How Shall I Have My Rum?

     The only question that comes to mind as I sit on the aft deck and ponder what I want to drink, is how am I going to drink it.     Rum is a very unique spirit with the ability to be enjoyed neat, on the rocks, or mixed.   Any way you drink rum, it is a versatile spirit.     In the evening when I'm out I tend to have a well rum with tonic and a lime, but in the evening home relaxing, it is usually a ultra premium rum with one cube of ice in a snifter that I slowly sip.

     In the Rum Lab we have spent a lot of time with rum creating cocktails to show off the attributes of many rums.     It is the rum that is so important in these cocktails, because it is the flavor of the rum that is the basis of the cocktail.   The Rum Lab results almost always revealed that the best cocktails were the ones that the mixers enhanced the rum rather than burying it in some other flavor.    Choose your mixers wisely to bring out the flavors of the rum and still enhance your experience with the cocktail. 

     The best of the rums stand alone and don't require anything at all to go with them, with the possible addition of small amount of water or an ice cube.    The small amount of water opens up the rum and bring the flavors out for your special enjoyment.

    It really doesn't matter how you enjoy the spirit of the sugar cane, what is important is that you enjoy it your way.    It goes right along with the spirit of rum in that there are no rule on how the rum is produced, there are no rule for how you enjoy it either.    Your palate is the only one that counts so keep trying the thousands of different rums out there until you find that very special one that makes you heart and mind say aaaaaaaaah.     I'll be enjoying a 20 year old Mocambo, a Mexican rum today as I cruise out toward the Marquesas Keys in the dinghy today.    ;o)