Homemade spiced Rum

[paulF]

Hey guys,

Would like to hear from personal experiences about making homemade spiced rum.

Any one tackled it with good results?

PS: Question is not about distilling rum but more about making a spice mix to add to your white/gold non spiced rum

[paulF]

Tried a little experiment (still ongoing) over the weekend with a bottle of Santiago De Cuba Anejo. I used the below mix of spices and will start tasting the rum in a few days. The rum by itself was not too bad but definitely not a sipping rum. Hoping the mix below will add more complexity to the rum. Was going to add some oak chips to the mix but felt the rum was oaky enough by itself.

Spice Mix:

2 vanilla beans

2 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

4 whole allspice berries

5 whole black peppercorns

1/2 piece star anise

1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

3 quarter-sized pieces fresh ginger

2 3-inch strips fresh orange zest with white pith removed.

PS: Apologies for the rotated images. not sure why the site is uploading them that way...

[stargazer14]

Looking forward to hear how this works out.

[dicko]

Let us know how it tastes

[paulF]

I had a first tasting yesterday night and the rum is definitely different smell and taste wise.

The rum is no longer as harsh as before and is not leaving a tingling in my throat(i usually get that from overproof liquor).It is way more easy and enjoyable to sip now.

It smells/tastes a bit too much for my liking of orange zest so i removed a piece.

There was a hint of vanilla and cinnamon on the nose but the other spices seem to smell stronger like star anise,cloves and cardamon but not too overpowering.

I can't detect much more molasses smell like the original rum had due to the orange zest smell being a bit too strong. It actually reminds me of whiskey with orange pieces and honey if anyone tried that before.

All and all, after only 2 days of infusions, the rum has changed massively and i believe for the better for sure.

I hope that the vanilla and cinnamon on the nose gets stronger too.

Will have another go at it tonight and see how it goes.

Cheers

[paulF]

Not much changed other than the orange zest smell getting weaker but also noticed that the spirit is back to being a bit harsh!

Next try will be on Saturday

[paulF]

This experiment is still ongoing,

So far, the rum has turned very spicy but the vanilla seem to be a bit stronger on the nose and taste.

Next step is to remove most of the spices and to keep the Cinnamon and the vanilla and see how it goes from there.

It is definitely a better spirit than what the original bottle was like but i have to admit that it lost some of the rum characteristics like that molasses/caramel smell you get from most rums due to the overpowering scents of the spices.

[paulF]

Revisited this stuff over the weekend and i'm starting to think i should have filtered the spices with real fine coffee filters and not just a strainer. The rum is very spicy and especially noticeable are the Star anise/Cloves and the green Cardamon.

Next experiment will double the sweet spices(Cinnamon and Vanilla) and go halves on the star anise and cardamon and Lemon Zest.

Cheers

[stargazer14]

Thanks for the update! Looking for that final recipe so I can re-create it!

[bolivr]

This is great. Thanks for posting, I am keen to have a go at this too.

[paulF]

Cheers guys, will keep you posted on the next experiment!