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Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
I mean, I frankly can't afford to not buy things from any company that's unethical, since technically speaking they all are. But Flor de Cana is really bad.

To make a long story short, they pay their sugarcane cutters so low that people are working long hours with no breaks, until they die of kidney disease. They have policies that you can't work more than X hours in a season, so it's technically not their fault when workers use fake IDs to come back and work enough hours to, y'know, live. They're literally killing off entire communities with working conditions that ought to be a distant memory of 18th century slave plantations.

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Fart Car '97
Jul 23, 2003

Neisson loving owns and only has 23 employees and pays every single one a really good wage

slut chan
Nov 30, 2006

Barbelith posted:

Havana Club 3 Años. Only if you're not in the US, probably.

Can endorse. My mom went to Cuba and brought me back a bottle, as well a bottle of their 7. Good stuff.

Fart Car '97
Jul 23, 2003

Havana Club is really generic and overpriced imo :shrug:

angor
Nov 14, 2003
teen angst

Fart Car '97 posted:

Havana Club is really generic and overpriced imo :shrug:

I'm not going to argue that it's not generic, but the 3 year is like £18 at Tesco, so not exactly expensive in the UK at least.

Barbelith
Oct 23, 2010

SMILE
Taco Defender

Fart Car '97 posted:

Havana Club is really generic and overpriced imo :shrug:

It's 14 €/0.7 l around these parts, so reasonably cheap and it works really well for daiquiris and stuff. And you can get it in every supermarket, with the other widely available white rum being Bacardi.

Toast Museum
Dec 3, 2005

30% Iron Chef
Aren't there two unrelated Havana Clubs?

pgroce
Oct 24, 2002
Bacardi has rights to the Havana Club name and sells a Havana Club in the US, so it probably tastes like Bacardi Silver. I don’t know if they have an exclusive right though.

The discussion of Havana Club and Flor de Caña makes me wonder what conditions were like for Cuban sugar workers under Batista, when Bacardi was based out of there...

Fart Car '97
Jul 23, 2003

Bacardi sells havana club that's distilled in the DR for sale in the states. It's pretty close to the real thing.

BrianBoitano
Nov 15, 2006

this is fine



Halloween Jack posted:

I mean, I frankly can't afford to not buy things from any company that's unethical, since technically speaking they all are. But Flor de Cana is really bad.

To make a long story short, they pay their sugarcane cutters so low that people are working long hours with no breaks, until they die of kidney disease. They have policies that you can't work more than X hours in a season, so it's technically not their fault when workers use fake IDs to come back and work enough hours to, y'know, live. They're literally killing off entire communities with working conditions that ought to be a distant memory of 18th century slave plantations.

I'm finally at the point in my finances that I should start paying attention to this poo poo. Thank you.

Errant Gin Monks
Oct 2, 2009

"Yeah..."
- Marshawn Lynch
:hawksin:

BrianBoitano posted:

I'm finally at the point in my finances that I should start paying attention to this poo poo. Thank you.

I need a loving app for poo poo companies so I dont have to keep being suprised and annoyed when something I enjoy is made by unethical fucks.

Kenning
Jan 11, 2009

I really want to post goatse. Instead I only have these🍄.



I haven't bought FdC for years because of their bullshit and I still miss the Extra Dry.

Comb Your Beard
Sep 28, 2007

Chillin' like a villian.

curlys gold posted:

Can anybody recommend a favorite “white” rum for home cocktails that’s at a good level between affordable and not complete garbage?

I like La Favorite Rhum Agricole Blanc Coeur de Canne. One of the cheaper Agricoles, comes 100 proof in a liter for a less $ which is nice. I want more grassy cane flavor to my white rum.

Scythe
Jan 26, 2004
Made a boulevardier tonight but with bonded applejack instead of the whiskey because somehow I have four different bottles of Irish/Scotch and no American whiskeys right now. I think I actually like it better than the original.

Klauser
Feb 24, 2006
You got a dick with that problem!?!
Tagging Applejack in for whisky is really fun, especially in the fall.

The Maestro
Feb 21, 2006
That does sound good. Bet a dash or two of Ango or cardamom bitters would really make it sing.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Applejack and Ango go together like, well, like apple and cinnamon.

