I frequent a few places in and around Boston:

Blanchard’s in Jamaica Plain (You can order online and pickup there, so it’s great. Mediocre selection, really, but they’re the only place around that sells El Dorado. Check online first.)

Liquor Mart in Boston on Mass Ave – huge selection

Brookline Liquor Mart
Marty’s
Kappy’s – These last 3 are in a 1-block area – VERY convenient, and always a great selection between the 3. This is easily my recommended stop, since you get 3 for one.

For agricoles, especially the high end, there’s a place in Back Bay called Charles Street Liquors. They’re small, and not cheap, but when they have something good they have the great stuff. I was there once and saw the Clement Cuvee Homere and their XO – both very highly recommended, if you have the cash.
I go into NYC once in a while, and hit Astor Wines. If you’re ever dying for a dozen new rums to try, that place is worth a once-a-year trip.

Not quite so far from Boston, but barely an hour away, is Joyal’s in Warwick, RI. They have their inventory online so you can check before you go. Damn, they don’t anymore. What a bummer. But they are worth a trip, honestly.

Also, Julio’s out in Westborough is worth the trip. Ryan knows his rums.

Why a mug to benefit the MS Society?
An explanation of motivation by Suffering Bastard in Maine, aka Jon Bartholomew

Traci I met Traci ten years ago while living in Tacoma. Besides an instant physical attraction, we quickly found we were the absolute best possible match for each other. It didn’t take long for us to fall in love. About a year after we met, we moved into an apartment together and one of the first things we added to it was a really cool bar we found in an antique/retro shop in town. This bar had a fantastic shape to it, but needed something. I bought some bamboo and added it to the exterior, and voila, a tiki bar! I already had a couple of tiki mugs but this was really the start of our mutual enjoyment of the tiki culture.

Since then, the bar has come with us as we moved around the country (currently in Portland, ME) and we have had a great time participating in the tiki world. We have traveled to Tiki Oasis in San Diego, we have gone on the first Northeast Tiki Tour (and will be on the second!) and have met tons of great people through all of our activities. Many of those great people are here in New England where I have been honored to be part of the Queequeg Chapter of the Fraternal Order of Moai.

About three years ago now, we were delivered a blow. Over a Thanksgiving weekend, Traci rapidly lost sight in one of her eyes. After going to an eye doctor, we were referred to a neurologist who soon confirmed that Traci has Multiple Sclerosis. MS is a strange disease that nobody knows the cause of, but at least today there are some treatments. Unfortunately those treatments involve regular shots she has to give herself. Every other day. And Traci hates hates hates needles!!

MS is basically the body’s immune system attacking the coating of nerves. Therefore the impact can be many different things. It can be a lack of balance, it can be numbness or tingling in a body part, it can be blindness, lack of energy, or forgetfulness. You don’t see someone and say, “Oh, that person has MS,” as it’s not that obvious. However, many people with MS end up in wheelchairs because of the permanent damage it can cause to the nervous system.

For my part, it’s difficult to watch the woman I love so much have to give herself shots, suffer from symptoms, and have the fear that she may one day lose her mobility. And there’s nothing I can do.

But there is.

The National MS Society was there right from the beginning offering a support group for Traci. They provided information that made this easier for both of us. They have been advocating for increased research into the causes and treatments for MS. The MS Society does a great amount of work to make those living with MS have better lives.

So the one thing I can do to battle MS is to support the National MS Society. And what do I have at my fingertips to help with that? I have a connection to the big ol’ Tiki Ohana!!

I proposed the idea of doing a mug to benefit the MS Society to my fellows in the FOM Queequeg Chapter. Everyone thought it was a great idea. We hashed out a design and I took it to Holden at Tiki Farm. Holden was happy to work with me and has bent over backwards to make this work out! He wanted to make sure it was great, so he connected us with Squid who took our ideas and turned them into this freaking awesome mug! Both Holden and Squid have reduced their rates as they are truly part of the Ohana as well. Thank you guys!!!

The mug itself has a few interesting features you might not realize right off the bat. The basic design is that of a Moai, because, well, we are the Fraternal Order of MOAI! And our Queequeg Chapter was named after the character in Moby Dick who had Maori-style tattoos all over him. Therefore, we included tattoos that symbolize health and life (the sun) and rebirth/renewal (the “koru” swirls). Since this is to benefit the MS Society, we figured that symbolism was appropriate. Another little bit is that the mug has feet. We know Moai don’t have feet, but these Moai in New England have walked together in the MS Walk, so we figured, hey! We’re the walking Moai! Give the mug some feet!

So today, we offer this mug to you in the spirit of fellowship, friendship and love. We hope you will buy at least one, perhaps donate a little extra and tell a friend.

And to you I say a humble MAHALO! for supporting the cause.

