This is not a serious rum review, it’s more of a rum chat, just sayin’.

Having rum at 10 in the morning does not make you an alcoholic, it makes you a pirate, or so I like to tell myself. Not that I frequently drink before 10 AM, I think the last time might have been in Belize, and there were circumstances. Set your mind at ease though, the above picture and related activities happened around a much more sedate five o’clock in the afternoon. We are not savages, most of the time.

As a young man, once I discovered I liked hard liquor (shakes fist at the sky), it was bourbon this and bourbon that. It was the heady era of the late nineties and the bourbon renaissance was in full swing. Bourbon went from something you’d find empty bottles of in dirty public restrooms to a craft product, it was becoming pre hipster hip. I think the first bottle I ever bought was Blanton’s. That’s right, I wasn’t screwing around. That love affair lasted several years, and I still enjoy the stuff, even the run of the mill (i.e. empties in lavatories) category, I retain a soft spot in my heart for Wild Turkey. Go figure right? It might have been when I returned from living in Europe that I switched to scotch for a while. I guess it was part of my boozy education and good bourbon was getting harder to find over here, ebbs and flows I guess. I found a knowledgeable vlogger I enjoyed and followed him on malty journeys. For all things scotch I can’t recommend him highly enough. In the process I learned about and explored the world of scotch whisky, but also more generally of spirit tasting. There were many evenings of sampling various whiskies and discussing the differences or merits of regional styles, or wood finishes. It was a fun ride. Then I became a beach bum, well sort of.

I find it difficult to drink scotch in the Caribbean, or even in summer time, when the living is easy. If you like it, then more power to you, but as long as I’m concerned it’s not a good fit for the general context, the mood and feel of the place or moment. So as I supplemented my love affair of Gothic cathedrals with the smell of salt spray and coconut, I took to rum like a pirate to booty, greedily and with both hands. Also the price of scotch… good gods man! They could drive  man to drink… water.

Drinking rum when I am home is like having a little bit of Beach with me, my very own endless summer. I’m by no means an expert and in fact I’m blessed with a mediocre palate, which allows me to enjoy almost anything (almost, let’s be realistic here), even Labatt 50 or Molson Ex if need be (dire times). When we travel, pretty much the only physical souvenirs we bring back are stickers and hooch. The stickers go on the travel chest and the booze into our bellies, and so it went for Panama.

Tasting spirits does not have to be complicated, yes in the best of worlds you get proper tasting glasses and a white table cloth (for colour examination), but you would be surprised at the amount of glassware that gets broken around here. So we make do with what we have left, the most important thing is to stick with the same glasses for each taster, and tasters you enjoy having around. Glass shape has a huge impact on taste and smell and if you want to compare spirits between them, you need to sip them from the same glass, no matter what the glasses might be.

On this warm sunny end of afternoon in early September we could still pretend summer wasn’t on its last legs. We sat down after a day of surprisingly complicated house tasks to a well deserved tipple, and also some education in maturation. Three bottles of the Panamanian Abuelo rum had been patiently waiting for us, an anejo, a 7 years old and a 12 years old. Abuelo rums are made by the Varela Hermanos company, named after its founder José Varela Blanco.

Don José as he is called, started a sugar mill in 1908, and around 1936, on the advice/suggestion of his three sons, they started distilling rum. To this day, the company is independent and family owned, and something of an oddity in the rum world because they grow the sugar cane they use in their rums. Today the company produces about 90% of the country’s liquor.

There’s more Abuelo rums than the three above, and they get pricier  rather swiftly, There are different wood finishes and something called Abuelo Centuria. The latter is a no age statement blend commemorating the company’s 100 years. 30 years old rums go into the blend, but because it is aged using the solera method, it also incorporates younger rums (the same way Zacapa  23 is made with 23 year old rum but not at all exclusively so).  I only saw those more exclusive rums at the airport and the prices were way above my pay grade. The three rums I’m “reviewing”, well, talking about is more accurate, are pretty much found everywhere in Panama, every corner shop seemed to carry at least two if not all three.

One thing that surprised me and made me go hmmmm (here’s a link for those that don’t get the reference), is that there seems to be a difference in alcohol by volume between local and for export bottles. The 7 and 12 years old we bought in Panama state 37,5% ABV on the bottle, while the anejo, bought here, claims to be bottled at 40%. A quick search on the internet shows international offerings of the 7 and 12 years old at 40% as well. Things that make you go hmmmm indeed.

Does alcohol by volume matter for taste? Within reason it does, if you go too high you’ll end up with near pure spirit and less of the chemicals that result in actual taste. If you go too low you’re diluting your liquor and its taste. People that are smarter than me about these things frequently express the opinion that 46% is a good level for tastiness. Of course a producer has some incentive to bottle at a lower proof in order to produce more bottles from the same stock… Couple of years back Maker’s Mark planned to lower their flagship bourbon from 45% to 43,5% but the public outcry made them reconsider. Power to the people.

It’s all very nice I can hear you say, but were the rums any good? Yes, quite a bit in fact.

Predictably the rum gets better with age. Much better. I’ve always enjoyed Abuelo (you know it means granddad right?)  anejo, as a mixer, with ice or even neat on a deserted tropical island surrounded by crocodiles. Good times. It’s a tasty, medium bodied rum that is fantastic to mix with. In fact it’s shortcomings only really become apparent when you taste it next to the 7 and 12 years old. Now because I was not using a white background (bad taster) it’s harder to tell the colour difference, let’s just say the anejo was more on the yellow side and the other two a deep orange (not that colour really means much, more on that some other time). Colour wise there wasn’t a noticeable difference between the 7 and the 12, though the 12 was overall denser, in terms of flavours and mouth feel. It would be an interesting choice to make cocktails, but most people will probably drink it neat with a few drops of water.

I won’t go into the tastes of burnt leather, forgotten childhood memories and orange blossom that go with some booze reviews, a) because that is somewhat subjective and b) because I utterly suck at it (viz mediocre palate). Suffice it to say that these rums are well worth your money should you come across them on your travels

The only negative thing I would say is that the spirit component itself taste a little “hot”, there’s that bite of alcohol that comes (methinks) from quick distilling. Still a wonderful drink, made that much better by good company. Yup, I’m sniffing them now and it is wonderful.

D&C approved!

And yes, the rum in the Bettie Page shot glasses tasted the best, weird huh?