Zombie

ZOMBIE

Here's where's the rums gone!

Do you have many different styles of rums in your cabinet waiting to be used? Well say no more, here's a cocktail you can well spend those rums of yours! I introduce you with the Zombie cocktail. Probably one of the most famous tiki styled drink (among with the Mai Tai), the Zombie is just a bunch of rums mixed with fruit juices and made delicious as fudge!

So first things first. This is a modified recipe made by my friend and truth to be told, there are numerous different recipes out there. We didn't find it appealing to even try with the original but instead wanted to make a version easily made at home! So use rums you have at home, twist it as you please and hopefully you will find the one that suits you the best!

• 5 X 2 cl different styles of rums
• fruits (orange, lime, citrus)
• 1-2 ds bitters
• 1-2 ds grenadine

Muddle the fruit, add the rum and rest, shake with ice and single strain into a bigger glass roughly ~70% filled with crushed ice. Garnish with fruits and add a straw. Enjoy.

Results? Rum-based, fruity, strong. I would recommend mixing spiced rums with aged rums and just fly with it. Worth the try? Definitely.

The Rum Pickle

THE RUM PICKLE

(Eetu Topo)

Good evening everyone! This cocktail is...wow, something truly special in its own kind. I had my doubts. I really did. Moreover, I've also wanted to make this cocktail for some time and today it happened. Before we discuss this drink more, I give credit where credit is due. This cocktail is made by Eetu Topo, a bartender working (assumably) in Helsinki. He made this...it's not really just a cocktail but a category of cocktail, which in my sincerest opinion in all its craziness works.

"I especially want to bring out this new drink category and Nordic cocktail culture and not so much myself as a bartender."

- Eetu Topo

To make a long story short, he made it to the Bacardi Legacy finals (2017) with this drink and I am here now to re-create it to the best of my ability. Also very noteworthy is the fact that Eetu mentioned this cocktail can be twisted and even highly recommended for other bar(tender)s so one needn't be 100% precise as long as the concept is grasped. So, without further ado. I present you Eetu Topo's masterpiece, the Rum Pickle. No, NO RICK! :D

• 45 ml Bacardi Carta Oro
• 20 ml Chablis
• 5 ml white wine vinegar
• 5 ml sugar
• 1 pickled olive

Stir to dissolve the sugar, add ice, stir and chill, strain, garnish and serve.

Simplified for your pleasure:

• 2 parts spirit
• 1 part lengthener
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 pickled garnish

Courtesy of the Rum Pickle corporation...or something :D

So, what I did was exactly the same expect using Bacardi 8yo since I was out of...well I never have had Carta Oro rum. But nonetheless. Taste. Okay, let's discuss taste. Where do I start? As I mentioned in the beginning, I was very doubtful of how this cocktail would taste like but HOT DAMN, Eetu you S.O.B. you made magic! Delicious as fudge, reminded me so much of riesling wine. Sweet, that acidity and flavor profile of the rum just hit the spot. I can just imagine what wonders one could make by switching the vinegar (say, raspberry vinegar or so), or using a different lengthener (instead of Chablis, which I even got extra from the liquor store just to make this :D).

Good stuff!

A.M.F drink

A.M.F DRINK

(ALPHA MIKE FOXTROT)

ALPHA! MIKE! FOXTROT! OR

ADIOS MOTHERFUCKER!

Here's a big-ass drink. I mean really. Belongs to the series with Irish Trash Can or Long Island Iced Teas, the A.M.F - drink is "oh one of THOSE!" - styled cocktails, which I would recommend making at home if at all. With a beautiful and tropical color, this drink is very very deceitful! Let's take a look:

• 1.5 cl vodka
• 1.5 cl rum (white)
• 1.5 cl tequila (100% de agave)
• 1.5 cl gin
• 1.5 cl blue curacao
• 6 cl sweet & sour mix (I just used 3 cl each fresh lemon juice and simple syrup mixed together)
• 6 cl (or to top) sprite/7-Up lemonade
• Orange/lemon/lime/cocktail cherry garnish

Super easy to make! With a big glass filled roughly half-way with ice, just pour in everything, give it a little stir and top it with lemonade. BOOM! Done! I did make two variations to it, using regular sprite and the now-only-available -30% less sugar sprite and I have to say, the latter tasted better. The first version was overly sweet, which isn't really surprising if you look at the list, three of them being sugary products (curacao, sugar syrup, lemonade). Otherwise, as my friend noted, it's the "alco-pop of spirits" :D Easy to down and gets you drunk fast. Which, in accordance to this cocktail's name is quite right.

