This episode is the first installment of our rum spotlight. We go through some different styles, learn some history and, of course, taste a lot of rum.
This episode is the first installment of our rum spotlight. We go through some different styles, learn some history and, of course, taste a lot of rum.
Nick Boban (00:01):
This is the house made podcast. We're your hosts, Nick boban and John Vieira. We're here to cover your questions about home bartending. Let's get into it.
John Vieira (00:22):
What's up everybody? Another episode of house made podcast here. Today, we're talking about rums. This is going to be kind of a two-parter I guess. We're going to go through, we grabbed some rum to taste from different areas, kind of compare and contrast. And then we're also going to talk about some really tasty drinks that we can make with those.
Nick Boban (00:43):
We just kind of wanted to give you guys a 50,000 foot overview. There's a lot of rum out there.
John Vieira (00:50):
There's so much.
Nick Boban (00:52):
We just wanted to touch on a couple of them.
John Vieira (00:54):
Yeah. It's kind of absurd how much there is and if you get really into it, if it's like something you're interested in...
Nick Boban (01:02):
Let us know we can dive deeper.
John Vieira (01:04):
We can definitely go a lot deeper. Just a little light reading earlier just to acquaint myself with what's going on. I did not know this, I found out that rum is produced in over 80 countries. That's insane. The ones that you're probably gonna see the most in stores, I guess like if you went to buy some rum, uh, you'd probably see Barbados, Cuba, Jamaica, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Nicaragua, and possibly like India and the Philippines. Those are probably going to be like some of the more common ones, but also that doesn't super matter. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Nick Boban (01:45):
Yeah. So what I was really interested in was actually what makes rum "RUM". You know how like whiskey has got a lot of certain like stipulations and stuff to it?
John Vieira (01:55):
Yeah.
Nick Boban (01:56):
Rum... Okay. So I guess to touch back on our last episode, too, when we were talking about vodka, I was actually reading the TTB ruling from 2016. So it was 2016 - 3 put out by the TTB, which is the tax Bureau that does alcohol and tobacco and they classify spirit types so that the government can tax you on it. Anyways, I was reading the rum section, rums classification, number six. And it more or less said that it just has to be made from sugar by-products.
John Vieira (02:38):
Yeah. It can be made anywhere in the world from what I understand.
Nick Boban (02:41):
Yeah. And the thing that I thought was crazy about THAT too, was that they call this... The stuff or there was a handful of things they called non-essential blends or blending materials, and you can have up to 2.5% of those by volume in the spirit itself.
John Vieira (03:00):
Oh, okay.
Nick Boban (03:01):
Which is like caramel coloring and added flavors. Which if you talk about it like that, like that's a huge percentage.
John Vieira (03:08):
Yeah. That you can do. There's so much variance. When you start talking about this stuff....
Nick Boban (03:13):
And this ruling says it has to like be an essence of, so it has to just fall under what you would imagine rum to tastes like.
John Vieira (03:24):
That's so wild. As we're going to learn today as well...
Nick Boban (03:28):
There's so many rums. Yeah. So pretty much it's made from sugar by-products. Mostly molasses.
John Vieira (03:35):
Right. Well, so that was kinda how, how rum started right? In those trading routes. They had a shit ton of molasses and by-product that was heavy as shit. No real use for it and then they figured out they could turn it into booze.
Nick Boban (03:52):
Yeah. So as... Essentially as the European colonies were out conquering the world, producing sugar on these islands that they found and were like, Oh, bad-ass ship that shit back to London. And everybody on the Island was like, well, we got a bunch of molasses.
John Vieira (04:07):
And it was too heavy for them that... It wasn't worth it for them to ship it somewhere else.
Nick Boban (04:11):
And, from my understanding, is nobody really liked it back then either.
John Vieira (04:15):
Well, and I don't think, like, I don't think it was as refined as like the products we might get today as far as like molasses. So like, it was probably pretty gnarly. However, as we've learned, you ferment something, turns into booze. Pretty cool.
