Experimental Spirits: Willet Rye/Lemon Hart 151/Del Maguay Vida Blend

After trying some blends made with Russell's Reserve rye and Lemon Hart 151, I decided to see if I could improve them by using a more robust rye whiskey. And just for kicks, I decided to throw in a bit of mezcal to give it some smoke.

Willet Rye/Lemon Hart 151/Del Maguay Vida Blend

Nose: lots of dry pine-y rye notes, grain, slightly acrid smoke and burn sugar, green/vegetal notes, flambé bananas. After adding a few drops of water, the rye grain becomes more prominent, with the rum becoming an undercurrent,

Taste: rye grain, pine, and pickle juice (accented by the mezcal) throughout, slightly smoothed by the rum's molasses and banana notes in the middle, burnt sugar and toasted grain at the back. After dilution, the rum edges out the rye to make a much sweeter and smoother palate, with rye grain/pine and burnt sugar at the back.

Finish: burnt sugar, toasted rye grain, pine, a touch of vegetal agave

The switch that the nose and palate pull after adding water was quite interesting though. Sometimes it doesn't take a lot of water to push a spirit in one direction or another.

If I was going to do this again, I would up the amount of mezcal in the mix. It's such a strongly flavored spirit that I was worried about it overwhelming the other components, but with beefy stuff like Willet rye and Lemon Hart 151, I shouldn't have been. More smoke and vegetal agave notes would make for a great counterpoint to the other spirits.

Rum Review: El Dorado 3 Year

I've reviewed other rums from El Dorado before, but this one is a bit different. El Dorado 3 Year is, like all their rums, produced in Guyana from their amazing collection of stills. ED3 is a blend of rums distilled in two different four-column Savalle stills, Skeldon and Blairmont, then aged in ex-bourbon casks for at least three years. The trick with this rum is that the color is stripped out by double charcoal filtration. While that also removes some of the flavor, ED3 is still more flavorful than most white rums you will find on the market these days. Bottling proof is, like most rums, at 40%.

El Dorado 3 Year

Nose: light, clean, creamy molasses, savory vanilla

Taste: lemon/orange peel and cane sugar sweetness up front - which continues through the sip - becomes bittersweet mid-palate, slightly tannic, tropical fruit and berries, a hint of cacao and bitter molasses at the back.

Finish: fruit/berries, bitter wood, slightly floral, savory vanilla

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of overlap with the flavor profile of El Dorado 5 Year. However, ED3 is lighter and a bit more crisp, with flavors that edge towards savoriness, rather than the sweeter profile of ED5. Though not the first thing I would reach for as a sipping rum, it is quite balanced and approachable, while retaining a solid flavor density. Best of all, ED3 is an excellent value, usually running under $20 for a 750 mL bottle. All of that makes it perfect for cocktails where you want the rum to be present without overwhelming the other ingredients. For instance...

El Presidente

1.5 oz rum

0.75 oz dry vermouth

0.25 oz orange liqueur

0.5 tsp grenadine (sub raspberry syrup)

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is a delicate melange of the vermouth's aromatics, some floral notes, orange peel, raspberry, and rum. The sip begins fairly neutrally, with depth building as the drink progresses across the tongue. Mild sweetness comes in first, with vanilla and orange, then trends a bit more bitter as the vermouth takes over, supplemented by the rum. The finish is pure dry cacao.

The history of this drink is debated, but the established facts are that it was created in Cuba around the time of Prohibition, when numerous Americans would sail to the island for a drinking vacation. I can see why it was such a smash - the drink is simultaneously ethereal and hard-hitting. While containing naught but booze, but it still manages to sneak up on you. It's fruity, but not overly so. Sweet, but not overly so. Bitter, but not overly so. Everything is in perfect tension. And the choice of rum feels spot-on for this drink.

In a daiquiri, ED3 produces a fairly delicate nose, with gentle vanilla and a hint of lime. The vanilla comes in sweetly at the beginning of the sip and carries through. Lime hits mid-palate, giving the drink crispness. Near the back, the sweetness fades a bit towards light bitterness and becomes more rounded, with rummy depth. Overall, I would say this is an exceptional daiquiri - every element hitting with supreme poise.

I don't know how much of a wrap-up I need. Go buy this rum. Right now.

Rum Reviews: Guyana, Pt. II

Following up on two previous reviews of Guyanese rums, I want to take a look at two Demeraras that share a lot of similarities, but still have very distinctive characters.