Sierra! Echo! November! Delta!

November! Uniform! Delta! Echo! Sierra!

:D

Piña Colada

PIÑA COLADA

A Piña Colada (without the garnish)

Good morning everyone! Today I made a cocktail...well, it certainly has made its way to the mainstream but this is the second (!) time I've had one (the first time was back in 2006 in Cologne when I was an au pair)! (and immediately made two versions of it :D)

For us Finns at least (if someone knows better, do correct me!), the Piña Colada is a cocktail you've had abroad during happy hours and then expect to have the same drink "back home". Honestly speaking, sure, every now and then a person asks me at work "can I get a Piña Colada?" The problem arises when you look at the ingredients of this now-classic tiki cocktail. Let's take a look. The recipe was acquired from THE BONNEVILLE COLLECTION: TIKI COCKTAILS.

• 6 cl rum
• 6 cl pineapple juice
• 2 cl creamed coconut
• 2.5 cl half & half (a mixture of half cream, half milk)
• (tiki garnish)

Both the pineapple juice/coconut stuff is something that doesn't hold for many days. I believe the Piña Colada is one of those cocktails you can't really get from Finland...well perhaps in Helsinki during summer time from one specific/certain cocktail bar. Stocking the above mentioned products is not worth their price when you might have 1 request/week. So better just make these at home.

The Bonneville recipe used Appleton 12yo for their rum of choice. I made two version; in the first one I did as per recipe and the other one with Malibu (coconut flavored caribbean rum). The reason for this was a request by a person who isn't allowed to buy strong spirits yet and Malibu being 21% ABV, so perfect for this occasion.

Shake the ingredients with ice, strain into a proper glass (tiki/hurricane, large-ish wine goblet) and garnish. I didn't have any pineapple or proper tiki garnish for that matter, so I left those out.

I have got to say, when I made the two versions, the Malibu one tasted better! It had that Piña Colada feel to it; the Appleton 12yo version tasted...well, not only more boozy but as if it lacked body. Were I to make this cocktail again, I would totally use Malibu. Otherwise the measures were great; the cocktail was creamy and pineappl-y :)

Some recipes use a blender but to heck with those.

Irish Trash Can

IRISH TRASH CAN

A trash can. Its content tastes pretty good :D

Hey everyone! Today's special is called the Irish Trash Can. This drink was actually a request by a reader and I decided to pull it off. In two weeks time I'll make this as a video with a good friend of mine but for the picture I wanted to make it myself.

So...the Irish Trash Can. A big bunch of everything.

• 1.5 cl gin
• 1.5 cl vodka
• 1.5 cl light rum
• 1.5 cl peach schnapps
• 1.5 cl triple sec
• 1.5 cl blue curacao
• 1 can of red bull

Add all ingredients (except for the red bull) in a big glass filled with ice, stir gently, crack open the energy drink and add it into the glass (see picture).

Some call for using a straw and drink it as fast as possible...okay that will get you wasted fast. I had the patience to assess the drink (:D) and sip it slowly. This drink tastes candy-ish! The peach flavor comes forth nicely and the "can" is otherwise very "balanced". It's a sweet drink (literally). If you have the ingredients and the glasses for it, this'll make a "fun" house party drink!

Captain Kidd

CAPTAIN KIDD

Strong, tasty, the Kidd

Hey everyone! Today I present you with a (slightly crooked :D) after dinner - style cocktail called the Captain Kidd. I found out there are numerous different recipes under the same name and this one I picked up from this book shown below:

The more I sipped this drink, the more I started to like it! Here's how to do it:

• 25 ml creme de cacao (dark)
• 25 ml dark rum (I used havana 8 años)
• 37.5 ml cognac (1½ British measure, I used a VSOP one)
• ½ orange slice for garnish (editor's note; a twist + its essential oils would've been even greater)

Instead of shaking this drink (as the recipe calls for), I stirred it (due to only alcoholic ingredients) and poured into a chilled coupe before garnishing.