Nick Boban (04:27):
Turns it a lot nicer. Okay. So let's talk about silver rum. So you got a bottle of Bacardi with you.
John Vieira (04:34):
Yeah. So we brought a few of these to just kinda taste and look at. These are just common ones that we use every day, you know, at the bar, things like that. But so much out there. Bacardi superior is a Cuban rum. Although this one is made in Puerto Rico. I think that's like...
Nick Boban (04:52):
They have a huge facility over there. That's what we have in our well. It's a silver rum.
John Vieira (05:00):
Yeah. Yeah. So silver, white or clear rum is kind of how...
Nick Boban (05:05):
How they call them.
John Vieira (05:06):
Kind of how they call them. Very common for drinks like daiquiris, mojitos...
Nick Boban (05:12):
Oh, on the daiquiri. Note, I was reading on Bacardi's website. They claim to have invented the daiquiri.
John Vieira (05:17):
Well, I, you know what... From what I understand, the daiquiri was supposedly invented in Cuba. So I suppose it could be a thing.
Nick Boban (05:24):
That and the Cuba Libre. That was their claim to fame.
John Vieira (05:27):
Yeah. Cuba Libre for those of you guys who are unfamiliar, it's essentially a rum and Coke, but it has lime juice in it, which makes it WAY better, especially if it's made correctly. But, yeah. So a white rum is probably the most common term for what you're talking about. Things like Bacardi superior, Don Q crystal and then like a Flor De Cana extra dry. But they all kind of have their own thing. It's like any other spirit. They fall under this like basic classification, but they're going to have some different stuff going on. So Bacardi we use for the well because it's pretty clean for what it is. Now obviously, it has kind of a heinous smell as most spirits do, but the price point is really good on it.
Nick Boban (06:13):
It is, but okay. So smell it. So it reminds me of vodka on the nose. It's got that...
John Vieira (06:20):
It does, it has that like medicinal, like estringent, nail Polish remover is basically...
Nick Boban (06:25):
Where it stands, which is funny cause I was reading their... Their tasting notes and they said it's very light and aromatically balanced on the nose. That smells like gasoline. However...
John Vieira (06:40):
You know what, even flavor-wise it is not that far off. It's sweeter.
Nick Boban (06:44):
From vodka. Oh yeah.
John Vieira (06:46):
It's sweeter, but not by leaps and bounds.
Nick Boban (06:50):
It has a little bit more flavor on the back. It definitely has a little bit of vanilla to it. It's almost a little like limey. Like lime rind, if you will.
John Vieira (06:59):
Yeah. Not terrible though.
Nick Boban (07:01):
No, it's great. It would be even better with lime juice and a little bit of sugar, which is probably why they claimed to have invented the daiquiri.
John Vieira (07:10):
Right, right. Um, so yeah. Applications for this kind of rum. You're talking about drinks where you're not really trying to get a whole bunch of the character of the rum to come through. This is essentially the vodka of the rum world.
Nick Boban (07:24):
Category. Yeah. Not good in mai thai. I mean, you can put it into mai thai, but it's not going to bring anything to it.
John Vieira (07:30):
Mai thai needs more body. It needs some funk, yeah. And that's the point of that drink is like, let's showcase the rum. This is like a, "I want to taste the fruit and the mint. And I don't know...
Nick Boban (07:44):
Which is why it goes great in Cuba Libre when you put Coke on it, because the rum just disappears.
John Vieira (07:51):
It does and if you use like a spiced rum or something. It gets way too sweet with a Coke.
Nick Boban (07:55):
Oh, absolutely.
John Vieira (07:56):
It's kind of crazy how many people drink, like captain and Sprite.
Nick Boban (08:01):
You're talking about the most sugar content in soda pop and the most sugar content in rum.
John Vieira (08:06):
There was a dude in the bar the other day that drank like 8 of those. Like I thought he was just going to drop dead.
Nick Boban (08:11):
His blood is probably a molasses.
