Glass: - Booze-Reviews

Moutai [2]

Matt — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:44:52 GMT

If you ever have the option of drinking this popular Chinese spirit and you can respectfully decline without offending someones honor or bringing shame to your house, you may want to do just that.

My father-in-law goes to China a lot for business and apparently this 106 proof liquor is the drink of choice for Chinese businessmen and they can go through a number of bottles in one meal. It is drunk basically in the form of shots, though typically they are larger than the standard one ounce. It has a slightly fruity smell, though something is slightly off about it, and somewhat similar taste. Wikipedia says it is a mild soy sauce like fragrance, that could be, though for me soy sauce pretty much tastes like salt. The high alcohol content makes sure that it pretty much burns all the way down. There is also something in the flavor that's very similar to Grappa (maybe just the high alcohol? though I think there's more than just that).

The thing that gets you about this beverage (other than the alcohol) is that you will be belching up it's unique fruity alcohol burning flavor for the rest of the night. No matter what else you eat or drink it will find it way to the top. Yum.

Kilo Kai Spiced Rum [1]

Matt — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:30:34 GMT

I read about this Rum recently at onmilwaukee.com, while I didn't make it to the launch party at MOCT, I did remember being interested and thus I picked up a bottle of the spirit this weekend. As far as spiced rums go this one is quite good, and quite different.

While all spiced rums are spiced with a different recipe, most are spiced with some combination of majority of cinnamon and nutmeg, and maybe a few others for variation. Kilo Kai, however, seems to be spiced with a good amount of vanilla and orange peel. The website also mentions cinnamon and nutmeg, and the onmilwaukee review said there was banana and cherry in there as well. I'm not sure about all that but there is definitely a lot of flavor added to this rum and I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they added a bit of sugar to the finished product as well. Kilo Kai is also a lower proof than most rums (70 vs 80), not a huge difference but I suspect that this also has a bit of something to do with this Rum's drinkability. The Kilo Kai website says they age the rum for three years in wooden barrels, however in their FAQ they say it is actually a blend of one year old and five year old rums (which averages to three years, I suppose). Not a terribly long time to age rum, however when you're dealing with spiced rum, aging isn't as big of an issue.

This rum is good enough to drink neat or with a bit of ice, there is plenty of flavor to enjoy in this rum on its own. It also makes for an excellent Daiquiri in the strict sense of the recipe (rum, lime juice, sugar, ice). The Kilo Kai website also has a number of recipes for additional cocktails.

Pernod

Matt — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:33:54 GMT

It's been ages since I wrote a booze review, sorry. Apparently I'm not as big of an alcoholic as I need to be to keep the booze and beer reviews sections fresh. Also, I'm lazy and we don't use the internet much at home which is where I do the majority of my consuming.

Finally a review of a booze that isn't rum (or pretending to be), Pernod is a brand of pastis (which is basically absinthe without the wormwood). The thing about Pernod is that, nowhere on the bottle does it say that it is a pastis (or at least I couldn't find it anywhere). Apparently you are just supposed to know what Pernod is before you buy it. It was stocked in the same area with the other pastises and that fake absinthe, Absente, so that helped. Pastis (and Absinthe) are predominantly flavoured with Anise which, if you don't know, tastes like black licorice. Pastis is also very similar to other anise flavoured spirits such as Greek Ouzo, Turkish Raki, and Scandinavian Aquavit.

Pernod is a light yellow in color and translucent, it looks a lot like white wine when you first pour it from the bottle. When you order pastis at a cafe when you're in France, it generally comes as about a shot's worth in a larger glass along with a pitcher of cold water. You add the water to dilute the spirit to your taste. Generally pastis has an extremely strong anise flavor and is also a very high proof (generally over 100, though Pernod is lower, only 80) so you really want to dilute it. In my opinion, this is where the coolest thing about pastis and absinthe happens. When you add the water to it, it ceases being translucent and gets all cloudy. It's really neat, also if you drip the water in slowly you can see the drops turn cloudy as they hit the pastis. Cool.

Okay enough of the pastis introduction, lets talk about Pernod specifically. As far as pastis goes this is a good one, Pernod is one of the major popular brands of pastis, the other being Ricard (both brands are produced by the Pernod Ricard beverage company). Of course the main flavor here is star anise, but it's not quite as strong a flavor here as it is in Ricard, there's something mellowing the potency of that flavor a bit here, which is nice, though it is definitely still the dominant flavor.

7 out of 10, this is a good drink and a nice treat (if you like anise).

10 Cane Rum [20]

Matt — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:24:12 GMT

This rum touts itself as Rum’s Redemption. I’m not sure about that really, though maybe Rum does need redeeming in some aspects. Unlike other popular spirits there are very few rules or regulations about what can actually be called Rum. Basically it has to be made from sugar or molasses and that’s about it. In contrast, Bourbon has to be made in ~~Kentucky~~ the United States, the mash has to contain at least 51% corn, it must be barrel aged in American Oak for at least 2 years. Even Tequila has regulations. However, Rum’s lack of regulations don’t prevent the existence of high quality rums, nor do other spirits regulations prevent crap from being produced either.

