I’ve recently been exploring different tastes in various liquors and recently I’ve been concentrating on rums. This is to compliment what I’d like to think is a developing palate for wines, and while I’m no super-taster, I do take pride in knowing what I like and being able to identify good wines from bad. I’d like to see what serious artisans do with their distilled spirits.

To that end I’ve decided to leave certain spirits by the wayside. They may have their charms but to me a lot of them are just sophomoric vehicles to deliver ethanol to underage kids looking to explore intoxication. I’ve “enjoyed” Vodkas and Tequilas. They are for the most part blunt instruments. Before anyone gets worked up over what I write about these spirits, please know that just like the type that I have chosen, Rum, there are examples of both Vodka and Tequila that are upstanding and respectable members that have things to bring to a discerning palate, but please be aware that my exposure to these types is biased by my early college experiences which lead me to the ‘blunt instrument’ summation of those spirits. I may revisit those sometime in the future but don’t hold your breath.

As for rum itself, I’ve elected to trim away the obvious filler that surrounds this spirit and only concentrate on the serious ones that remain. So the squeaky clean silver and clear rums are out. They, along with the spiced rums are really ingredients in mixed drinks, not really meant to be explored all on their own. They just have either nothing to contribute or a carefully constructed and factory-same quality that doesn’t interest me. What I’m after is the same as I am with wines. The vintner for wine has only a few things he or she can really take a solid grip on and similar themes run for people who distill spirits.

The rum I’ve started with is called Zaya. It’s from Trinidad and comes in a really distinctive bottle with a huge heel in the bottom. The rum itself has been aged 12 years and is a nice deep caramel color. Much like the wines that I really love, I’m selecting rums based on their age and their maturation in oak barrels. It’s the oak that attracts me. I really love oaky red wines, oaky chardonnays and now oaky rums. I did a little research on rum and discovered that different language-speaking islands in the equatorial belt approach their rums in distinctive ways. The english-speaking islands feature very molasses-forward flavors in their rums while the spanish-speaking rums seem to depress this molasses flavor in their rums.

Zaya is Trinidadian and while shopping I discovered that Trinidad is an English speaking island, so I was expecting a rum dominated by molasses flavors and that’s exactly what I got. A bottle of very soft, very delicious and approachable rum. I found a nice glass and I’ve been sipping it as an evening cordial for a few weeks now. The bottle is very distinctive and the rum inside is aged 12 years and as I’ve said before has a delightful deep caramel color. Nothing is quite like shopping all on your own and taking a shot on something different.

Since this is the first bottle of serious rum that I’ve enjoyed I am going to reserve judgement as I don’t have the palate developed to start forming opinions on each bottle. What I can say is that this rum has what I was after. It’s clearly a definite molasses-forward spirit. The next rum I am going to get is from a Spanish-speaking island so I can compare the strength of the Zaya against the next rum and see which one I prefer. A well-done rum is a delight no matter where it comes from, it’s only until you get to the finer points of aging and in some limited ways the fermentation and distillation where you spend your time establishing one spirit over another.

I’m looking forward to enjoying many more rums and then we’ll see what next is on my list for exploration. Only time will tell. 🙂