You can buy the mug from the link below, and help a worthy cause.
http://www.northeasttikitour.com/msmug/

When sipped, the rum is initially sweet, but a well-balanced sweetness that blends very well with the wood tastes. Toffee comes across in the taste, there’s a bit of a woody spice burn, and the hints of apple linger. The finish is quick, crisp and very clean, followed by a fairly long, not-too-strong spice burn. Even though the rum doesn’t burn, the spice after the swallow does, but I am mostly surprised at how clean it leaves my mouth.

Sipping for a while, I truly appreciate the cleanliness of this rum. The sweet toffee apple smells are extremely pleasant when I begin a sip, and once inside the mouth it shows off some very nice aging for a 4-year-old rum. The light wood in the taste is very nice, being clear that this is a nice rum without being overburdened by char or leftover bourbon common in many rums. Right after the swallow, my mouth is left clean with a little wood taste and the toffee, with a touch of apple lingering in the air. Then it goes quickly into that spice burn as it slowly flows down the throat.

I like this rum quite a bit – the balance of apple, toffee, wood and rum are very well done. It’s extremely smooth for a 4-year-old rum, and I appreciate the hell out of that. It makes me drool at the thought of a 10- or 12-year-old version of this rum, though Old Mill does not make one available to the best of my knowledge. I certainly wish they did.

The spice burn after the swallow is the only distraction of this rum, since it doesn’t quite fit the rest of the rum. Now don’t get me wrong – the spice is far from overpowering and it is not unpleasant. But since it’s at the very end, it seems to leave a mark stronger than it actually is. It just doesn’t fit all the wonderful smells and tastes at the beginning.

And this spice at the end stops me from considering it to be a true sipping rum – though it comes close. I would have to label this as an excellent mixer, though perhaps a sipper if one were to add an ice cube to possibly dull the spice. Checking the web, I find that this rum can be had for anywhere between $13 and occasionally $20 a bottle. For that price I could easily use it as a mixing rum, though I would not use it in a cocktail that might mask all those good attributes.

All in all, this rum is definitely recommended.

Since then, I have been without Castries since it’s not distributed – yet – in Massachusetts. Disheartening as this was, it was made much worse because some of the people at that tasting kept mentioning that they had purchased bottles of their own. Out of the 15 or 16 rums we tasted that night, people remembered only two of them – Pyrat Cask 1623 and Castries Peanut Rum Creme.

A couple weeks ago, Joe mentioned that he was coming up from NYC and I asked him to pick me up some Castries and any Brinley rums that he could find. He found three of the Brinley rums – fantastic stuff that I have to review soon – but could not find any Castries in stock. With what can only be described as unselfish benevolence, he brought me his own personal bottle of Castries.

Thanks Joe!

Being the type of person I am – generous but not too bright – I cracked the bottle and shared it with six or eight people the following week. I enjoy sharing a great rum, and all of the folks that tried the Castries loved it. That seems to be par for course with this stuff – I’ve shared it with well over a dozen people and have gotten positive remarks from every single one. Considering that I went nine months without it, I got a bit selfish after a while and put the bottle away. I vowed to finish it alone, which is what I’m doing right now.

I reviewed Castries last year, and just read it again to see if my current thoughts matched my initial tasting. They do, and I can’t augment or add to that initial review. This is a fantastic product, and one of my all-time favorites.

Luckily for me – and any other New Englanders – Castries is coming to Massachusetts! I spoke with the CEO of Team Spirits recently, and they’ll be launching in Massachusetts on October 1, 2008. Excellent!

Castries Creme
My previous review of Castries

None of this bothered Jay from Spirit Sippers, and he sent me one of the rum glasses, The Flare.

Comparison Glasses
As I promised Jay, I compared the Flare to several other glasses – a Riedel tequila glass, a wide-mouth glass of the type that Ed Hamilton recommends, and a simple plastic cup that I use when I do rum tastings and can’t possibly wash 150 glasses.

The Riedel glass is designed for tequila, and looks like a wine glass though much smaller and more delicate. It has a relatively tall stem with a 3oz bowl on top, and the top is slightly narrower than the bowl in order to concentrate the smells from the spirit. I purchased this set some time ago, and soon regretted it since the design isn’t well suited for rum. The small bowl isn’t large enough to let the rum breathe, and rum does not benefit from the narrower opening. I never use it to drink rums, but have occasionally used it to sample other spirits.

The wide-mouth glass is a small old-fashioned glass with the sides slightly tapered outwards. It’s about 3 inches tall and 3.5 inches wide at the top. There’s ample room for the rum to breathe – but perhaps too much. The wide opening at the top makes up for this a bit, as it allows one to tilt the glass and detect separate smells between the “high” side and the “low” side. This method does allow one to detect individual aromas coming from the rum. I almost always sip from a wide-mouth glass, generally following Ed’s methods described in the link above.

