Rum Notes

Ever since watching Black Lagoon while I was in high school, I wanted to drink and enjoy rum. We have 4 — lets say ‘premium rums’ to offer at Q, and 7 all together. House rums are Bacardi White, Dark, and Sailor Jerry’s Spiced. Premium Rums are El Dorado 15y, Santa Teresa 1796, Clement Cuvee Homere, and Zaya Gran Reserva. I’m open to getting another 1 or 2, but we cover a lot of ‘catagories’ of rum with what we have, so its hard to justify.

The following focuses only on the premium rum, something I want to push at the end of the nights after dinner with armagnac and whiskey.

• Based on the aromatics alone, my expectations of a light to heavy rum would be ranked as (Santa Teresa 1796, Clement Cuvee Homerel, El Dorado 15y, Zaya Gran Reserva)
• Based on the taste, light to heavy goes (Santa Teresa 1796, Clement Cuvee Homere, Zaya Gran Reserva, El Dorado 15y)
• Based on personal preference (El Dorado 15y, Santa Teresa 1796, Zaya Gran Reserva, Clement Cuvee Homere)

1. El Dorado 15y (Guyana), a Demerara sugar rum
Aromatics: Oak vanillin (the sweet vanilla-like smell you get from oak), woodshop/woodworking aromas, sanding, it does smell slightly sweet, and towards the end the alcohol kicks in and burns the nostrils, you can get a lot of pleasant aromas in before that happens though.
Flavours: Immediately sweeter and richer than the others by direct comparison, lingering smokey oak flavors, very smooth.

2. Santa Teresa 1796 (Venezuela), a cane sugar molassas rum aged in a solera system from 4~34 years old
Aromatics: Honey, perfume-y, corn husks, reminds me of some cachaca, perhaps burlap sacks of fresh picked corn
Flavours: Mild overall, not sweet, vanilla appears near the end, and a sugar cookie dough oiliness lingers on the finish and in the throat

3. Clement Cuvee Homere (Martinique), Agricole rum (made of sugar cane juice, like cachaca)
Aromatics: Green wood, banana, fresh and lively, alcohol burns like crazy, sawdust
Flavours: Barrel flavours, I’d draw on a lot of comparisons to heather focused Scotch whisky, something like Glenlivet 12 or a richer version of Linkwood 15. The alcohol is really high, it is like fire going down.

4. Zaya Gran Reserva (Trinidad), a cane sugar molassas rum to which caramels have been also added at the end to smooth out the rum.
Aromatics: Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract
Flavours: Rich, not sweet like El Dorado 15, vanilla coke, sort of bitter with flavours like longan (asian fruit)

Tl;dr

The best rum for cocktails would be Zaya Gran Reserva
The lightest rum of the 4 is Santa Teresa
The richest and sweetest rum is El Dorado 15, it’s probably also what most people expect rum to be
A rum to give a whiskey drinker who doesn’t have experience in rum, or someone who likes cachaca, Clement Cuvee Homere or Santa Teresa.