I’ve been doing a lot of blending rums right off the shelves and, wow, is it fun. Does this interest anyone else?
Currently, I’m sipping on a blend of 20% Doctor Bird (Moscatel cask finish) and 80% Clairin Communal. This averages to 44.4% ABV and it is better than the sum of its parts (especially after resting for just a few days).
I’ve been seeing a lot of rums on the market, particularly the “high ester” stuff that is pretty much a waste of time to enjoy by itself, but when you explore their blending personality, and ability to “grade up” other relatively lighter rums, you can experience so much more depth that is masked.
I keep quite a few blends going and I tinker with them. One series is just two part stuff and sometimes even features correcting something I bought that I consider lame (grading up for the win!). Another blend is mostly unaged but elaborate and I guess fairly high in ester. It draws from many places and I love the mashups a bottler could never orchestrate (Cape Verde meet Jamaica). Then another blend features darker aged stuff. I pick a base like R.L. Seale 10 and embellish it with others that saw oak and odd ducks. This blend currently likes Batavia Arrack & Clairin Rocher (an odd duck but a killer blending stock).
Something that I’ve found is that esters and oak don’t always blend well. Too many esters enflame the oak and make it taste cheap. This phenomenon doesn’t seem to be well articulated anywhere but governs a lot of what can harmoniously go with what.
I used to blend a lot of rums a la minute for cocktails when friends were over, almost like tiki, but not quite. Now, I reach for my blend du jour and whatever I buy at the liquor store just feels like a blending component.
What are you blending? Anyone having fun with this?
I mainly do the a la minute thing for punches and Tiki, rather than to create sipping blends. I have employed a house “Jamaican rum” blend for many years that I tend to favor for mixing purposes. Usually, this blend is something like 2/3 Appleton VX (or whatever the hell they call it these days) and 1/3 Smith & Cross, but sometimes other juice gets in there. The point being that I want big round Jamaican flavor and I want modestly overproof and I want hogo (but not too much hogo).
I like the idea of compounding some sipping blends. I have a few semi-exotic bottles I don’t love on their own (e.g., clairin) that I should experiment with.
Interesting observation. I will attempt to be aware.
When I make a multi component Jamaica+ I make a spreadsheet because it is often for a dinner party where I need a degree of economy and control of the ABV. I try and put something from Hampden in the blend and then the + is often Cape Verdean grogue or a Clairin like Vaval or Sajous to give that penetrating “vesoute” character I associated with 19th century references to “Old Jamaica” when there was more “rum canes” & cane trash in the ferments.
When I sneak in a Hampden, Smith & Cross, and a Hamilton Jamaica, I go with a $10 economical column spirit base from anywhere. I don’t buy Appleton VX anymore.
Clairin Vaval & Sajous I like in multi part Jamaica blends, often as much as 20%.
Clairin Communal, I keep exploring in two part blends and that may be because of its 40% ABV gets averaged up to a nice level.
Clairin Rocher has an odd buttery aroma I guess is diacetyl. In wine it would be considered a flaw, but diluted in rum blend it contributes a valuable intriguing note. This goes in my weightier sipping blends based on R.L. Seale 10. I did not like Rocher initially, but now that I figured out how to use it, I actually acquired more.
A long time ago - when i was working at a rum bar i spent a lot of my time digging through rum and tiki history trying to really nail some of those classic flavour profiles.
Coruba was the answer 9 times out of 10 - The problem is coruba is hard to find. After some research - I decided to have a go at blending my own rum. eventuall i tried three blends in a blind tasting with a friend - another bartender - and to both of our surprises, one of the blends beat coruba on the blind taste.
That isn’t to say coruba is nice neat, but what Coruba lacks in raw neat palatability it makes up for in being a tiki/exotic drink powerhouse.
The best recipe was 2 Parts Goslings to one part Appleton signature/8 and Bacardi 8.
I’ve used that mix in every drink that i could think of and it worked wonders in place of the OG