Steve Yun
Aug 7, 2003
I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.
Soiled Meat
If you’re in New York, Don Lee and Dave Arnold’s new bar just got announced

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/dining/existing-conditions-nyc-restaurant-news.html

Edit: coming May 18

Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Apr 25, 2018

FirstAidKite
Nov 8, 2009
I was recommended to ask in this thread, my apologies if this isn't the best thread to ask this k ind of thing in.

http://www.piratapgh.com/rum/

So I discovered that there's this place in Pittsburgh that looks pretty cool and it has a big rum bar. I like rum but I've only had a couple different kinds and it has been stuff like calico jack spiced rum. I'm wondering if anybody here would be able to take a glance at that list and point out any good rums to keep an eye out for, or at least point out any rums I should definitely avoid. A friend said to avoid any flor de cana due to the maker's horrible treatment of its employees.

I know it's unreasonable to dump a list of some 200~ rums on people and go "what's good" so my apologies because I'm more or less doing exactly that :sweatdrop: I'm just way out of my element here, I know I like rum but I don't know what brands are good and what brands aren't.

The Maestro
Feb 21, 2006
We might be able to point out a couple for you to try, but your best bet always is to start a conversation with the bartender. If you’re lucky he or she will pour you a few nips before you commit to one. It’s much more organic and rewarding that way.

pgroce
Oct 24, 2002
Seconding the suggestion to let your bartender guide you. I haven’t been to Pirata yet, but I’ve heard generally good things about their staff.

Also, if you’re in Pittsburgh you have not one, but two bars with 200+ premium rums available, and I can definitely say the folks at Hidden Harbor have a great rum knowledge, and a curated “rum passport” specifically to introduce patrons to the spirit.

slut chan
Nov 30, 2006
Speaking of Lairds, I was at the store the other day, saw three different bottles, and not one of them said Bottled in Bond. One looked like the Bonded, but instead said "founded in...".

Is there still a shortage?

Scythe
Jan 26, 2004

FirstAidKite posted:

I was recommended to ask in this thread, my apologies if this isn't the best thread to ask this k ind of thing in.

(rum questions)

Not that the answers here are wrong (they're totally correct), but you want the rum thread.

FirstAidKite
Nov 8, 2009

pgroce posted:

Seconding the suggestion to let your bartender guide you. I haven’t been to Pirata yet, but I’ve heard generally good things about their staff.

Also, if you’re in Pittsburgh you have not one, but two bars with 200+ premium rums available, and I can definitely say the folks at Hidden Harbor have a great rum knowledge, and a curated “rum passport” specifically to introduce patrons to the spirit.

Do you know how much the rum passport thing is? I tried checking their website but I couldn't find anything.

Fart Car '97
Jul 23, 2003

The rum thread is dead.

If you were going to pick one rum and use it as a base to decide which elements you like and want more of, Banks 7 Golden is pretty awesome. It's got a bit of everything going on and can lead you to other more focused rums, once you know what element you want to focus on.

angor
Nov 14, 2003
teen angst

pgroce posted:

Seconding the suggestion to let your bartender guide you. I haven’t been to Pirata yet, but I’ve heard generally good things about their staff.

Also, if you’re in Pittsburgh you have not one, but two bars with 200+ premium rums available, and I can definitely say the folks at Hidden Harbor have a great rum knowledge, and a curated “rum passport” specifically to introduce patrons to the spirit.

Is Hidden Harbor the place that does/did campari cotton candy?

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

slut chan posted:

Speaking of Lairds, I was at the store the other day, saw three different bottles, and not one of them said Bottled in Bond. One looked like the Bonded, but instead said "founded in...".

Is there still a shortage?
I never know what's up with Laird's; they have a line of products but not all of them are genuine 100% applejack.

Toast Museum
Dec 3, 2005

30% Iron Chef

Halloween Jack posted:

I never know what's up with Laird's; they have a line of products but not all of them are genuine 100% applejack.

Looking at their site, I think the only blended product is the one called "Laird's Applejack." The only other one that they don't specifically call straight apple brandy is the Jersey Lightning, which they describe as "the pure expression of our apple distillate." They do call it brandy and don't call it blended, but I don't know enough about brandy regulation to say whether that means anything.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
I haven't bought any in a long time, but I got a bottle of the 7.5 year Laird's and it was lousy; tasted like it was blended with vodka and I swear it said so on the label when I checked. The Straight Applejack and BIB and great, but I don't know what was going on there.