But even with the original garnish (the ½ orange slice), its aroma combined with the strong cocoa was very nice indeed. The Kidd isn't as sweet as I would've thought, but instead an intense, spicy, cognac-y after flavored sipping cocktail. If I really tried, hints of a full-bodied sherry/port are noticeable!

I give this drink a 3.5/5. It's solid, it's strong, it's a fine cocktail.

Hemingway Daiquiri

HEMINGWAY DAIQUIRI

"I drink to make other people interesting"

- Ernest Hemingway, 1899 - 1961 

Hello everyone! Today's cocktail is more or less of a classic. It's a daiquiri popularized (or coined) by Ernest Hemingway who spent a part of his life in Cuba. According to the internet (it never lies by the way), he used to have many of these in a bar called "El Floridita". Also, the internet states that since Hemingway was a diabetic, he preferred a different kind of daiquiri (a less sugary one); legend has it that he loved this version so much that he always ordered a double, lending the cocktail its nickname of Papa Doble.

In its essence, the Hemingway Daiquiri is a more robust, dry version of the regular cocktail. If feeling manly enough, give this one a go and see for yourself!

• 6 cl white rum (prefer Cuban, e.g. Havana 3 años)
• 2 cl lime juice
• 1.5 cl maraschino liqueur (the sweetness to this cocktail derives from this ingredient)
• 1.5 cl grapefruit juice
• lime wheel (or maraschino cherry) as a garnish

Shake all ingredients except for the garnish with ice, strain, garnish and serve.

US citizens can't really use Havana rums because of the trade embargo that prohibits the selling of Cuban rum, but luckily for the rest of us, there is still hope :D But any good quality white rum will suffice.

For me, it had that oompf. Since my experience of daiquiris have always been sweeter, it was nice to experience the "other side" of this classic cocktail group. Moreover, there are so many different variations of the daiquiris out there, having a few different recipes in your back pocket doesn't hurt you at all. I give this cocktail a 3.5/5. Those who like their daiquiris dry and strong, it's a solid 5/5.

Kaukokaipuu (Wanderlust)

KAUKOKAIPUU (WANDERLUST)

reader request, awesomeness ensured!

A good Saturday to you all! Here's a cocktail I made based on a reader request! Its base ingredient is quite different that what you would expect and its name "Kaukokaipuu" (Wanderlust) derives from and I quote

"You can make this with rather cheap ingredients. While drinking this at cold winter nights watching Madventures one can ponder, what it be like to jump out of the rat race into far away lands."

Roughly so :D So what do you need to make this?

• 2 cl blanco rum
• 1 cl malibu
• 1 cl gin (prefer a floral, "light" gin)
• 1 bs almond syrup
• 6 cl Alpro coconut-rice milk
• some roasted almond chips on top (optional garnish)

Shake everything with ice and strain into a smaller, chilled cocktail glass. Garnish optional (an edible flower would be awesome I realized).

With a good coconut-aroma to it, it also has that surprisingly good combination of rum & gin. The slight sweet-bitter almond-y notes are also there easily to be found.

In my opinion, it was a very fun experiment and this cocktail is an all-around drink. I give it a solid 4 out of 5!

Smoky Rum Old Fashioned

SMOKY RUM OLD FASHIONED

As per Waldo Smit

A good weekend to everyone! Today I've "exited" my comfort area to make something completely different. I introduce you the Smoky Rum Old Fashioned.

I stumbled upon this recipe (or video to be honest) by accident. I checked it out, fancied it and thought to myself "I might as well give it a go!" I pretty much had everything except for the lapsang souchong tea needed. Yesterday I found a store that had it and I immediately bought a pack. Let's get ready to business!

• 6 cl spicy rum
• 1.5 cl smoky simple syrup
• 4d orange bitters
• cinnamon + star anise + grated nutmeg
• a glass jar
• an orange wheel + star anise for the garnish
• a kitchen blowtorch

The video will pretty much explain the whole process how to make it and I won't be going through it namely because it would take a small life time to explain the same thing the original author did in a tad over 1 minute 30 seconds. So I'll just skip ahead and review the cocktail. Before that though, I would consider this cocktail a somewhat "special occasion" drink, since...