El Dorado 5 Year


Nose: lightly toasted oak, tropical fruits, prickles of spices, slightly buttery coffee, sugarcane, vanilla. After adding a little bit of water, molasses becomes more prominent

Taste: sweetly fruity up front, with passionfruit and mango coming out, mid palate has light molasses flavors, mild oak, mocha, and a veneer of vanilla riding over everything

Finish: bittersweet molasses, vanilla, a bit of oak and fruit - orange, primarily, with some more mango and passionfruit

El Dorado 5 Year, like all El Dorado rums, is produced by Demerara Distillers Limited from a number of their vast collection of stills. ED5 is made purely from column still rums, though it does contain some rum from DDL's unique wooden Coffey still. While column stills sometimes get a bad rep, I think it was the right choice for this rum. ED5 offers a very balanced profile, somewhere between the lighter, fruitier spirit that one tends to find in white rums and the heavier, more molasses-driven aged rums. My hat goes off to the distillers and blenders of DDL as they have produced what I think is one of the best values in rum and possibly in the entire spirits world. ED5 usually runs between $15 and $20, which is better than a lot of other less flavorful rums. And as per Captain Jimbo's analysis, I think that it even competes well against its elder 12- and 15-year old siblings. The older rums are much more focused on the deep, rich flavors of molasses, chocolate and oak, whereas the 5-year old contains those elements but leavens them with bright, tropical fruits. If you're looking to buy one rum for your home bar, El Dorado 5 Year easily tops the list. While heavier than a white rum, it's light enough to substitute into recipes calling for something unaged without muddying things too much, while at the same time it has enough heft to fit into recipes calling for an aged or dark rum. Truly, a magnificent example of how good rum can be at a price point that puts many other spirits to shame.

Even in a daiquiri, ED5 is still very fruit-forward. The tropical fruits that I found in the neat spirit team up very effectively with the lime to give it a strong tiki feel. There's still an undercurrent of molasses, but it's subservient to the fruit. The vanilla also comes out to give the drink a pleasant smoothness. Lastly, there's just a little bit of lingering bitterness at the end that detracts slightly from the experience, but it's subtle and may just be the result of using insufficiently fresh limes in my drink.

Air Mail
1.5 oz rum
0.75 oz lime juice
0.75 oz honey syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a glass. Top with sparkling wine.

The nose is dominated by the dry, slightly yeasty elements of sparkling wine, with fruit from the rum and lime as well as sweet notes of honey emerging. The sip is relatively crisp, with the snap of sparkling wine and lime, leavened by the smooth rum and honey.

Everything blends together beautifully in this daiquiri highball. The drink comes from Esquire's 1949 Handbook for Hosts. While further provenance can't be established, Dr. Cocktail suggests that it's simply a nod to what used to be the fastest way to get information from one place to another. And this drink will certainly send you somewhere else in a hurry. The sparkling wine elevates it nicely and makes for a wickedly good summer drink. While the taste is light, it's deceptively potent. The fruitiness of ED5 fits well, but it could easily be swapped out for other rums. Rhum agricole would make it snappier, emphasizing the drier elements, whereas a big vanilla bomb like an aged Ron Matusalem would make it much softer. But no matter how you make it, this is a seriously tasty drink.

Lemon Hart 80 Proof


Nose: blackberries, curry spices - primarily turmeric, toasted oak, underlying hint of molasses, slightly sweet

Taste: relatively dry, some light blackstrap molasses mashed up with toasted oak

Finish: continues the dry flavors of oak and molasses, orange peel

Lemon Hart 80-proof is the lesser sibling of the brand's comparatively well-known and fêted 151-proof rum. While the latter has returned to the U.S., fresh with new, classier packaging, it appears that the 80-proof version will not be coming to our shores. However it has found a new lease of life on the Continent. Personally, I think the current owners would be best served by bringing in a 90-100 proof expression. I had a conversation with (I think) Steve Bennett of Uncommon Caribbean about this and we agreed than a version in the mold of Mt. Gay's recently released 100-proof Eclipse Black Rum would be an excellent fit for the current market. Basically, the way I feel is that if they're going to bring in something besides the current 151-proof, they need a way to differentiate the product from El Dorado 5 Year. As Lemon Hart is generally thought of as the brasher Demerara, a higher bottling proof would be fitting with the image, but it would be cocktail-friendly without having the connotations of a 151-proof rum.

For being a relatively brash, young rum, Lemon Hart 80 actually takes a bit of a back seat in a standard daiquiri. The nose is dominated by sweet lime, with a slightly rummy background. However the taste is much more interesting, with strong blackberry notes and a hint of banana emerging from the rum. It doesn't have the punch of its heftier sibling, but actually makes an extremely refined and pleasant daiquiri. While I'd still give the nod to ED5 over LH80, I can see why the latter has something of minor cult following.

Koni-Tini
1.5 oz light rum
0.5 oz Demerara rum
0.75 oz ginger liqueur
0.75 oz falernum
0.75 oz lime juice

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime twist.