John Vieira (08:13):
That's insane to me. That's fucking insane. Okay. So yeah, we're talking about a white, silver or clear rum. Now next on this list is... It's kind of my, I'm not going to say my least favorite category, but of the types that you see commonly at the liquor store, it's one of my least favorites. It's the gold or the pale rum category. Now there are a few that fall into this category that are pretty decent rums. You've got like a Don Q gold that's like, you know, whatever. You've got your mount gay that's been around forever and it's honestly not bad. I put it in a daiquiri. it's not really an aged rum, but it's not one of these white or clear rum. So it is aged...
Nick Boban (08:56):
Well yeah. You're going to have a little bit of sugar and some caramel coloring in most of them.
John Vieira (09:01):
I guess it's sort of akin to the concept of like the tequilas, how you have like your Plata, your Blanco, and then you got your rested, your Reposado, and then you've got your Anejo. So this would be like the Reposado category of rum, kind of. But there's so many variables that you can't really...
Nick Boban (09:17):
Yeah because each Island that these are produced on is going to have their own stipulations for what makes rum "rum".
John Vieira (09:23):
Exactly. And if you get something from like Jamaica, it's going to be probably funkier, even though it's the same...
Nick Boban (09:28):
Yeah, each island kind of has its own distinct taste.
John Vieira (09:32):
So like a, like a lighter Appleton or something might be something that would fall into this category. Uh, as you keep going down, you have what's called dark rum. And when I think a dark rum, I think of... The category that I think of is actually black rum. So stuff like goslings or Myers.
Nick Boban (09:48):
They're two separate categories.
John Vieira (09:49):
They're separate, yeah. So dark rum would be considered, like I said, almost like the Anejo sort of category where they're actually aged, a lot of times in barrels or like, ex whiskey barrels, things like that. And so these are gonna have a lot more body. You're talking about things like your Flor de Cana aged. I think they have a five-year black label and like a seven year. And I think it even actually says anejo on their bottles as well.
Nick Boban (10:17):
Gotcha. And so that's what your dark rum category is.
John Vieira (10:19):
Yeah. Yeah. So like your heavy aged. So like your premium... Maybe something from Appleton or Kirk and Sweeney. That's like your, Like something you would straight up just be like, Oh, this is like a really like nice aged rum. And then of course you have your black rum category, which is things like your goslings and Cruzan black strap. Things, a lot more bold, a lot more molasses.
Nick Boban (10:42):
They're straight black. When you pick them off the shelf, you can't see through the bottle.
John Vieira (10:46):
Yeah. Yeah. And then you've got other categories as well that are not nearly as common. So you've got, you know, Navy rum. You've got your over proof rum, which something like that Wray and nephew white we have.
Nick Boban (10:58):
What's the difference between Navy and over proof?
New Speaker (11:01):
So Navy...
Nick Boban (11:03):
From my understanding, I thought Navy MEANT over proof.
John Vieira (11:05):
No, they're not necessarily synonymous. However, a lot of rums are kind of both. So Navy rums, like I guess the Smith and cross is a weird example because it's not considered a Navy rum, to my knowledge, but it's Navy strength. So it's, it's like another way of saying over proof, but it's not. It's not considered over proof because it's not crazy, crazy high. It's not like your 151s and stuff like that. So it's, it's kinda strange. I'd have to look into it a little bit more. I apologize. I didn't really do a whole bunch of reading on rums. I'm kind of, I'm a noob when it comes to rum.
Nick Boban (11:43):
This is all supposed to be a 50,000 foot overview.
John Vieira (11:46):
This is just assuming that you guys are like, Hey, I want to go to this... I want to go to this bar. I want to go to this restaurant or I want to make some drinks at home. What are some different types of rum? What should I be looking at and why does it matter? So we're kind of in the same boat. But yeah, the only other category I think that really matters for some of the stuff that I care about is your premium aged rum category. And that's your stuff like Diplomatico, your highest end Appletons, Zaya. Stuff like that. It's stuff that's considered a premium spirit. You would pour it in a glass and probably just drink it. You're not talking about making cocktails with it or anything like that. So anyway, just a really brief overview of all that. That being said, the next one we're going to taste is... This is the Flor de Cana um 4... I don't know if, I guess it's a 4 year age statement. It's kind of vague. I think that, I think it used to be an age statement now it just has the number 4 on it and we're not, we're not really sure. Uh, but anyway, it's there kind of lighter in color rum.
