OV9

While we’re ticking off different alcoholic drinks and given that rum has officially replaced gin as the spirit of the moment, here’s my recommendations - all based around golden or spiced rums.

Havana Club especial was my go-to golden rum for several years. Smooth, warm and easy to drink with a cube of ice.

Beckford’s make a whole range of tasty rums. Only available from them directly and at independent shops/farm shops.

Red Leg spiced is very smooth and quite vanilla-y and available at several big supermarkets.

RIP gin made in a bathtub in a garden shed by beardy blokes who wanted to capture whatever pure essence they’d read about in a book.

Diplomatico (voted best by all the Caribbean) or Black Seal (up to 151 proof) are the best.. end of discussion!

I was expecting those to be outside of my tax bracket however appear not to be and readily available too, will try them!

Is it just me or is rum one of the best drinks for keeping hangovers under control?

I'd like to have a good bottle of rum in the house for special occasions.

I clicked on this thread intending to post my go-to and Gavster has it first on his list - I do like the Havana Club Especial and always go back to it. Annoyingly the supermarket didn’t have any last week so I bought a 7yr aged Havana Club and it’s fine but not as nice. In fact, I’ve found that aged rums generally are not as much to my taste.

Years ago on the forum a chap called Juice posted and he used to drink Mount Gay; I think his signature included reference to it or rum generally. So I tried a bottle of that and it wasn’t bad; not as nice as the Especial though. I do like Kraken and I have had some very good spiced amber rums recently but forget which because they were presents.

It feels like a few years since gin was supposed to be replaced by rum as the new spirit of choice but nobody seems to have told the supermarkets; it’s still easy to get a wide selection of gins and harder to find a good choice of rums.

duncs500 wrote: Sun May 19, 2024 6:06 am Is it just me or is rum one of the best drinks for keeping hangovers under control?

I don’t find that because rums tend to be pretty drinkable so it’s far too easy to do in a bottle

Jobbo wrote: Sun May 19, 2024 8:26 am

duncs500 wrote: Sun May 19, 2024 6:06 am Is it just me or is rum one of the best drinks for keeping hangovers under control?

I don’t find that because rums tend to be pretty drinkable so it’s far too easy to do in a bottle

It's something I sometimes switch to when I've had my fill of beer, and I'm usually surprised by the bearable hangover when I do that. All in relative terms of course!

My all time favourite hangover was when I exclusively drank decent Polish wodka for a day/night though, barely discernable.

We probably need another thread for hangover cures.

Someone is bound to have the forum composite hangover cure somewhere

Reyka Icelandic vodka is similarly pure and good; I always assumed Polish stuff would be more scary.

duncs500 wrote: Sun May 19, 2024 6:06 am Is it just me or is rum one of the best drinks for keeping hangovers under control?

I found the same. I was getting through three bottles a week for the first nine months of lockdown

Kraken, Redleg or DMF have always been my constants. With ginger beer and ice.

I agree about the hangover with rum. I don’t drink much these days and feel quite sensitive to what gives me a banging head. A half decent rum leaves me feeling surprisingly headache-free the following day. For example I smashed a bottle of red leg with a friend then went to the pub for a beer and felt okay the next day, just a bit hazy.

This thread feels very cliquey - since only pirates can participate.

Only Jaguarrrrrrrrrrrrr owners allowed

I don't drink gin, the wife does.

Occasionally have a white rum and coke in the sun and for that we have a 5 year old Havana club. It's a nice drink in the sun.

I still mostly drink bourbon and coke if I'm drinking spirits with a mixer. Specifically bullett bourbon, jack Daniel's rye (not the crap no7) or eagle rare with (and it has to be) full fat coke as it brings out a really nice caramel flavour with those bourbons that's really smooth and not harsh at all.

Gavster wrote: Sun May 19, 2024 4:24 am I was expecting those to be outside of my tax bracket however appear not to be and readily available too, will try them!

Actually, I forgot el dorado. (It’s been a while ) It has many ages (I think 3, 5, 8, 12, 15, 18, 21).. they get smoother and more brandy like as you go up the years. In the Caribbean, most bars won’t serve above 12 years with a mixer.

Jobbo wrote: Sun May 19, 2024 8:25 am It feels like a few years since gin was supposed to be replaced by rum as the new spirit of choice but nobody seems to have told the supermarkets; it’s still easy to get a wide selection of gins and harder to find a good choice of rums.

It has been happening slowly, Gordon's sales by volume in the supermarkets dropped by 20% between 2022-23. At the UK Food Expo at the start of the month there was a lot of rum being pushed, so I think there will be a shift, however it's taking a while to happen.

Rum gives me some bad hangovers but I love it too much.

As for what to look out for - Bajan. It's some of the purest. So Mount Gay, Doorlys, Foursquare etc. They don't tend to have added colour or sugar.

Whereas Diplomatico for example has some of the highest added sugar of all rums and is more like a liqueur really. It's pretty crap stuff really.

Rum was one of the few spirits that I never got really into. I bought a bottle of overproof Goslings for a party once and ended up keeping a bottle around until I quit (really nice with lime and ginger beer) but I was never that into straight rum.

The only rum I remember drinking is Barcelo 151, when I went to the Dominican Republic. Over two weeks our Cuba Libres became much more rum and much less coke. I bought a bottle home, left it in the cupboard for years and if I checked I expect I would find I have got rid of it. Which is a shame as I see one sold for £45

Not much of a rum drinker but I am a Malibu whore. I'll happily sip on a bottle of that across a day so I have a self imposed rule of never buying it now.

Tonight’s effort