Bayou Satsuma

It is late autumn in southeast Louisiana, which means that satsumas are in season. At 80 gpl of added sugar, I have been long hesitant in buying a bottle of this. However, after stuffing a duck with satsumas for Thanksgiving, I told myself WTF and bought a bottle of this for only $15 more than a week later.

Somehow, this distiller does indeed capture the flavor of satsumas, which is a close relative to the mandarin. Both are naturally sweet. This distiller does not lie and states on the label that it is only a 30% ABV rum liqueur.

I cannot see myself sipping this one neat, but when drinks such as the Mai Tai or Goombay Smash call for an orange flavored liqueur, this one should work quite well. Since Clement Creole Shrubb is somewhat hard to find where I live and this one is always on my grocer's shelf, this makes a great substitute. However, no matter what quantity of this stuff that I use, it ruins a perfectly good Margarita.

Update 19 days later: This rum liqueur has great flavor, but is so disgustingly sweet that it cannot be consumed any way. For a Mai Tai, I would rather use orange juice instead of this syrup. I now drop my rating from a 6 to a 4. (Notice that I never use the word "cloying" to describe excessive sweetness. No one has ever accused me of being a gentleman, since I have always been brutally honest.)

A bit sweet for my tastes, and while the orange flavor was unique, it was not really to my liking. I tried to mix it into a cocktail, but I still couldn't find the right combo to make it work.

Sugar: estimated at 80 gpl.
This is not rum, and the label is honest about that as it does state that it's an orange rum liqueur. The rum part is smooth enough and it has a very nice aroma of oranges, but drinking this will put you into a sugar coma. I tried it on the rocks, with club soda, and in a Hurricane, but it failed. I suppose that with some effort you could come up with a decent orange flavored rum drink. There is some potential but with so many good rums on the market I think it's a waste of rum time.