Nick Boban (12:52):
It's like a gold rum? Is that where we're at?
New Speaker (12:53):
This I believe would technically fall into the gold or pale rum category. Okay. I just call it aged rum, but it is quite a bit more or less aged, I should say than some of these other options. So give that a smell compared to the Bacardi.
Nick Boban (13:17):
Yeah. So this one just right off the... Has some body to it, the nose.
John Vieira (13:23):
And the color is like, it's a nice, caramel-y almost like a whiskey color.
Nick Boban (13:28):
It does, it looks like a pale-ish kind of whiskey.
John Vieira (13:32):
Yeah. You wonder though, like, was that just added?
Nick Boban (13:35):
From my understanding, my very limited knowledge that I have on rum, a lot of the color is added.
John Vieira (13:42):
Yeah. It would seem that way unless it's like a premium one.
Nick Boban (13:44):
Well, because when you're talking about aging barrels around the equator and the heat. The heat and the humidity that you have down there, the angel's share of the barrel is going to be significantly greater than that of like a stormy Island like Scotts right? Like Scottish whisky that can be aged for 30 god damn years and there's still stuff left in the barrel. Like I would just imagine like what I could imagine that the angel's share off the barrel being like 10%. So that means like 10% of liquid in the barrel is going to evaporate on the first year. And then you're talking about 10% compounded with less volume. So all of a sudden, like, I don't know that we could afford to buy it if it was a real true age statement like that, because a true age statement is saying that even though it is a blend of different barrels, because most of these products are. That the... The less, or the least old is that statement, right? So if you're talking about like a 12 year blended whiskey. It can be blended with lots of stuff. The youngest one will be 12 years. Yep.
John Vieira (14:55):
Well, and I think that's why something like Kirk and Sweeney recently changed their packaging and they don't go by the 12, 18 and 23 year age statements anymore. It's called like reserve, grand reserve and then like grand reserve superior. They kept the bottle shape though, I think. I was noticing the legs...
Nick Boban (15:16):
Break really quick.
John Vieira (15:17):
They break really quick. But compared to the Bacardi, which were like non-existent. Yeah.
Nick Boban (15:24):
It's got a lot of alcohol on the nose. A lot of caramel, almost. Vanillas, all that stuff you would think of with aged spirits, right? And then sweeter. Not picking up as much vanilla on the tongue. It definitely took a back seat.
John Vieira (15:59):
Yeah. That one like burned my nostrils when I... But it's actually pretty smooth.
Nick Boban (16:04):
it is. Yeah. There's, there's not a lot of alcohol burn that comes back off of it.
John Vieira (16:09):
Once again, kind of like our experience with the vodkas where it's like, it was, it was actually pretty smooth, but the vapor coming off was so hot in some cases that you were like getting smoked by it.
Nick Boban (16:22):
Um, fruity I think? I think that's where I'm at. Like, almost like an Apple-y like a summer, like almost like a granny Smith style apple.
John Vieira (16:36):
I can see that. So almost like a caramel Apple then, right? It's got some that caramely...
Nick Boban (16:40):
Yeah. Not, I mean, yeah. Yeah.
John Vieira (16:44):
That makes it sound like it tastes way better than it does not to knock. It tastes fine, but...
Nick Boban (16:48):
It's good. It's it's, for the price point, it's a wonderful bottle.
John Vieira (16:54):
$14 bottle, here.
Nick Boban (16:55):
It's so affordable.
John Vieira (16:57):
Really great if you wanted to kind of beef up any of your own cocktails. So I think this would be a really great application for like a punch. A really cheap way...