The plastic cup is a 3oz Dixie cup. It’s cheap and easy when dealing with a 12-rum tasting with 15 people. I’ve always known that it wasn’t an ideal glass to use, but since I don’t make a profit doing a tasting I tried to save a few bucks by using these small, cheap cups. But I’ve learned – now that I’ve done this comparison – that it is unbelievably utterly wrong for rum. I won’t use them again.

The Flare from Spirit Sippers is easily the classiest glass of the bunch. (Yes, Riedel certainly makes some fancy glasses, but the tequila glass that I have is fairly simple.) The Flare is about 4.5 inches tall and 2.5 inches in diameter, with a short thick stem. This makes for a generous bowl that holds an ideal amount of rum with room to breathe. It curves inwards a bit to form the bowl and then gently flares out to the rim. The glass at the rim is somewhat thin – not thin enough to seem fragile, yet it’s thin enough to allow the rum to gently flow into your mouth without splashing.

The Comparison Method
I poured a measure of El Dorado 15-year-old into each glass. This is a fantastic rum, with many smells and tastes that would allow each glass to show off its strengths and weaknesses. I let this breathe for a few minutes, something that benefits this rum and allows many of the more subtle aromas to develop. It’s a rum I know well, and enjoy immensely.

I tested the glasses in an order that I believed would go from worst to best – the plastic cup, the Riedel, the wide-mouth, and finally the Flare. I sniffed first, going through the above order twice, then testing glasses against each other in order to bring out the best and worst of each. By this time, the rum had been breathing for a while, and the aromas were driving me crazy, so I started sipping. I followed the same order twice, and then randomly compared glasses while sipping. Finally, I let a tiny bit of rum sit in each glass for about 15 minutes and returned to them for a quick sniff and taste.

The Competition
The plastic cup, as you might have guessed by my remarks earlier, proved to be a colossal mistake and waste of fine rum. Any time I returned to this glass I thought I was sampling a rum that was different from the rum in the other glasses. It’s not large enough to allow the rum to breathe, it’s too small to detect many aromas, and when sipping the mouthfeel is, well, plastic. Gripping the cup was a nuisance since it’s so small. All in all, using this cup for rum was A Big Mistake.

The Riedel, while quite possibly a fine glass for tequila, is simply not suited to rum. It was also too small to allow the rum to breathe, and the inwards taper concentrated the smells – and alcohol – in a way that is not suited to rum. It did hold a lot of flavor for the final 15-minute test, though. When sipping, the mouthfeel was quite nice – though again the inwards taper caused me to tilt my head back as if I was downing a shooter. Gripping this glass is a bit unwieldy for me, with my short thick fingers. The relatively tall stem and small bowl didn’t really allow for a comfortable hold.

The wide-mouth old-fashioned glass was excellent for the aromas. Ed Hamilton’s methodology of smelling the high side and the low side is a great way to detect many smells. As a result of this design, the wide-mouth crushed the plastic cup and Riedel in this test, and beat the Flare noticeably. Alas, the thick walls of this glass lost the mouthfeel part of the test when sipping – big and thick and clunky, it caused the rum to practically splash into my mouth as it rolled over the edge. Gripping the glass is easy and comfortable – though I found that I tended to hold it like a beer can. Finally, the large amount of air space in this glass meant that most of the smells and flavors got lost after the 15-minute test.

The Flare
The Flare did very well in the aroma test, losing only because of the wide-mouth’s larger volume, which helped separate the aromas. Though the Flare can certainly be tilted, the constriction in the center of the glass seemed to concentrate the aromas a bit, and the mouth is narrower than the wide-mouth. Even with his slight drawback, the Flare was certainly a hell of a lot better than the other two glasses.

The Flare was absolutely outstanding when sipping the rum. It’s just about the perfect size, though someone with a large nose might find it a bit small. The flared edge and thin glass at the rim made for a wonderful feel on the lips, and let the rum flow into my mouth and across my tongue. My nose was fully inside the glass, allowing the aromas and tastes to hit simultaneously, and the result is a perfect blast to the senses. This is the way rum was meant to be sipped.

The Flare also beat the competition handily on the 15-minute test. The bowl allowed the rum to breathe quite well, while the constriction above the bowl didn’t let to much evaporate and cause the rum to go dull. The Riedel had a very similar effect, though it’s smaller and didn’t breathe as well. The wide-mouth glass was the worst at this test, closely followed by the plastic cup. Both are poorly designed for this test, as they do nothing to hold in the aromas.

A few members over on The Ministry Of Rum commented about the short stem of the Flare, wishing it were longer. While I certainly would not mind a longer stem, I felt comfortable enough with the grip. I’m sure that it will feel very natural in a week or two.

Summary
I’d say that the Flare is an absolute winner. The Riedel and plastic cup were no-shows in this event, and I’ve wasted too much of your time on them already. Though the wide-mouth did perform better during the aroma test, the Flare beat it every other time, particularly during the sipping test. It’s a joy to sip from.

Spirit Sippers