Toast Museum
Dec 3, 2005

30% Iron Chef

Halloween Jack posted:

I haven't bought any in a long time, but I got a bottle of the 7.5 year Laird's and it was lousy; tasted like it was blended with vodka and I swear it said so on the label when I checked. The Straight Applejack and BIB and great, but I don't know what was going on there.

That's disappointing. The only one I've had is the 100-proof used-to-be-BIB, which I've enjoyed in a bunch of cocktails. I'm interested in trying the Jersey Lightning if it's not blended, but details (and reviews) seem thin on the ground.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
I have a bottle of the Straight 86 and it actually makes a pretty good Manhattan

slut chan
Nov 30, 2006
Thanks goons. I'll give the Straight a shot, as it appears to be the closest standin for the BiB.

I've had the what I know now to be blended in the past and was unimpressed.

pgroce
Oct 24, 2002

FirstAidKite posted:

Do you know how much the rum passport thing is? I tried checking their website but I couldn't find anything.

Rum passport's free, it's just a curated selection of rums in a cheap-ish booklet to give new rum drinkers a basic experience of what variations taste like what. (It's also a nice way to quickly decide on what you're drinking without staring at 200 bottles for 15 minutes.) You finish the passport and they give you a patch or something.

They actually have two levels that I know of; when you finish the first one, they give you the second, and you get a slightly cooler/rarer piece of schwag for finishing it. I like to think that at some point you plow through the Blackadder and Berry Bros and Black Tot, and the next one after that is all the stuff they bought on a lark that sucked, but since we know you're a completionist....

Some pictures:






angor posted:

Is Hidden Harbor the place that does/did campari cotton candy?

Yep. I think there's a drink on their Wednesday menu now with Green Chartreuse cotton candy.

FirstAidKite
Nov 8, 2009

pgroce posted:

Rum passport's free, it's just a curated selection of rums in a cheap-ish booklet to give new rum drinkers a basic experience of what variations taste like what. (It's also a nice way to quickly decide on what you're drinking without staring at 200 bottles for 15 minutes.) You finish the passport and they give you a patch or something.

Oh ok, I misunderstood. I thought it was like a "pay for 20 small samplings of rum" kinda thing where you'd purchase it and you'd be given samples of each one listed.

pgroce
Oct 24, 2002
Also, if you go to Hidden Harbor you can meet David Wondrich and Dale DeGroff. Or maybe that was only tonight.

Toast Museum
Dec 3, 2005

30% Iron Chef
Has anyone tried St. George's rye gin and/or its reposado version? How'd you like it, and if you've tried both, how do they compare?

Fart Car '97
Jul 23, 2003

pgroce posted:

Also, if you go to Hidden Harbor you can meet David Wondrich and Dale DeGroff. Or maybe that was only tonight.

Bar smarts Advanced was in Pittsburgh so they were in town for that I think.

Toast Museum
Dec 3, 2005

30% Iron Chef

Toast Museum posted:

Has anyone tried St. George's rye gin and/or its reposado version? How'd you like it, and if you've tried both, how do they compare?

Trip report: the reposado makes a great Fitty-Fitty that leaves a peppery tingle on the tongue. I'm very much looking forward to making more things with it.

Toast Museum
Dec 3, 2005

30% Iron Chef
Last time I was a the liquor store I noticed a couple of smoked tequilas. I kind of assume these are a way for tequila manufacturers to cash in on mezcal's recent popularity without having to change up their production processes too much, but how are they?

I'm particularly interested in Lunazul's new "El Humoso" smoked blanco, which seems to have come out maybe six months ago to almost no reviews. Edit: it's not even on their site. What the hell.

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Klauser
Feb 24, 2006
You got a dick with that problem!?!

Toast Museum posted:

Has anyone tried St. George's rye gin and/or its reposado version? How'd you like it, and if you've tried both, how do they compare?

I got the rye gin a while ago and don't remember anything amazing about it.

I never got another bottle again if that helps.

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