Nick Boban (17:11):
To put some body to the cocktail. Now we're talking about something with a little bit of flavor to it that could stand up in a drink.
John Vieira (17:20):
Yeah, totally. You could use this in a Mai Tai. If I was gonna... If price point wasn't really an option and I was going to make them in my house. I think I would, like that one we made with Appleton that one day, was awesome. Throwing around things like Smith and cross. Like obviously you could start getting amazing stuff in there.
Nick Boban (17:38):
But at least, I don't know how it is the rest of the world, but here it's like near impossible to buy Smith and cross. When you go to the liquor store I feel like it's a drug deal. Like I was in there yesterday and the liquor store manager comes up and he's like, "Hey, Hey, come here." He pulls me in like really close. And he goes, "I have Smith and cross." Don't say it. I'm like, Oh, okay. He's like... I'm like, how many, how many do you have? "I have six." I'm like, fuck I'll take them and he's like, okay, cool.
John Vieira (18:12):
Did he give you all six?
Nick Boban (18:13):
Yeah he gave me all six. He fucking rings it up, like looks around, which is hilarious that he's like super quiet and all this stuff, because like I was at a liquor store that doesn't have like a store front for customers. So it's literally me and the employees.
John Vieira (18:29):
The lady at 102, when I went there, the one on state street. When I tried to buy, like, I tried to buy everything they had and they only gave me, I think six at the time. She about had a fucking aneurism when I... She did not like me. She was like, "Oh, you're buying all my Smith and cross." And I was like, well, it's not like, I'm just going to go like throw it against the wall.
Nick Boban (18:49):
It's for sale! What are you doing?
John Vieira (18:51):
Yeah, it's for the customers.
Nick Boban (18:53):
Yeah. Jeez. Okay. Well with that said, we might as well fucking taste Smith and cross now.
John Vieira (18:57):
We should. Let's, cause I'm going to taste that one again and again. Cause it's cause it's so fucking good. So let's talk a little bit about Jamaican rum.
Nick Boban (19:06):
Yeah. Talk to me about Jamaican rum.
John Vieira (19:09):
Well... God damn, this is really difficult to get off.
Nick Boban (19:11):
Here, I'll do that. While you talk about it.
John Vieira (19:13):
Jamaican rum. It has this weird... I don't even know if the English language has a word for it. We refer to as funky. It has this really, really amazing sometimes uh, sometimes it's kind of banana-y. Sometimes it's fruity. Sometimes it's like this molasses-y kind of thing without being too heavy. And you can tell just by smelling it too, but, uh, Jamaican rum is one of my favorite categories. That's also where Appleton comes from and they make a really great product, but Smith and cross is just such a unique bottle and it's boozy. So it is Navy strength. It's 57% alcohol. So it's a, it's a stout little number. But yeah, so among all of the great Jamaican rums are out there, this is kind of one of my favorites. I think the very first time I ever had it was in the Craft eggnog that we were making the very first year, which was kind of the recipe straight out of Sother Teague's book. Which if you guys haven't read that it's called "I'm just here for the drinks." Unbelievable book. Definitely pick that up. Uh, but yeah, it had Smith and cross in there and it was just...
Nick Boban (20:25):
Well, so being so over proof and having so much flavor and funkiness to it. It stands out of a cocktail. So even when you put it in something like eggnog, right? With cream and eggs and nutmeg and cinnamon and all that other crap. You taste it and you're like, Oh yep. That's Smith and cross.
John Vieira (20:46):
But it gives it body too, cause when you have creamy ingredients, like half and half and stuff like that...
Nick Boban (20:53):
It gives it like a mouth feel. But the mouth feel isn't like full bodied, right? It's very like...
John Vieira (20:59):
Yeah. That fatty or oily ish kind of texture that you get is really pleasant. But sometimes it needs some body.
Nick Boban (21:05):
But it's light in flavor. You run into that, making like a fondue at the bar. Like it's an amazing amount of salt that you have to put in to heavy cream to actually taste anything out of it.
