In defense of Bacardi

Much like Smirnoff, the well vodka so maligned that even after the NY Times blind tasted it as superior to expensive brands it still doesn't get much respect socially, Bacardi rum gets no props.

I was at a barbecue yesterday at which I served my Summer Strawberry Wave cocktail of strawberry-infused rum, lemon iced tea, and ginger ale. It was well-received all around, as usual. (Honestly, it's a fricking fantastic daytime drink). Someone new came in as I was offering up another round and I described the drink.

"What kind of rum is in it?" asked the person pondering it.

Bacardi, I said, though this should have been obvious due to the Bacardi bottle I was holding.

"Oh, well, then no thanks. Bacardi is gross."

I resisted the urge to smack her. Clearly she wasn't a rum expert dissing Bacardi in comparison to better brands; she was dissing it because she had gotten too drunk on Bacardi and Whatevers in college and thinks of it as overly sweet, syrupy rum when that's the mixer she's actually remembering.

"Take a sip of it then tell me it sucks," I said, but she wouldn't. Typical.

A few weeks ago, a couple of friends were over for a mojito-making training session (by the way, I'm available to do mojito-making training sessions for groups and business networking events- email me). After we went through the basics of preparation, I suggested we then try different rums and make mojitos with them.

My friends were hesitant when it came to sampling the Bacardi we had already been mixing with, but then they tried it. "Wow! Who knew?" they said. ("It's probably best to suggest trying it after a few drinks," one added, acknowledging her prejudices.)

I think more than commonly consumed average-quality whiskies or vodkas or certainly tequilas, Bacardi is the most underrated yet popular spirit brand out there. For something that so many people buy and consume, most people think of it as a crap product.

If that's you, I want you to take a sip from the bottle in your cabinet right now. It won't taste how you think it does- unless you think it tastes like more like chocolate and coffee than syrup and candy. These flavors aren't overwhelmingly intense- that's why you've never noticed them before in a soup of pineapple juice and Coke- but they're there and worth knowing about.

Though I primarily use Bacardi as a mixing rum at home, like Julia Child with the cooking sherry, I'll have a little sip before I add it to the mixing glass, because it's fine and tasty on its own.

Sample Styles

The New York Times today has a piece on gin tasting, which is unique in that they sampled the gins in martinis rather than straight.

I've always thought that this was a problem with a lot of comparison tastings of spirits- nobody drinks gin or cachaca or pisco or a lot of other spirits on their own. I think the juniper-forward gins that work great in martinis taste far too powerful on their own. As they point out in the Times article, some gins, mostly the newer expressions, though complex and bright and delicious, just don't mix well with vermouth. They singled out 209 Gin and G'Vine as examples that they didn't feel were right in martini form. I completely agree with G'Vine, which is a flower bomb that's really tasty but needs to be tempered with tonic water.

I've also done a vodka sampling at room temperature. Yes, you can taste more nuance at room temperature, and coldness hides impurities, but name a single vodka drink served at room temperature. If the cheap yucky stuff tastes just as good as the expensive fancy stuff when it's served in a cocktail, what does it matter how good it tastes warm?

Anyway, I'm glad to see that someone did a taste test in a real-world environment. Here's to more of that.

Tales of the Cocktail Recipes

In what will be a long, relentless buildup to the Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans this July (I'm probably going) they held a recipe contest to determine the official cocktail for the event. The winners were announced yesterday.

All the winners of the event were bartenders from New Orleans, with the exception of Forbidden Island Alameda's Martin Cate, who tied for third place with a nicely simple recipe called the Crescent City Blossom.

All the entrants were required to use Moet & Chandon White Star as an ingredient, so if you're looking for a new champagne cocktail, I recommend checking out the winners. Interesting to note that in Monday's Moet Rose cocktail competition in SF at least two of the entrants used the new St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur as does Martin's recipe, so I guess we can safely say it mixes well with champagne. A couple of the Tales of the Cocktail winners used Pama Pomegranate Liqueur, which also works well with bubbly.

Pink Delicious

Last night I was one of the judges at the Think Pink event at Harry Denton's Starlight Room. It was a cocktail competition to see which bartender could create the best drink using Moet & Chandon Rose champagne. Many of the usual suspects were mixing- bartenders from Range, Bourbon & Branch, Rye, and Tres Agaves, plus people from Circolo, Eastside West, and Le Colonial. They made champagne drinks using vodka, gin, fortified wines, tequila, and even scotch. They infused their own vodka, made their own simple syrups, and created wild rims and garnish. The bartenders showed great originality and range, and honestly all the drinks were excellent.

In the end, the drink we chose as the winner had the worst name (Pink Cream Soda) but a truly original flavor. It was a tall rocks drink that did taste creamy, but started out with the taste of a muddled jalapeno that somehow didn't dominate the flavor. So congratulations to Todd Smith of Bourbon & Branch for winning the competition, and to all the bartenders who entered. The winning drink will go on the Starlight Room menu, and I hope to see some other of these drinks on cocktail menus around town.

Winners!

In today's Chronicle I have a small mention of the winners of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

We'd love to list the results of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition that took place a few weeks ago, but there just isn't enough space. They awarded about 640 medals to the roughly 750 entrants. Everyone's a winner! Double Gold winners included the $2,600 Johnnie Walker Anniversary Pack blended scotch and the $10 Feeney's Irish Cream Liqueur, so chances are you can find something good from the list in your price range. (And if your price range is $2,600, call me; I'm single.)

The full list of winners is here.

I was surprised at the number of winners but my editor tells me that it's similar for wine competitions. Having attended this competition, sat in on several rounds of judging, and read the winners it seems totally fair but also quite generous. It was also very cool to sit in with all those experts and people whose work I read and read about. And as a consumer, I know it's best to pay attention to just the top medals.