Round 1: Rum

The first round of the cocktail club was an exploration of rum...because it's summer and 100 degrees outside. In preparation for this, Digital Girl and I picked up 3 bottles to try. El Dorado 3 Year Aged Light Rum (from Guyana), Plantation Rum Grand Reserve Aged 5 yrs (Barbados) and English Harbor (Antigua). Detroit contributes 2 bottles (Angostura 1919--an amber, and 10 Cane--a light). I already had a bottle of Gosling's Dark (Bermuda). Digital Girl also contributed a bottle of Ron del Barrilito's (Puerto Rico) and Jersey Girl brought a bottle of Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum, which, appropriately enough, is bottled in good old Edison, New Jersey.

That's right, we had 8 bottles of rum, for ...6 people (we did start with 7, but one had to make a quick exit due to cat allergies).

After warming up with a Dark and Stormy (using Gosling's of course!) with Angostura bitters, Jamaican Extra Ginger Beer and a slice of lime, we started with a tasting of each rum and then we played....making cocktails from the rums we thought might work.

Of the light rums (10 Cane and El Dorado)..the El Dorado was the clear favorite. Maybe it was because it was aged, or because of the notes of coconut. We ended using it in many of the cocktails we created.

On to the ambers. Many thought the Plantation Rum Grand Reserve surpassed the others, although the Angostura 1919 was a bit similar to our tastes too. Both had strong vanilla notes, that we thought were very appealing, but the Plantation Rum Grand Reserve also had a variety of other notes, including coconut. The Ron del Barralito had a complexity in the finish and a lot of floral notes, but it wasn't as smooth to our admittedly tipsy taste buds.

We didn't get a lot of complexity from the Gosling's either, but it did have chocolate notes that had people thinking about mixing it with cherries. So of course we did. YumCat took a few cherries and macerated it with the Gosling's. Two hours wasn't enough time, so we will see what they taste like today. The English Harbor seemed to be the most drinkable, with a smoothness and complexity that we thought was quite delicious.

We also tried the Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum and maybe we had sensory overload, but it didn't seem overly spicy compared to some of the other rums we tried. There was a strong vanilla overtone, but it was drinkable and smooth as well. If we had started in the reverse order, I wonder what we would have thought of each one?

Now the fun began. People started concocting.

Detroit decided that she needed to make a daiquiri based on avocado. it required a lot of trial by error...mostly error. In the end after using avocado, El Dorado rum, lime, jalapeno simple syrup, pineapple juice etc, I think she came up with something that would make an excellent ice cream when frozen.

TraderVicky brought "Trader Tiki's Don's Mix" to make a simple version of the classic Zombie....using equal parts Plantation and Gosling's and garnishing it with mint....how refreshing...we were on our way!

After the Zombie's, I (LP) made Hemingway Daiquiri's based on the recipe from http:rumdood.com (thank's rumdood!)...and used the El Dorado. It was quite refreshing, although Detroit and Jersey Girl were not big fans.

Detroit's third experiment fared better....using English Harbor, Lemon Juice and Ginger Simple Syrup.....very nice

Digital Girl picked up with the experimentation...using different rums to make the same drink. Her first used 10 Cane, mixed with Canton (a ginger liqueur), lemon juice, mint and Regan's orange bitters. Her second version used the Ron Barralito's and Bittermen's grapefruit bitters. What a difference. The first drink was nice, but the second was very interesting...we thought adding some basil as a garnish would really set it off. Next time.

We had to go....that many beverages in one evening will tire out even the most die hard tastebuds...and we are just getting started.