First of all, effort. This cocktail takes some. Secondly, the effort is rewarded in the end by its flavor profile. Thirdly, but not lastly, choosing a good rum will work wonders here. I noticed the author used Sailor Jerry, I instead went for El Dorado 15yo. For me (+ the 4d's of orange bitters), it was a bit too fruity. Could also be that I didn't smoke the dried spices enough. The cocktail itself was still complex as f**k and when the opportunity arises, I shall make another one of these beauties! 

Mai Tai

MAI TAI

Deliciousness in a nutshell double old fashioned

Hello again everyone! First of all...FINALLY, FINALLY I made the truly classic cocktail Mai Tai I've wanted to do...for over a year now! Thanks to my sister who brought me a bottle of orgeat syrup (or orgeat) I finally didn't let me dreams just be dreams and just did it.

When I went to Bremen last summer I got to taste two Mai Tais (okay just a sip from the first one); now I had the ingredients I needed to make my own! A big shout out to CHOW's Mai Tai recipe!

• 20 ml fresh lime juice (½ lime pressed)
• 7.5 ml rock candy syrup (2:1 sugar syrup where 2 parts of sugar and 1 part water)
• 7.5 ml orgeat syrup
• 15 ml gran marnier
• 35 ml El Dorado 15yo rum
• 25 ml Appleton Estate 12yo rum

One point at the start. Orange Curacao is called for in this drink; I substituted it with Gran Marnier because "Grand Marnier is a blend of cognac and triple sec, so although it's not a traditional curaçao, it's a similar product. Cointreau, on the other hand, is straight up a triple sec."

I had no curacao so I did that one change. Shake everything with crushed ice and pour the content into a double old fashioned glass (or a tiki mug if you have one). Use the pressed lime shell as a garnish and add a sprig of mint (you've slapped before to express the essential oils) to make it look "like an island and a palm tree".

No comments needed.

Rum Cola Fizz

RUM COLA FIZZ

A good and a summery evening to y'all! Tonight I present you with a cocktail that makes good use of the classic version of the Ramos Gin Fizz. I picked up the recipe from a cocktail community I currently belong to and extra went to the local shop today to get a few ingredients I was short of! So here it is, the Rum Cola Fizz.

• 4 cl dark rum
• 2 cl lime juice
• 2 cl simple syrup
• 2 cl heavy cream
• 1 egg white (as fresh as possible)
• 1 dash angostura bitters
• cola to top

Except with the cola, add everything in a cocktail shaker, dryshake firmly first, then add ice and shake again very vigorously until super cold. Strain into a tumbler and top the drink with cola. No garnish needed.

The taste was quite funky indeed! The cola addition had a slight nostalgic touch to it making the whole drink remind me of those childhood cola-popsicles.

Sampling the unknown

SAMPLING THE UNKNOWN

What could these be?

Hello again and welcome! It's been quite a while since my last post and I do apologize for that. With our now 6-month-old daughter and my wife having a two-week work shift I haven't really had much time to taste new products, make new cocktails (I don't even have ice in the fridge at the moment!) or explore the vast world of alcoholic beverages in general.

Today that changed. But first let us rewind a bit and ie. one week. A tasting was held at work but alas, I could not attend. It's not that didn't want to but I couldn't because on the following day I had my blood tested and that meant no alcohol for the previous 48 hours. So I bought these little sample bottles that hold 3.5cl (35ml so a healthy measure) from a drug store and brought them earlier to my workplace so I could later sample them. From what I heard one of them was going to be the last of the legendary Valhalla series, Odin. So a colleague of mine was kind enough (<3 !) to fill these bottles for me but never told me which bottle had which product! That meant, I had five samples and no idea (not even the type [whisky, rum, cognac etc.]) what they were. A true blind tasting that is. 

