The ideal rums for the summer!
Summer, you are just about to burst on us, we feel you sneaking in and warming everything up. It is time for bar-b-cues, good friends and <less> loose fitting clothes. This is a season we have all been programmed to enjoy and we at Rum Lab are happy to join the program with 4 Rums for you to explore. We are going to wander through some wonderful sugarcane spirits (that’s right more Cachaça!), so get your sipping cups, drinking partners, favorite chair ready for some yummy treats!
Banks 7 Golden Age Rum
The travels, adventures, and discoveries of Sir Joseph Banks –a gentleman botanist and noted explorer serve as the inspiration for the Banks 7 Golden Age Rum. The Master Blender uses a blend of 23 unique rums from 8 distilleries located on 7 different nations (Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Guatemala, Java, Panama, and Guyana) to create this exalted and elegant rum. The aromas lead with provocatively funky scents of over-ripe tropical fruit, flowers, spices, cocoa, ginger and wood nuances that are huge and completely fantastic. On the dry side, this mouth-feel is medium weight, complex and pungent; the flavors follow the aromas and also include molasses, toasted nuts, coconut and a myriad of sapid complexities. The balance of this rum is incomprehensible when contemplating all of the components. The finish reigns it in with delicious funk and spice without letting you forget all of the intricate flavors.
The Real McCoy 5 Year Aged Rum
The Real McCoy is a wonderful rum from Barbados made to celebrate a legendary Rum-Runner (Bill McCoy) from the prohibition era. The rum is sourced from the Foursquare Distillery, on Barbados, and is a blend of Pot Still and Column Still Rum that has been aged for at least 5 years in American Oak. This rums aroma begins with Oak, toffee, dried fruits, vanilla, earthy spice, clean molasses and toasted coconut. The dry, saporous mouthfeel has a medium to full palate weight that exquisitely carries the aromas to be revealed as flavors delicately adding caramel, nuts and baking spice to an excellent effect. The finish begins at the back palate by displaying a slight sweetish complexity that resolves by displaying the aromas and flavors in a lovely finish of medium length. The honesty and structure of this rum are a fitting tribute to a Rum-Runner whose integrity was so high, The Real McCoy was the term named for him to describe pure, unadulterated quality.
Don Q Cristal
Looking for something light, crisp and clean? Don Q Cristal comes from Puerto Rico and is is the best seller all over the island! The aromas imply a sweetness, backed by citrus tones, with hints of spice and molasses backed up by delicate suggestions of oaky complexity. The flavors follow suit with vanilla, persimmons, some ginger, and nuts. The finish is drying and clean with a freshness that is nice. Keep in mind, this rum is distilled in a multi-column still to display lighter, crisper, clean flavors, and though it is aged for 1 ½ to 5 years in American Oak, it is filtered -not only for clarity of color but for smoothness. This rum is made for mixing, something simple and light like a Rum & Tonic or whatever tickles your fancy.
Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça
In case you missed last month, briefly again, Cachaça is distilled from freshly harvested sugarcane, that is pressed for juice and set to ferment, after which it is distilled. Basically, as it is the precursor to rum from Brazil, Cachaça is recognized as a unique product. I love how Novo Fogo puts it on their website:”rum’s older Brazilian cousin”~perfect! Novo Fogo make a bunch of amazing Cachaça—seriously, every one of them is OUTSTANDING! I picked the Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça to highlight here, but try them all if you can (I do!). Novo Fogo begins with Organic Sugarcane, that is hand harvested (no burning the fields, no stinky tractors) and taken to be pressed within a few hours. After it is press the sugarcane juice get put into fermentation tank with wild yeast that was cultivated from their very own sugarcane. After fermentation, the leftover fiber from juicing the sugarcane is burned to make the steam that heats the still. After it is distilled, Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça is rest for 1 year in stainless steel to let all the flavor come together and the more volatile components to dissipate without adding any flavor from a barrel. What you are left with is wonderfully clean, beautifully rich, pure sugarcane distillate. Plantain, Banana, bok choy, sweet peppers, salt, cinnamon the aromas and flavor about and the finish is beautiful.
Summer Rummer is here, now there are Four Rums (and a Cachaça) to try for June! Enjoy these rums outside, on your patio; these rums (and a Cachaça) will not fall apart if you happen to find ice in your cup and it is alright to mix something up if you are so inclined. Whatever you do enjoy, and as always, thanks so much for joining us on our rum journey and we hope that you find fun and rum pouring freely all around you.
