The Rum Shootout

Rum is a spirit with origins in Brazil around the early 1600’s. Originally called rumbullion (slang for “uproarious”) and shortened to “rum” when uneducated sailors and pirates couldn’t spell the full word so shortened it for ease of identification on barrels. Rum is made from molasses, the kind of gross brown stuff that’s leftover from refining sugar cane into sugar, by fermentation and then distilling. Though originating in Brazil, it was during the golden age of piracy (mid to late 1600’s) in the Carribean that rum became a part of the world culture and has remained ever since. Rum is universally regarded as a wicked spirit and has been the cause of many conflicts since its genesis, from a standard fare bar fight to even playing a role in starting the American revolution! It has also been the drink of kings, presidents and other typical drunks evidenced none other than George Washington himself insisted that a barrel of rum be available at his inauguration. So obviously it would have to be the first spirit tested by the Blottonauts.

Figure 1: The Father of America getting soused.

The Contenders

With 7 different kinds of rums available, doing a test across all grades would be difficult at best so we settled on gold rums. Not only are these closer to classic rum of antiquity in terms of style and taste, they are generally middle grade and can be found in most bars and unlike light rums, are suitable for sipping or mixing. So on to the contenders:

Bacardi Gold: A middle grade gold rum from Puerto Rico (also the best selling alcohol in the world)

Flor de Cana: A middle grade gold rum from Nicaragua

10 Cane: A premium grade light rum from Trinidad (though 10 Cane calls it a light rum, it is in fact a gold)

For the test we set up all three rums to be tasted neat, in our classiest of shot glasses

Figure 2: Classy shot glasses

then made into mojitos using real lime juice and mint (no store bought mixers… seriously? Don’t ruin your alcohol with those). Starting with the Bacardi, we cracked the bottle open and took a cautious sniff:

S: It smells like sugarcane infused rubbing alcohol.

R: It’s kind of stinky. Maybe we should let it breathe.

After the first sip

Seth shivers

S: I don’t want to finish it.

R: That was foul. (goes in for second and final sip) Oh fuck.

Seth was generous and gave it a mojito and half. Rich gave it a single mojito out of 5.

Flor de Cana was next:

S: Smells like the Barcadi

Rich sadly agrees

R: Smells like an astringent

After the first sip

S: Not bad, a LOT smoother. You could sip it

R: I was scared but it’s really smooth. Almost thick, very full flavor

Seth gave it 3 and a half out of 5, Rich gave it 3 out of 5.

10 Cane was the final entrant:

S: Smells like sugarcane. A lot of vanilla scent.

R: Luxurious with a hint of awesome.

After the first sip

S: Yum. Woodsy taste but smooth, lots of vanilla.

R: Smooth. VERY smooth, kind of a butterscotch finish… Very buttery, no burn at all.

Seth gave it 5 out of 5, Rich gave it 4 and half because he’s a bitch.

After the sipping portion, it was time to make the mojitos using an ancient recipe from… You know what? They’re fucking mojitos, its lime juice, muddled mint and soda water with the rum.

Barcadi Mojito:

S: Meh.

R: It’s a mojito

Seth gave it 1 out of 5. Rich generously awarded it 2 out of 5, because mojitos.

Flor de Cana Mojito:

S: Quite a bit better, sharpness of the rum is less apparent. The mint has been brought out more.

R: Yum. Very smooth I could drink these all day.

Seth gave it 3 out of 5 because now he’s being overly critical. Rich gave it 4, it was damn good.

10 Cane Mojito:

S: More like a mojito. Very balanced, no flavor over power the others.

R: Oh yeah, all kinds of flavor, you taste the rum, but you’re happy.

Seth and Rich both gave it 4 out of 5.

Our final test was a mojito blind taste test where we didn’t have preconceived ideas about the rum and just gave our feelings about what we were drinking. Plus it was an excuse to drink more mojitos. The scores on the blind taste tests were as follows:

Barcadi Mojito Blind:

Seth gave it 2 and a half out of 5. A big jump from 1. Rich held on at 2. I think Seth was just getting drunker. Rich guessed the Barcadi accurately, Seth did not.

Flor de Cana Mojito Blind:

Seth gave it a stunning 4 and a half out of 5 where as Rich stayed at 4. Seth really felt that the rum was much more neutral and that it was just an overall better mojito. Rich agreed it was stellar. Seth guessed this one correctly Rich did not.

10 Cane Mojito Blind:

Seth stayed at 4 out of 5, Rich gave it a 3, mostly because the apparentness of the rum really seemed to intrude on the rest of the drink. Seth guessed this one correctly, Rich did not.

Summary

We were really surprised that Bacardi was as bad as it was. Being the most popular alcohol on the planet Earth, and generally considered at least “decent” by most, it was really surprising how awful it really was. I suppose if you cover the flavor entirely up with Coke it wouldn’t matter, but damn. Flor de Cana made a great mojito and I’m confident would make other great mixed drinks, it just seemed almost transparent but while retaining some character. 10 Cane is great for sipping and would work well in any drink that you wanted a kind of vanilla/butterscotch overtone, but maybe not so great in others. So seriously, if you’re at a bar and you want a rum drink so you too can be like America’s first president or some profanity spewing pirate, pay the extra dollar for the grade above Bacardi, its definitely worth it. Unless you’re 3 sheets to the wind, then who cares, get the swill.

Figure 3: When it doesn’t matter if you order Bacardi