A sample bottle labeled "=)"

So what I had was five (5) different products. Each were labeled differently and only my colleague knew what was in each one. When I started pouring the products in the glasses I realized how much even ~30 ml was! So going with approximately 20 ml each, I ended up with a nice row of products:

The tasting was a great success! Just nosing them made me think two of them were whiskies, one a dark rum and one I just couldn't figure out but it was on the tip of my tongue. I actually thought the first one was a whisky too but after I wrote down my tasting notes and rated them, my colleague sent me pictures of what I had but not in any particular order. Using the power of deduction I then managed to collect the last pieces of the puzzle and finish the job!

1. Tres Generaciones Añejo tequila (the peppery notes, just astonishing!)
2. Highland Park Odin (cask strength, bitter chocolate notes)
3. No3 London Dry Gin (this had lemon peel notes in it making me believe it was some sort of triple sec first, I "almost had it right")
4. Brugal VX dark rum (sweet aroma but taste-wise much robust)
5. Glenrothes 2001 (a very "pure" single malt, extremely fast finish)

All in all, these were great products. Especially the tequila left me with an extremely positive impression proving once again that there are good tequilas out there but only the shittiest ones are exported abroad and the good ones are really effing expensive to begin with. Also the gin was very palatable and worked as itself quite nicely.

Inspired and motivated of all of this, I've gotten myself another 10 sample bottles so I can share some of my different spirits with friends in the future! Not to mention should I ever open up another whisky bottle for the first time, I can take a measure of it and store it in a separate container. This way, after a long period of time I can always "return" to the original product and see if the flavor has developed, if at all.

Angostura 1919 / El Dorado 15yo Old Fashioned

Angostura 1919 / El Dorado 15yo 

Old Fashioned

Angostura 1919 version

El Dorado 15yo version

A fine evening to each and all! Tonight I created a cocktail courtesy of Charlotte Voisey and her Flor de Caña Old Fashioned. Since I didn't have the original ingredients at hand I made a little adjustments/twists to suit my needs. In the end, it turned out alright!

As we know, an Old Fashioned can easily be modified by changing the base spirit. Bourbon is the traditional one but with little tweaks you can make it appeal to people who might not like the taste of bourbon (if such people exist :D). What I did was two versions because quite frankly, the first one did not catch the essence of what I was looking for. Let's break down what I did here:

• 6 cl aged rum (Angostura 1919/El Dorado 15yo this time)
• 2 bs brown sugar syrup
• 3-4 dashes orange bitters
• 2 orange zest + 1 for garnish

Put all the ingredients in the mixing glass, press the orange zest for their essential oils and drop them in as well. Give it a good stir with ice and strain into your glass. Flame one orange zest over the drink and use it as a garnish. Serve.

As it is no mystery that different rums taste differently, the way the worked in this particular cocktail was astonishing. With the Angostura 1919 version it was a bold, spicy cocktail. Elegant, but strong. I did not quite got the fruity aromas I was hoping for so later this evening I made a second one using El Dorado 15yo rum. Now the cocktail had a much more "aromatic" sense to it, making it a better drink overall.

Quite the cocktail, I say!

A promise made is a promise kept

A promise made is a promise kept

A 365 days' work between the covers

This year's last season greeting to you all! It is the last day of 2014 and I have something big to discuss.

As this year has come to a wonderful end, you might remember me talk about my New Year's Resolution for the year 2014. A quick recap to those who can't be bothered with the link;

"In the year 2014 I will/have taste/d every alcohol product (most importantly the whiskies) we sell at our bar."

"The commandments with twists and turns"

A great way to combine work and pleasure:

1. Work: I want to learn how different whiskies taste like so I know what I am selling our customers
2. Pleasure. I want to learn to taste different whiskies to become better at it. 

Now 365 days to sample what, ~100 products in total? (I counted them, 133 is the correct amount) What looked like an easy job actually ended up being one of the closest thing to be unfinished!

Okay, let's break this "task" down. What did really happen during this year?

1. The whiskies

This included each and every whisky our bar holds. Naturally, in the course of one full year, some whiskies were drunk before I got to them and subsequently some new products were available for me to assess. As long as I had each currently available sampled at the end of this year, I considered it a success. Every time I sample a product, write down the date as well.

Example page. Name, "type" and date when tasted.