John Vieira (21:18):
Wow. First thing I noticed just based on the other two that we've tasted is the salinity. It's amazing. I love salt. It's wham! Right to the tip of my tongue.
Nick Boban (21:32):
Okay. I just want to say... Could you smell this when I cracked, when I took the top off of it? From across the table? Okay. Cause I can smell... I can smell it from like here. Very easily.
John Vieira (21:45):
But I think... I think being high proof...
Nick Boban (21:49):
Maybe helps that.
John Vieira (21:50):
I think it kind of helps cause those vapors are just going nuts, but it's not just like straight rubbing alcohol...
Nick Boban (21:56):
I mean, you're talking about like, you're talking about bananas. That's a great descriptor.
John Vieira (22:01):
Yep. You're getting bananas. God, just that taste. I can't believe how much... That's probably why I like it so much in like a daiquiri that salinity that's just there.
Nick Boban (22:17):
Yeah. Now with it being so high proof, it does give you that alcohol zing. It gives you a solid burn and it's... My chest is now on fire.
John Vieira (22:31):
Yup. You feel it all the way down.
Nick Boban (22:33):
But the flavor that comes out of it, my goodness. I want to give you better descriptors than banana.
John Vieira (22:42):
Oh, I know. I'm not... You guys aren't going to get anything good for me. I'm terrible with descriptors.
Nick Boban (22:48):
God, almost like... Tropical fruits. I think that might be a better descriptor. So like banana and I think it's, I think it's banana because it's got like a meatier kind of like mouth feel to it. And it gives that... Like when you scratch the banana skin itself. That's the flavor that I'm picking off of it, is that like almost palm like or banana tree kind of thing.
John Vieira (23:18):
So while we have the Jamaican rum out let's taste this. This is the Appleton estate reserve blend.
New Speaker (23:26):
Oh, which I wanted to touch a little bit on the... Uh, sorry. Backing up to Smith and cross. I was very confused as to where they came from. So apparently Smith and cross is a product of the United Kingdom.
John Vieira (23:42):
Yeah, no, it says... Okay. Yeah. So when you look at the bottle...
Nick Boban (23:48):
It literally says London on the bottle.
John Vieira (23:48):
I was trying to figure this out. Smith and cross London, traditional Jamaica rum.
Nick Boban (23:54):
So... It is. And it's actually two separate pot stills. It's a [unknown] and a plumber potstill? Probably butchered both of those. I don't know anything about either one of those stills to be completely honest with you. From what limited information, which is from the looks of it is what's on the back of the bottle, is that sometime in 1788, there was a distillery in London, which my guess is they were just getting rum or making the rum there and then have since outsourced it back to Jamaica.
John Vieira (24:36):
Yeah. I was kind of unclear.
Nick Boban (24:39):
They're very vague. And their...
John Vieira (24:40):
Well, because on the bottle it says "rum distilled in Jamaica" produced in the United Kingdom.
Nick Boban (24:47):
So what the fuck does that mean?
John Vieira (24:49):
Yeah, so... They get a pass because this shit is awesome. So like, whatever they're doing, just keep doing it. That's great.
Nick Boban (24:57):
That's wonderful. Okay. Anyways. Okay. So moving on to Appleton.
John Vieira (25:02):
So Appleton Estate. They have a bunch of different products that just keep going up in price, the more they're aged and I'd imagine they're amazing and smooth. I haven't tried a whole bunch of them, but another Jamaican rum and you can see kind of how dark this one is. I think would be considered the dark rum category if I had to guess, but I don't know if it plays into like flavor and body.
Nick Boban (25:25):
Gotcha. Gotcha. So Appleton, to me, is like... So Smith and cross is wonderful and if you can get it, buy it. It's kind of expensive though.
John Vieira (25:34):
It's so wimpy on the nose compared to...
Nick Boban (25:36):
Oh everything is wimpy... We should've done Smith and cross last, but like, we were just talking about it already.