The nose presents some sharp notes of ginger with clove and allspice from the falernum, backed up by the Lemon Hart rum. The sip leads off with less sweetness than I would have expected given the ratio of liqueurs to lime. The mid-palate contains rich rum flavors from the Demerara and falernum, which then leads into sharper notes of ginger and lime, finishing with just a bit of residual heat.

This variation on the basic daiquiri comes from Jeff "Beach Bum" Berry via Fred of Cocktail Virigin Slut. The drink comes together with excellent balance - the tangy ginger from the liqueur and falernum build a counterpoint to the smoother flavors of the rums. Though Lemon Hart rum is only a small constituent of this drink, I feel like it's still a good showcase for the rum's flavors. The Ron Matusalem Platino I used for the light rum is light indeed and presents a fairly blank canvas for the other elements. I'll admit to cheating a bit because Blair's Dark Falernum includes Lemon Hart 151, which helps to keep the Demerara rum present.

Rum Reviews, Part II: Guyana

Much like Barbados rums, Guyanese rums are another one of the quintessential varieties of rum. Also known as Demerara rum after one of the country's main rivers, all of this delightful nectar is produced by one company, Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL). Though there were previously hundreds of different distillers connected with the various sugar plantations, they have consolidated over the years. Guyanese rum gained early fame as it was one of the primary varieties that were sourced to make the British Navy's rum blend.

One of the features that makes Demerara rums unique is the variety of stills that are used in their production. Each still has its own code, which is usually the name of the sugar estate that the still originally came from. The wooden stills are the most famous as they are the last of their kind on earth. The two links above can give more detail than I could ever hope to get out here and are an absolute treasure trove for anyone who wants to know more about the fascinating capabilities available to DDL.

Demerara rums are known for having particularly heavy, molasses-driven flavors. Two prime examples of this are the flagship offerings from DDL, the El Dorado 12-Year and 15-Year rum.

El Dorado 12-Year

Working off of Sascha's eminently helpful diagram, ED12 is made up primarily of rum from Diamond (SVW), one of the two-column metal Coffey stills as well as the Enmore (EHP) wooden Coffey still. As with all of El Dorado's offerings, the 12-Year indicates the age of the youngest rum in the blend.

Nose - fairly soft, a little oak, plenty of molasses, chocolate and hints of ripe fruit

Taste - molasses, chocolate, cinnamon and nutmeg

Finish - chocolate, only a very slight burn

This rum is one of the best values out there. Incredibly rich for its age, this rum can be found for as little as $25 (take that, single malt scotch!). There's probably a lot more to find in this rum, but as the weather changes as my nose gets a bit stuffy, the main notes are most of what I can find right now. But even if that's all you get out of it, this is still a fantastic, delicious dram.

ED12 also works really well in a cocktail. However, it has to be used careful because its flavors can easily dominate the drink. Balance is important, especially in tiki drinks with over half a dozen different ingredients.

Rum Julep
1.5 oz Demerara rum
0.5 oz aged Jamaican rum
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz honey syrup
0.25 tsp allspice dram
0.25 tsp falernum
0.25 tsp grenadine

Combine all ingredients, add a small handful of cracked ice and blend for five second. Pour into a chilled glass with more cracked ice.

This is a very rum-centric drink. The syrups add complexity and flavor, but mostly peek around the edges rather than being front and center. I like to make this one with a 2:1 split of ED12 to ED5, just to lighten the drink a bit. For the aged Jamaican, the Bum recommends Appleton 12 year and I heartily concur. It adds just the right amount of funk to the drink. The ED12 forms the backbone of the drink and all of the other flavors orbit around it. The fruitiness adds a good amount of zip to the drink and the lime's sourness is perfectly balanced by the honey's sweetness. A cursory web search suggests that this isn't one of the more popular drinks from Sippin' Safari, but I feel like it deserves a bit more recognition. This is an eminently sippable drink, but it does require top-notch ingredients.

El Dorado 15-Year

Again going back to Sascha's work, this rum is composed of spirits from the Port Mourant (PM) wooden double pot still and SVW as well as EHP and Versailles (VSG), the single wooden pot still. These rums are then aged for at least 15 years and blended together.

Nose - oak is front and center with molasses just underneath and hints of cayenne and chipotle pepper peeking around

Taste - oak and molasses still dominate, while dry cacao and mocha flavors can also be found

Finish - lingering oak and cacao




Personally, I have to agree with Capn Jimbo that this rum is just about overdone. For me it has spent just a little bit too much time in the barrels. The oak flavor is a little too assertive for my taste and I think this would be a better rum if that influence waned. If you happen to like oak, you'll probably enjoy this rum a bit more than the 12 Year, but for me it's hard to justify the extra $10 on the price tag. It's an interesting experience, but at the end of the day I'd rather be drinking the 12-Year.