2. The liquors

This meant the rest. From the mild ABVs (e.g. port/sherry) to the hard stuff (gins, rums, vodkas and other).

3. No (tap) beers, wines or mixer liqueurs!

I deliberately wanted to limit this section not to be included in the resolution. The reason is quite simple. Sampling low ABV mixer liqueurs doesn't make much sense (no-one ever orders them separately) and with the bottled products we had so many seasonal changes (cidre weeks, summer beers, winter ales and so forth). The same goes for the wines. Although we have a more or less "steady" list, our wines changed throughout the year quite a few times.

4. What if a product was drunk before I got to it?!

Well that sucked! For instance, I was really sad that the Nikka 10yo was drunk before I was able to taste it. Okay, I got to taste its older 20yo brother but still, evaluating them together would have been so much better. Later on I will let you know about the ones "missing in action" and "new incomers".

5. Which one did you like the best? Which one was not good?

Each product, be it a whisky or a liquor, I rated with a 1-5 star system. When evaluating an article, I tried to write down a few notes regarding said product and finally putting a "rating" to it. Coarsely, the rating as follows and keep in mind, this is according to my opinion. What I say only reflects my personal preferences:

* : Did not taste good at all!
** : Meh. Lacked potential and taste.
*** : Palatable. Missed that little "oompf" to receive another star.
**** : Very good! Wouldn't mind having another one!
***** : Exceptional in taste, texture and finish. A diamond.

Strictly speaking, only the greatest whiskies got in my personal Hall of Fame. They needn't be a five-star whisky to achieve this but if they managed to knock my socks right off my feet, they made it to the list. In addition, the ones (whiskies) I liked the least had the "honor" of becoming products in my Hall of Shame. As for the rest liquors, I did rate them as well but did not include them in the HoF, for obvious reasons.

Finally, every time I had a sample at our bar, I kept the receipt. I wanted to know how much I spent over the year to accomplish this task.

MISSING IN ACTION(never got to sample these)

• Benriach 12yo non-chill filtered
• Benriach 16yo
• Nikka 10yo
• Highland Park Loki 15yo
• Laphroaig 10yo cask strength
• Laphroaig 18yo
• Ardbeg non-chill filtered
• Minttu (black mint)
• Koskenkorva Nordic Berries
• Koskenkorva Blueberry
• Koskenkorva Lingonberry
• Ardbeg Auriverdes

NEW PRODUCTS(available to sample)

• Nikka 20yo
• Ardbeg Corryveckan
• Plantation XO Rum
• Nikka from the Barrel
• Macallan Ruby

THE FINAL WHISKY
MISSION COMPLETED :D

Laphroaig Quarter Cask

So up to this day, I had finished everything else except for three whiskies! The Laphroaig series; Triple Wood, Cairdeas 2011 and Quarter Cask. After my work I sample the two former and as I got home I popped open the QC. Thus my New Year's Resolution was completed! And not a day too early :D

So what ended up being totally awesomesauce in flavor and which did not quite make it to the top (or even past the start line)?

The Hall of Fame and Shame, respectively

Eventually, according to my taste and preferences, some whiskies proved their right to become awesome, great and fabulous. "Sadly", for two whiskies this was not the case but quite the opposite. Glenlivet 18yo, Macallan 12yo sherry oak and Nikka 20yo were exceptional in taste and I had no problem adding this trio to the list! On the other hand, Bowmore 10yo (Devil's cask) and Johnny Walker Red Label were something quite horrid. Okay, for Red Label's defence, it is not a single malt but a blend. But even mixed with cola it didn't taste good! For ratings' sake I had to give it a "parenthesis" one star.

So what did this all cost me? Of course I didn't pay for the stuff I could drink at home. I counted the sums in the receipts and ended up in a sum of 343.8€! I actually had to recount twice because I got a bigger sum before! :D So this cost me less than 1€/day!

I have to admit that this New Year's Resolution was worth every cent. Not only did I experience a wide range of flavors but also (hopefully! :D) became more proficient in spirits of different styles. Now, could I explain you thoroughly about a whisky I tasted in February? Probably not. Sampling half a measure of whisky does not make me a pro, no sir! This is not just one year's job. It's a life-long process that follows one to their grave. It's a passion. If nothing else, at least I had quite a few different whiskies and other liquors to drink!


