Still Spirits Jamaican Gold Essence, what it does
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Jamaican rum has a reputation for being loud, and that's fair enough, because the style carries a lot of fruit and a lot of funk compared with the smoother Caribbean rums. The gold version is the one that sits in the middle. It has still got the molasses depth and the oak underneath, without the heavy dark treacle weight that makes a dark rum hard work in a mixed drink.
What you get out of the bottle
Still Spirits Jamaican Gold Essence builds that gold rum character into a neutral base. You get molasses and caramel through the middle and an oak note underneath it, which is what gives it the impression of having spent time in a barrel when it hasn't spent any time anywhere. It's a complete essence, so it goes straight into a clean base spirit and nothing else is required.
It's worth saying, because somebody always asks. Flavouring a bought neutral base isn't distilling and there's no ATO excise licence in it at all. If you're distilling the base yourself that's a federal manufacturer licence through the ATO, and it's a separate question to this one.
How to use it
Mix it into the base at the ratio on the bottle and then give it a day sealed up. That's genuinely the whole process. If you want to push it further you can drop in a small amount of oak or a little caramel afterwards, and I'd do that in a sample glass first rather than in the whole batch, because it's an easy thing to overshoot and a very annoying thing to fix.
Where it beats a dark rum
- Anything with ginger beer. A dark rum fights the ginger and a gold one gets out of its way.
- Rum and cola. Lighter and cleaner, and it doesn't turn the glass into syrup.
- Neat over ice. There's enough oak in it to be worth sipping slowly.
- Blending. Mix a bit of dark into it and you can sit the batch exactly where you like it.
Shop related products
- Still Spirits Jamaican Gold Essence. The gold rum essence this post is about.
- Still Spirits Jamaican Dark Rum Essence. The darker, heavier version of the same idea.
- Still Spirits Aussie Gold Rum. An Australian gold rum style, and worth a side by side.
- Still Spirits Oak Cask. For adding barrel character once the rum is mixed.
Did you know we also keep the 1125ml spirit bottles and the oak soakers in the shop. They are not on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf.
- Still Spirits Jamaican Dark Rum essence, how to use it
- Still Spirits Aussie Gold Rum essence, what it does
- How to flavour a spirit at home with essences
Not sure which one suits what you actually drink? Brewhilder will narrow it down, or have a look through the homebrew collection.
I hold opinions about rum in a cup of tea and I'm not sorry about a single one of them.
Candeece
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