Rum and the Cuban Manhattan

I flipped past another 20 or so pages of egg white drinks then finally landed upon the Cuban Manhattan. It calls for white rum, sweet and dry vermouth, Angostura bitters, and a cherry. Can do!

The drink tastes like a Manhattan minus the whiskey. I suppose that’s to be expected. There is the same sweet and dry vermouth combination and cherry topping. To see if I could taste the rum in the drink at all, I had a sip of it straight. I was drinking Bacardi, so I didn’t expect much.

Holy moly! I’ve completely forgotten what rum tastes like. When I recall it, my mouth puckers with sugary sweetness. I guess my taste buds don’t know what they’re talking about. To their defense, even Beverages and More’s website, which usually has a pretty succinct and accurate description of their beverages, lists it as “The number one selling rum in the world; good in any number of tropical drinks from Mai Tai's to Pina Coladas!” That’s like saying “it’s weak and gross, but if you cover it up with enough fruit you won’t even notice!”

I disagree. The Bacardi is rich and interesting on its own. The nose reminds me of sharp, pure alcohol (okay, rubbing alcohol) with a strong natural scent of banana or plantain peels. I had to sniff it about 20 times before I could identify that smell, nearly hyperventilating in the process like when you get lightheaded blowing up an inflatable raft. Anyway, the taste isn’t light and sweet at all; it’s very rich- all coffee and chocolate tastes. Wild!

None of that comes through in this Cuban Manhattan cocktail unless you’re really, really looking for it, and still it’s hard to distinguish it from the bitters. I beefed it up with the addition of a little more rum, and found it to be more interesting, if a little less user friendly.

Long story short: The drink was good, and I have a lot more to learn about rum.

After last night’s rum revelation, I decided I had better hit that drink category once again. Tonight I busted out the bottle of Bacardi gold from behind the bar. The scent of the gold rum is less sweet than that of the white, but the taste is a little less chocolate and definitely creamier. Good stuff.

It was hard to find a drink recipe that called for gold rum as opposed to dark rum. Doing a little research I learned that gold rum is really light rum, which would explain that.

From Cocktailtimes.com:

Puerto Rican Rum is noted as golden rum, light bodies and aged for a minimum of 3 years.

Though Jamaican Rum is dark, it gets most of its color from added molasses not from the cask.

So now I know. Anyway, one of the two recipes that called specifically for gold rum is the Havana Sidecar. It’s made with rum and half portions each of lemon juice and triple sec.

The drink is not good. It tastes like powdered refreshment and I do not like it. I used lemon juice from the bottle rather than fresh squeezed, and IÂ’m quickly coming to realize that this does not cut it in any drink. Even still, I doubt I would enjoy this one with fresh juice.

Drink and learn, drink and learn.