Sláinte!

Where has all the rum gone?

THE GREAT RUM REVIEW

The rum collection, the Matusalem (middle) belongs to my friend

Hello everyone and welcome to yet another great tasting! Today I had the great opportunity to sample six different styles of rums with a good friend of mine! As you already might know, the previous reviews with cognacs, herbal-liquers and vodkas have all been great successes so I decided to keep the winning streak going on but with rums. But not just any rums, instead I was going for the aged ones.

Without going into too much detail what rum is, aged rum differs enough from the basic blanco ones. An aging process and moreover, a way more complex flavor profile than your regular "Bacardi white". So four of the six rums were ordered from online (of which one belongs to my friends), one from another good friend of mine (holla Michael!) and one from my ex-colleagues when "El Capitán" (me) left his navy (holla Stockmann!). The collection, and for the sake of me & my readers, I shall go through the list as it appears in the picture. I also gathered bits & pieces of information regarding that specific rum so we all know what we're dealing with:

• Ron Pampero Aniversario NAS
• Venezuelan
• Aged in oak casks
• a blend of ~ 2-8yo rums

• The Kraken Black Spiced Rum NAS (Wild card)
• Caribbean / Trinidad & Tobago
• a blend of 1-2yo rums with added spices

• Pyrat XO Reserve Rum NAS
• Guyanese
• Blend of 2yo Demerara stock & other stocks from various Caribbean producers

• Ron Matusalem Gran Reserve 15yo
• Dominican Republic
• NOT a 15yo rum per se, but aged via Solera system

• Appleton Estate 12yo
• Jamaican
• Aged in old Jack Daniels barrels

• El Dorado 12yo
• Guyanese
• Aged in old bourbon oak casks

(NAS = No Age Statement)

Tasting order: Matusalem, Pyrat, Appleton, Aniversario, El Dorado and Kraken

I deliberately left the Kraken Rum to be tasted as our last, since its style clearly differs from the five others.

As you can see, even in their apparent outlooks they differ quite a lot. Keep in mind that in the alcohol business a lot of producers use caramel coloring to make their product look more appealing. Check out this link to find more about it and why producers do it. "Luckily" the random order I chose (except for Kraken) for the tasting was almost from the "faintest" golden to the almost plum-colored dark.

With water on the side and coffee beans for us to smell in between (and old crackers to cleanse our palate :D) we started our journey into the rum business. We both took notes of each rum and again, this was not a simple task at all.

Fancy as f**k!

The Pyrat XO did have the most distinct fruity and sweet notes in comparison. So fruity it almost couldn't be count as a rum but more of a fruity-candy-liquor!

Our wild card Kraken was something completely different as well. Again, it's hard not to compare this rum as itself but to others when there are five aged ones waiting in line. But given, the Kraken didn't really cut it in the big boys' league BUT it works damn fine with coke! It's a spiced rum so it works as a mixer just fine!

So now we're dealing with Matusalem, Appleton, Aniversario and El Dorado. They all got good scores/reviews and quite frankly, it was impossible to say which one of these was the ultimate best. Appleton 12yo and El Dorado 12yo got both 8½ points out of 10 and both Matusalem and Aniversario got 7 points.

These four were all great rums and top-of-the-line products.

As a summary I would say, it was awesome once again to have a tasting like this. And as said before, it wasn't easy to find differences in these rums. Fair enough, some had more or less afterburn or sweeter, honey-type notes to them but overall it wasn't a walk in the park, at least for me. But you can't go wrong with these rums. No sir!

Dark'N'Stormy

DARK'N'STORMY

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

Well not quite, but close enough! This whole Midsummer weekend has been rainy and well, quite dark! To honor that I've made a very classic cocktail (variant) called Dark'N'Stormy!

Fair enough, this drink demands the use of Gosling's rum (which I don't have) and their own ginger beer but heck, I will now cut some corners and as mentioned, make one of my own. Go ahead, Gosling, SUE ME! :D What you need:

• ginger beer (go for the fiery ones)
• 6 cl dark rum
• a little bit of lime

In a highball glass filled with ice, pour the ginger beer in. Do leave some room for the rum. Then pour in the rum to create a layer as seen in the picture (the stormy bit on top of calm waters). Squeeze in some lime and garnish with a lime wheel. (Add a straw) & serve.