John Vieira (25:42):
You don't even get any of that, but maybe I'm just desensitized to it now, or maybe it's really smooth. I don't know.
Nick Boban (25:47):
Well, so Appleton for me is a wonderful, wonderful cocktail rum. So I really like... One of my first aha moments with the Mr. Potato heading ingredients and cocktails is I took this Appleton rum and I switched it out for the whiskey in an old fashioned. And I did Demerara instead of simple and just regular ango. And it was like [boom] That fucked hard.
John Vieira (26:16):
Well, it's super tasty with the Smith and cross as well.
Nick Boban (26:19):
Totally.
John Vieira (26:20):
There used to be a guy that would come in and ask for that. Now, for my palate, you do have to scale the sugar back a little bit.
Nick Boban (26:25):
Well it's sweet already.
John Vieira (26:27):
It's sweet already, but it is super smooth. It's really delicious.
Nick Boban (26:30):
I mean, these are also good. This is like, this is like a wonderful, Full bodied budget cocktail rum.
John Vieira (26:37):
Yeah. No. So if you compare that to the Flor de cana. Yeah. The age one that we just had.
Nick Boban (26:43):
It's way better. For cocktail purposes.
John Vieira (26:46):
Well, just depending on what you're doing. I was going to say it definitely has a lot more of vibrance, but a lot more body at the same time.
Nick Boban (26:53):
Yeah. This one. Okay. So this one has...
John Vieira (26:55):
Even just looking at it in the glass. This looks like, "what is that?" This is like, "look at that sheen. Look at that color."
Nick Boban (27:02):
This has a lot more flavor on the nose or sorry. A lot more nose on the nose.
John Vieira (27:08):
A lot more nose flavor.
New Speaker (27:09):
A lot more nose flavor. No, they say you tastes mostly with your nose.
John Vieira (27:14):
That's a huge part of it. We found that out.
Nick Boban (27:18):
God, there's a flavor in there that like is so familiar that I just can't think of a descriptor for it right now. That's the hard part. It's like warm. It's it's almost buttery. OH!
John Vieira (27:31):
Is it Mrs. Buttersworth?
Nick Boban (27:33):
Dude. It's fucking butter! Oh yeah. It's like maple syrup. Like yeah. Yes, exactly!
John Vieira (27:42):
Okay. I'm all about that.
Nick Boban (27:50):
Hmm. But light.
John Vieira (27:53):
It's light, yet it still does have like body.
Nick Boban (27:56):
No, totally. God. Butter. Yep. That's a wonderful descriptor for this. Literally tastes... God. Yeah. If you took the sugar out of Mrs. Butterworth and maybe just fucking put some vodka in it, I bet. Yeah. This is where we're at. It's not, it's not. Yeah, no, it is. The more I smell it. The more I smell it, the more I can smell that, uh, that maple, which is probably part of the molasses. I usually don't like molasses on its own. But like, I guess if you just...
John Vieira (28:28):
Dude, I it's just like any flavor. When you have it used properly like there's people like, "I don't like Terragon." So. Alright. Well I guarantee you've had a dish before that had Terragon in it that like MADE the dish and you didn't even realize it.
Nick Boban (28:44):
Butter Eggos.
John Vieira (28:45):
Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yup.
Nick Boban (28:50):
Yup.
John Vieira (28:50):
That's literally... It smells like Mrs. Buttersworth.
Nick Boban (28:54):
Oh, I love it.
John Vieira (28:56):
So we're kind of running long on time cause we're going to do a two-parter for this. Real quick, just before we go, I want to taste this Gosling's black seal Bermuda rum. They make an over proof version of this that I bet is amazing. This is just the regular 80 proof rum.
Nick Boban (29:12):
So when I was in... Visiting my parents this last week, my father actually purchased... God, they're like black, wax sealed goslings. He's all about fucking rum. Like that's his jam. I don't even remember what it was that we had cause I was pretty toasted, but it was like $180 bottle of Goslings.
