be rushed from the infatuation stages of lust and immediate satisfaction into lasting love. Only with the addition of that ever elusive quotient of time can perfection be attained and preserved in love, marriage or in your favorite flask.

Originally Posted by Paulipbartender

and then a digestif with chocolate, honey and nuts?

Now that's a marriage worth pursuing

[DonBlanco8]

Yum! As a spiced rum rookie, I'm looking to seeing the responses to this thread!

But are the better spiced rums traditionally made from molasses? Or does the infusion process lend itself better to sugar cane?

Saludos,
Don

[Rum Runner]

I would love to brand a local version of spiced rum called Bili. It is made with a local fruit called Quenepa, also known as Spanish lime. It is not related to true limes at all. The fruit grows on trees in drupes. It is about the size of a large grape. It has a distinctive sweet/tart flavor. After the semi-hard outer shell is removed the soft pulp and seed is then macerated in rum with some sugar and a bit of cinnamon. In the old days the container was buried in the ground for one month or more. Many of the locals here still produce it for home consumption. It is great tasting and truly unique.

[TheRumelier]

Next time I come down I think I really need to try this blend. It sounds very interesting. Something that would go well on "Bizarre Foods"!! Maybe you should enter some in the Rumfest. Start digging your hole now.
Watch where you are digging though!!!!!!!!

[Edward Hamilton]

Originally Posted by DonBlanco8

But are the better spiced rums traditionally made from molasses? Or does the infusion process lend itself better to sugar cane?

Saludos,
Don

Taste is in the mouth of the imbiber. The most important thing for a good infusion is to start with a high proof spirit whether it's sugar cane juice or molasses based.

[RonJames]

Originally Posted by Rum Runner

I would love to brand a local version of spiced rum called Bili. It is made with a local fruit called Quenepa, also known as Spanish lime. It is not related to true limes at all. The fruit grows on trees in drupes. It is about the size of a large grape. It has a distinctive sweet/tart flavor. After the semi-hard outer shell is removed the soft pulp and seed is then macerated in rum with some sugar and a bit of cinnamon. In the old days the container was buried in the ground for one month or more. Many of the locals here still produce it for home consumption. It is great tasting and truly unique.

Sounds a lot like Cana or Canita. Interesting enough when my father in law was telling me about this my mother in law gave him dirty looks and looked like she was going to hit him with something. Quenepa's are good by themselves so I can only imagine what they'd be like in rum. hmmm, another good hand food for rum.

[Hank Koestner]

I think I would try one on the drier side, using mostly spices, like nutmeg cinnamon, cloves, and others along this line. I think I would leave out vanilla for a change, and it would be a higher proof, say 90 or 100. Since I am not the expeimenter that some of our fellow members are, I wonder if my idea would work.

[Edward Hamilton]

A little sugar is often used like a coat of thick paint to hid some blemishes. Drier is a good approach from my perspective. Nutmeg isn't nearly as overpowering as cinnamon. I have to agree with you on the vanilla angle, and the high proof.