This is why one should always keep 12-14 bottles opened for tasting


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Paul B 🇺🇸 | 472 ratings Author Posted 13 Jan '23

Many have wondered on how in hell do I constantly update my ratings and rankings. Quite simple! Keep at least a dozen bottles opened at all times. Since I rarely stick to any one rum on any evening, my approach has been the same as for my massive music collection: a liitle of this and a little of that. Just don't over do it!!!!

On this particular day, I tasted three of my opened bottles. One went way down in my rankings and another went way up. One stayed the same, which was Doorly's XO. The one that went up is no longer available and the one that went down seems to have lost my taste for vatted rums.

KE
Kevin 🇺🇸 | 78 ratings Replied 19 Jan '23

Paul, May King Neptune bless you. At one time I got up to 9 bottles but can't seem to keep more than 4 at any given time. Unfortunately, my love for rum will not allow more than that. Keep up the great work. I enjoy all you put into the rum world! Arrrgh! ☠☠☠

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Paul B 🇺🇸 | 472 ratings Author Replied 14 Mar '23

Major update:

In mid January of this year, I quit buying any more rum or any other form of booze. Here is why and bear with me.

I have been collecting music since 1971. This includes vinyl, CD's, and DVD's. I now have about 2300 CD's and 149 DVD's. I have ripped the best of my CD's to MP3. My MP3 library would take me 72 days non-stop to listen to all of it. I did this analysis shortly after my first post here. As you have guessed, this is a LOT of money spent in 52 years.

Then I tallied up how much I spent on rum in the five years since I had been writing on this site. It wound up being $7K MORE than my entire music collection!!!! This is a crying shame and literally pissing money away!!! All that one gets to keep with rum is the memory of tastes and some empty bottles. However, when it comes to expensive things in life that one has to spend the money on and hates to do it, my rum journey inspired my phrase, "It's all relative". Compared to pissing money away on rum, having to dole out big bucks for home repairs recalls my phrase, "It's all relative".

So how does my rum collection look now after two months of having no more rum purchases? I have three opened bottles and four closed bottles. It will stay that way for the forseeable future. I have already found the absolute best tasting rum at the absolute best possible price and know where to get more. There is really no point in continuing my rum journey.

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Paul B 🇺🇸 | 472 ratings Author Replied 14 Mar '23

Kevin:

My ultimate best buy is Yolo Gold by the legendary Don Pancho. It is aged for a minimum of 10 years in Panama. At $30 per bottle, it is the ultimate bargain. I need look no further than this true Cuban style aged rum.

 

DO
dougw 🇺🇸 | 36 ratings Replied 17 Mar '23

"This is a crying shame and literally pissing money away!!!"

Blasphemy!!!!

I typically have 12-14 bottles open at a time, as you said initially, and have found the same to be true regarding my relative rankings of them all.  Some taste better one day, not as great the next.  I suspect it has a lot to do with what you have had to eat and drink prior to each taste.  I'll sip several of them over an hour or so, and depending on which order they are sampled the flavor of each varies a bit.

I'm still new to aged rums, so I'm trying to get a wide exposure to the various varieties out there and see which styles I like the best.  I'm starting to get a feel for which types I like better, so eventually I'll probably have about 6 of my favorites at a time.