John Vieira (29:34):
Oh, I'm sure. Goslings is one of the best known brands in the, at least in the black rum category. They're one of the very few. So remember when we talked at some point about the four cocktails that are actually... Is it trademarked? Is that?
Nick Boban (29:54):
Yup. Yup.
John Vieira (29:55):
I can't remember if that's the correct vernacular.
Nick Boban (29:56):
Yeah. I think they're trademarked. It's the Dark and stormy.
New Speaker (30:01):
Yeah. Yeah. So dark and stormy. But, if what I'm saying is still correct, it was when I learned this. There was four cocktails that were trademarked by the spirit brands. Not even necessarily the spirit, but like one of the brands. Cause like one of them I think was, Oh yeah, Peychaud's bitters. It wasn't even actually the spirit that was in it, it was the bitters. So one of those drinks is the Sazerac. You can't legally put it on your menu and serve the drink as a Sazerac if it does not have Peychaud's bitters.
Nick Boban (30:32):
Same. So same with the dark and stormy. You can't serve a dark and stormy without Goslings.
John Vieira (30:36):
They have a canned version of it that goslings makes that is like dark and stormy. Like you can't put that on anything unless it's goslings. Then there's two others. They're tiki drinks. I want to say it's like the grenade, the hand grenade or something like that. And then like maybe the zombie
Nick Boban (30:55):
No. It's...
John Vieira (30:56):
Oh, no, it's not the zombie.
Nick Boban (30:57):
It's like a weird 80s cocktail, one of those ones.
John Vieira (30:59):
I can't remember what it was. They're tiki drinks. Anyway. I just thought that was interesting. So goslings is like pretty big time. Like they're a big brand for sure.
Nick Boban (31:14):
Talk us through that. What's going on in your mouth?
John Vieira (31:16):
Okay. So this one is really interesting to me because you almost get like... it's dark and I don't even want to say it's rich. You get like coffee bean kind of notes on it.
Nick Boban (31:30):
Yup. Coffee. Quite a bit of alcohol on the nose.
John Vieira (31:35):
Yeah, for not being over proof it actually is quite a bit. It tastes good. It has less body, in my opinion than the last two rums that we tasted. Like it's surprisingly thin.
Nick Boban (31:47):
All spice, a lot of all spice to it. Cinnamon. A little sweet, but yeah, it fades quickly. The overall mouth isn't full.
John Vieira (32:02):
It doesn't linger at all.
Nick Boban (32:03):
It's light. Yeah. It's light.
John Vieira (32:05):
I guess that's kind of my point, is for how dark it is for a rum, cause I've had some dark rums or some black rums I should say, that were like... Dude, it was like chugging molasses. It was so rich. It was so deep. And this is actually like pretty light for the color at least.
Nick Boban (32:23):
Okay. Well. Let's cut it there and check out the next episode. What are we going to be talking about? We're going to do cocktails?
John Vieira (32:31):
We're going to go over popular cocktails that you might be drinking this spring and summer, whether you're making them at home or going out to eat or out to bars. We're also going to talk about if you're hosting something at your house instead of making individual cocktails, maybe some bad-ass punch recipes that you could put together. Almost like the...
Nick Boban (32:51):
Large format.
John Vieira (32:52):
Yeah, almost like the old college days where you did like jungle juice, except for, instead of going blind.
Nick Boban (32:56):
Blackout drunk.
John Vieira (32:57):
Yeah, these are just actually good. So we'll be back on the next episode. I guess basically we just, we also wanted to touch on, I guess at the time that this comes out we're way past this anyway, but the website, the blogs, everything is completely revamped. We've talked about the process and leading up to that. Everything is in order, ready to rock. So as you're listening to this episode, please go to housemadesyrup.com, check out all the recipes, blogs, content there. You can find more podcast episodes. We post new episodes every week so just kind of stay tuned for all that and if there's anything that you guys want to see or learn about, send us a message and we'll make it happen.
Nick Boban (33:43):
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Cheers.