Home experiment with a maple bullet


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Althaur 🇺🇸 | 21 ratings Author Posted 4 Sep '21

I decided to play with some various woods and spirits. I started with a bottle of 3 year old Real McCoy white rum. I tasted the unedited rum first, which reminded me of a mild tequila for some reason. Not unpleasant. 

I dropped a maple bullet into the bottle for three days, which dramatically changed the color, nose, and flavors. I pulled the maple out today. The nose was a sweet floral. The flavor had mellowed out with some sweetness, floral, and pear. I was happily surprised. 

Step two has begun now. I externally dried the bullet with some paper towels. I then put it into a bottle of ruby port, where it will stay for about seven days. After that, I'll reintroduce the bullet to the rum for about a week. Fingers crossed that it doesn't suck!

Before and current pictures are included. 

KU
kudzey 🇵🇱 | 38 ratings Replied 4 Sep '21

Nice, what a cool idea. I've heard about DIY aromatizing rums with vanilla, cloves or cinnamon but a maple is something original. How do you obtain a bullet, is it a stick (part of a branch)? I can't wait to start my own experiment! Do you think Plantation three stars is a good base rum for this job? Have you burned the maple bullet just like they char the barrels?
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Althaur 🇺🇸 | 21 ratings Author Replied 5 Sep '21

I found the “bullets” on Amazon. They came in a pack of three; oak, cherry wood, and maple. They are just carved into the shape of a bullet, making it easy to drop into a bottle with a bit of fishing line for retrieval. I didn’t char the wood, although I think the oak is slightly charred.