Rum Chip Flavouring

[linw]

(Couldn't resist the childish urge to be the first for at least one of the sections!! Yeah!!)

My rum chips are giving up their colour rather well. Tried a dram yesterday but it needs a bit more flavour. Has anyone tried adding, say, 10% of the real thing to give authentic flavour? Alternatively, will try a bit of essence, to taste.

[Fourway]

Has anyone tried adding, say, 10% of the real thing to give authentic flavour?

what do you mean when you say "the real thing"?

[mshinner]

I think he means the store bought stuff.

[Fourway]

I think he means the store bought stuff.

Why would anyone wanna adulterate their hooch with somethin' from a bottleshop?

I was trying to give the poor guy the benefit of the doubt and wait for him to come back and explain what he meant before acting all incredulous and trying to make him feel bad for not asking good enough questions.


Anyhow...
The real answer (if the question about "real" stuff really means adding store bought rum) is that if you made rum its no less "real" than store bought... perhaps more real. you just need to do rum things to it to make it taste the way you want it to.
The old forum has a huge amount of info on how to make rum taste right, do a search.

one tip is that most aged and reposed rum has some spice in it even though it isn't spiced rum.
try a bit of cinnamon stick and a piece of fresh vanilla bean.

[linw]

Ooops, touched a raw nerve there! Of course, I was not making any inferences about anyone elses finely crafted beverages!

OK, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean here I come.

Yours in contrition.......

[swpeddle]

I use the cinammon and vanilla, but I also add a couple of whole black peppercorns. I found the pepper added a little more body to the rum, but be really carefull amount the number. If you add too many you end up with the hot (as in spicy) rum.

Wrt to adding store bought, I have heard of quite a few people who use that as a quick and dirty method to flavour their hooch. If this a hobby for you, then I would think that most of the fun is in the making of the gear and playing with the recipes to make a good rum, so why cheat? However, if you just want to make 'stuff', then the adding the store bought route is a good 'cheater rum' recipe.

Steve

[linw]

Thanks, Steve, that sounds like good balanced advice. At this stage I am not big on rum production but am just experimenting with the chips. I will follow your advice, and that of others such as Fourway, and have some fun with raw ingredients.