I meant to post this weeks ago. . .

While in the Dominican Republic I spotted a magazine article saying that Bermudez rums were in the process of being launched in the United States for the first time.  The Bermudez rums are pretty good.  The Bermudez Aniversario 1852 ended up being the bottle I took out of the country with me.  Yes, I even picked it over the Brugal Extra Viejo!

I have no idea if Bermudez will be made available throughout the whole of the United States.  The article only mentions North Carolina.  What do I know anyway?  Perhaps Bermudez has been available in the U.S. for years and a new distributor is simply creating some publicity for themselves?

However, just in case there is somebody in the United States who read about Bermudez rum on this blog, wants Bermudez rum,  and cannot find Bermudez rum, here are the contact details of the importer:

C&R Imports

(919) 272-4165

pereza@cnrimports.com

Maybe somebody can import this stuff to New Zealand?

When the world thinks of Haitian rum it generally thinks of Barbancourt, an exceptional product compared by some with the finest cognac. Barbancourt is universally well received and can hold up its head in the finest of company. Few care to know Clairin, Haiti’s ‘other drink’, Barbancourt’s rustic and alcoholic cousin, a relative frequently found incoherent and exhibiting delirium tremens.

While traveling in Haiti I made an effort to get to know Clairin. It was no easy task. Requests for information were often met with nonsensical babbling, contradictory answers, and invitations to have a swig of something horrible. Only occasionally was I rewarded. At the end of it all I was left thinking Clairin is probably a waste of time. I would like to be proved wrong, but for now that is how I see it.

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I have been traveling around too much to be in Mixology Monday mode recently.  Unfortunately I missed the last one on 19th Century cocktails.  How did I manage to miss that?  It sounded great.  Ahh. . .the travails of travel.

Anyway, this time round the theme is Guilty Pleasures, hosted by Two at the Most.  The main idea behind the theme seems to be ‘comfort cocktails’, similar to ‘comfort food’. There is also a suggestion that it could include drinks that appeal a poorly educated palate.  Hmm. . .

Forgive me if I randomly muse rather than picking a single drink.

OK, what I’m really going to do is smack you in the face with a Bunnyhug.  However, I’ll soften the blow by first musing on cream, creme de menthe, and other inoffensive things. (more…)

I am now in Antigua, Guatemala, sipping on Mayan hot chocolate – which sounds like a tourist gimmick but may not be.  I left the Dominican Republic about three weeks ago, spending a couple of weeks in Haiti before getting on a COPA air flight to Guatemala via Panama.  The original plan had been to travel from Port-au-Prince to Guatemala City via Havana, but this proved a little difficult to arrange.  Everything in Haiti is difficult.  Internet and power in Haiti were absolutely horrible so I was pretty much unable to blog while I was there.  Of course laziness also played a part.

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I have been going into Hostaria 24 so regularly that the other night the Italian boss stopped by my table just as I was finishing my meal to have a drink with me.

He had noticed me gradually working my way through his rum list and offered me whatever rum I wanted on the house.  We got chatting about the rum.  Surprisingly, his more unusual rums all come from New York, arranged by a friend working in wine sales.  The irony of a restaurant in the Caribbean sourcing rum from New York!  If only more restaurants would go to this kind of trouble.

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This is another rum review from the selection at Hostaria 24 in Sosua, Dominican Republic.  The other night I tried their two El Dorado rums, the 12 YO and the 15 YO.  Both were good.  However, I am only going to review only the 15 YO here.  The 12 YO was the end of a bottle and tasting oxidized.  I got big banana tastes and not a whole lot else.  The 15 YO was from a fresh bottle, and having drunk it on two consecutive nights I think I can write a reasonable review.

El Dorado 15 YO

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The main bar strip in Sosua has an excellent little Haitian-staffed Italian restaurant called Hostaria 24.  The pasta there is always al dente, the sauces are great, and to keep things interesting they even do Haitian stewed goat.  The real bonus though is their rum selection.  The menu lists an impressive range of rums from Haiti, Martinique, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Guyana.  If nothing on the list tickles your fancy you will find more rums sitting around behind the bar that somehow never made it onto the menu.

I have been eating there regularly as I try and work my way through their rum list.  Yesterday I stopped by for some spaghetti carbonara, which I washed down with Prestige Beer (Haiti’s national brand), Monte Cristo 12 year old rum, and Santa Teresa 1796 Ron Antiguo de Solera. Tasting notes follow.  No tasting notes on the spaghetti but it was good.

Prestige Beer (5.6%)

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Rum in the Dominican Republic is about more than just Brugal. Besides the omnipresent giant there are a host of other producers, including Barcelo, Bermudez, Don Rhon, Macorix and Siboney. You just have to look a little harder to find their products. In this tasting I focus on aged offerings from producers other than Brugal.

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Today I finally made it to the Brugal Rum Distillery.  Heading into Puerto Plata from the direction of Sosua (or the Puerto Plata airport) the hard-to-miss facility lies on your right, sitting on the outskirts of town and between the main road and the sea.

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Yesterday was supposed to see me head from Sosua to Puerto Plata to tour the Brugal Distillery.  Unfortunately a hurricane blowing across the island messed up my plans.  The heavens opened during breakfast, and leaving the hotel suddenly seemed a very bad idea.  Even leaving the restaurant was going to mean getting very wet. The Brugal tour would have to wait until Monday.

The weather settled a little in the afternoon, and I took advantage of the break in the rain to hop in a shared taxi to Caberete, a smaller settlement several kilometers down the road.  I had heard a rumor that beside the Caberete petrol station was a shop stocking Siglo de Oro and selling it at non-extortionate prices.

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