Quite excellent a summer drink! Given, the use of Kraken rum (I got to say the use of Krakens and stormy drinks to fit in like a glove!) made this cocktail taste different than probably intended, but it worked well! The spiciness of both the rum and ginger beer were an absolute "wow".

My thumbs up for this!

SHOTS TIME!

SHOTS, SHOTS EVERYWHERE

Good evening ladies and gents! It's time to have some fun with shots! I've had a day off due to Ascension Thursday so instead of making grand cocktails (fine, I barely had any mixers at home) I pursued the art of shots!

I created five different and instead of making one blog for each separately I thought it would be the wisest just to compile them all under one sheet. Most of them were created purely out of visual outlooks, meaning they look better than they taste. But of those individual shots later on. Here we go!

ÄSSÄMIX

This shot is really something you can barely make outside Finland. The reason being one ingredient only (do correct me on this one?) available where I live now. Ässämix, named after the candy Fazer (a Finnish company) makes. As if "you're eating that dark and fruity candy at the same time". I agree. This shot was actually quite enjoyable! Sure, you can't really layer these ingredients but damn, tasty!

• 2 cl Salmiakkilikööri (explore the Finnish folklore *tshish*)
• 2 cl Passoã liqueur

In a shot glass, combine both ingredients and SHOOT!

SAMBUCA CON LA MOSCA

Simply put, Sambuca con la Mosca ("Sambuca with the fly") is Sambuca with three coffee beans and lit on fire. but more complicated put, it represents health, happiness and prosperity or the Holy Trinity. Either way,

• 4 cl Sambuca
• 3 coffee beans
• fire

Pour the sambuca in a shot glass, drop the coffee beans on it and light the thing on fire. Let it burn for a while, extinguish the fire and shoot! Taste-wise, as expected, very aniseed-like but the aftertaste is smooth and sweet. A great after dinner shot!

BANANA BOMBER

One layer drink I tried was the Banana Bomber. Given, there are multiple different recipes how one makes this but one thing is certain and that is the use of banana liqueur. The other half could be anything from tequila to vodka, whiskey, cointreau, you name it! This recipe included:

• 2 cl banana liqueur (not that green pisang stuff)
• 2 cl brandy

Merely a 2/5, this shooter wasn't really a good one. Like the saying garbage in, garbage out, I used a Spanish brandy and De Kuyper's banana liqueur. The liqueur had a strong essence taste to it and the brandy being young tasted coarse. Combined they didn't make a good combo. A hint of banana was in the background but in its essence, not a particularly great shot. Visually okay.

V8

Another curious one, the V8. I had to cut corners here and use a more potent ingredient that was actually called for since I didn't have the "softer" version at all :D

• 2 cl white peppermint schnapps (clear)
• 2 cl Stroh (54)

Layer the shot, the peppermint liqueur goes in first. As said, I only had a bottle of 80% (160 proof) Stroh in hand so I used that one. Well it layered just nicely (as almost pure alcohol does :D) but taste-wise. Ugh. A cruel shot. Like meth, not even once.

KÄNNIANKKA

(DRUNK DUCK)

Finally, the Känniankka (translated "Drunk Duck"). I have no history of who or where this was invented but some of my customers have asked for this. Basically it goes down to:

• 2 cl peppermint schnapps
• 2 cl jägermeister

Both ingredients should be properly frozen, as well as the glass. Layer the shot so the peppermint schnapps goes in first.

I made an exception to the rule and didn't shoot this as I did with the rest. No, I enjoyed this after eating pizza and while watching a Netflix series. Actually, around the time the Jäger's done and the pepper kicks into action, the combo works surprisingly well. A nice mix of herbal-pepperminty-sweetness I say. Hence, a solid 4/5 I give this shooter.

Tomorrow I'll be heading back to work. A few days more and then I'm off to to my well-deserved summer holiday! Yay!

SHOOT AWAY!