In any case, 10 Cane is different from most rums in that it is made from the juice of the first pressing of the sugar cane stalks immediately after harvest. Most regular rums are made from molasses which is a byproduct of sugar production. So technically 10 Cane seems to be the one breaking from tradition here. 10 Cane is double distilled in copper stills and then aged for a mere six months in oak.

In the end, this rum comes out, in my opinion, tasting more like a whiskey than a rum. Or perhaps a hybrid of the two. It was not a taste I was expecting when I took my first sip. While not a bad spirit, I’m not sure if I would categorize this as a Rum. Actually, now that I really think about it, the flavour is perhaps closer to Cachaça (pronounced: KA-SHA-SA), in fact it seems like that’s really what 10 Cane is. I guess this is an additional testament to Rum’s extremely lax rules about what can and can not be called Rum.

I think in light of this revelation I will go home tonight and make myself a Caipirinha (pronounced: KIE-PUR-REEN-YAH) with 10 Cane.

I’ll let you know the results.

UPDATE: After further experimentation, I’m torn. I compared 10 Cane to another Cachaça that I had and there is a slightly similar flavor but much of the bite of Cachaça is missing from the 10 Cane flavour. It did however make a pretty good Caipirinha. This is either a really good Cachaça or a not all that great Rum. I think I’m going to vote for a really good Cachaça since it is made from fermenting sugar cane juice, which by definition should be Cachça.

I give it 7 of 10 as Cachaça and 3 of 10 as Rum.

Bacardi 8 Rum [1]

Matt — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 17:12:00 GMT

This is becoming Rum reviews but I don’t care because I love rum and if I’m chronicling our rum tasing adventures it will be useful for future rum purchasing excursions.

We picked up a bottle of Bacardi 8 on friday. We were debating between Bacardi 8 and Bacardi Añejo. Bacardi 8 won out because, even though it was more expensive, it had a description that enticed us and it was also a deal where it came with a couple of nice low ball glasses. The description was something like this:

8 years of aging, mellowing and maturing. These are some of what create the rich, smooth and full bodied flavour of our premium rum.
8 years time to develop into an exceptional rum that embodies the virtues that Bacardi stands for: Craftsmanship, Tradition and Passion since 1862.

That text is from the website, not the box since I have turned the box into this.

Anyway, I’ve got to say that we were quite disappointed with Bacardi 8. It does have a decent flavor but it is not mellow at all. The harsh alcohol taste really ruins the whole experience. It’s weird since it is the same proof as Pyrat but the biting alcohol flavor is so much more pronounced in the 8.

I did figure a way to redeem this rum, and that is to add a healthy amount of cinnamon to the glass (too much to be completely dissolved) this seems to cut the alcohol flavor and further mellow the rum to the point where it is enjoyable to drink with a bit of ice.

Certainly this rum is better than a plain old dark rum, but it wasn’t as good as the packaging had me expecting, or perhaps we’ve just been ruined by Pyrat forever…

Captain Morgan Tattoo Rum [4]

Matt — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:30:11 GMT

We picked this up over the weekend out of curiousity. I’ve been meaning to try this for a while actually. I also want to get a taste of the various less common bacardi rums as well. I’m starting to become a rum connoisseur, I think.

This rum is very dark in color, in the bottle it looks almost black. When poured into a glass with some ice and a little water you can see it has a deep red brown color to it. There’s something sweet going on with the flavour, but there’s no lack of spice either. I’m having a hard time determining what spice flavors are in this exactly. I want to say that it almost has a cola taste to it. Anne agreed with me about that and added that there is a peppery spice flavour going on. It’s definately a dark rich flavor and you can still taste the nice rum base.

The Captian Morgan site has this to say about Tattoo:

Crafted from fine aged Puerto Rican rum. Blended with a secret combination of premium and hot spices for a finish that starts sweet and ends up heat. Great straight, but versatile enough to stand up to mixers—especially energy drinks.

I haven’t tried mixing it into anything yet, since I’ve been enjoying it’s flavour on its own so much, but I guess I should give it a try.

Pyrat XO Reserve Rum

Matt — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 21:58:00 GMT

Brian told me about this stuff a while ago. When we were at Discount Liquor the other week we saw it on sale for 16 bucks, and thus picked it up. It is from the same people who brought us Patron Tequila so expectations were high and we were not dissappointed.

After tasting a few high quality rums, this one included. I have decided that I think I’d much rather become a connoisseur of rum than whiskey. I prefer the taste, and the price difference is no joke. Not that I don’t appreciate a nice whiskey but I’d rather pay 20-30 bucks for a really nice rum than 50-200 bucks for a really nice whiskey.

All that aside, this is a really great tasting rum. It’s almost got a butterschotch flavour to it. Other than the cork breaking while trying to open it and having to filter the cork chunks back out of it I really enjoyed this rum. Mostly we drank it on the rocks with a hint of water. Since we both like spiced rum, I did some digging and found that spiced rum is generally spiced with cinnamon during the distillation process. We added our cinnamon after the rum had been distilled to great effect. Nutmeg was also good in it.

We finished the bottle off in about a week, though I think we were losing some to evaporation lacking a proper cork for the bottle. The corks we did have were not wide enough.

9 of 10