The Tasting Panel magazine

Aug 09

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august 2009 / the tasting panel / 79 S o far this year, combined on- and off-premise rum sales fi gures are up six percent, with premium brands up slightly over eight percent. This increased demand is fueled by the consumer's quest for something new in cocktails, plus, for brown spirits afi cionados, a curiosity about the dark sipping rums. As a result, there's a serious case of rum-mania spreading across the country. But fortunately, there is a treasure chest of old and new brands from which to pour. Bacardi had a head start, hav- ing been founded by Don Facundo Bacardi Maso in 1862. Bacardi Superior White is a staple rum for cocktails worldwide, while Bacardi 8, originally created for the found- ing family and now gone public, is a fl avorful dark blend showing licorice and caramel, with a thick, lingering fi nish that holds up even in mixed drinks. Newest in Bacardi's popular fl avored rum series (with redesigned packaging) is Dragon Berry, an exotic tropical super-fruit infused with strawberry. Appropriately, the world's oldest rum brand has just launched one of the oldest rums, Mount Gay 1703 Old Cask Selection, named for the year this Barbados distillery was founded. A blend of rums ranging from ten to 30 years, this amber liquid encases smoky lemon and leathery fl avors in a cedar-and-citrus-soaked fi nish. Don't mix it! The same can be said of the family-owned Ron Abuelo 12, with its hefty oak and caramel fl avors, and the ultra-dark Pampero Aniversa- rio's buttery notes of tobacco Captain Jack Sparrow has temporarily sailed o≠ to the land of DVDs, so it can't be the pirate infl uence that is causing rum sales to continue rising like the incoming tide story and photos by Richard Carleton Hacker Appleton Estate's Master Blender Joy Spence (left) and Richard Carleton Hacker (right) enjoy Appleton Estate Reserve cocktails created by Los An- geles mixologist Marcos Tello (center). Rum-Mania

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