If there’s one thing I hate about living in the Pacific Northwest, it’s the stretch of time from late October until late June, when the sun makes only the most occasional of appearances. I typically pack on an extra 10-15 pounds during those rainy months, party due to over-consumption of wintertime drinks like dark beer, egg nog, hot-buttered-anything and wassail. I wanted a drink for the winter that I could add to my cocktail menu that was more like the light, café-style cocktails I typically gravitate to during the summer.
Jerry Thomas prescribed a drink called “sangaree” that, to the best of our knowledge was a colonial adaptation of the Spanish “sangria”. The recipe, which calls for anywhere from 1½ to 4 ounces of port, Madeira, gin or brandy dolled up with sugar and dusted with nutmeg in a glass sounded less than exciting to me, but the challenge of updating this old chestnut sounded like a fun January task.
We began with ruby and tawny ports but found both way too sweet. White port got us much closer to our target, but it wasn’t until a healthy dose of dry vermouth was applied that we knew we were on to something. To provide additional depth and hint at the drink’s colonial origins we sweetened with a maple-nutmeg syrup and finished the whole thing off with a teaspoon of allspice liqueur and orange oil.
The Dry Vermouth Sangaree
3 oz dry vermouth
½ oz maple-nutmeg syrup*
1 tsp St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
1 large strip orange peel
Shake everything – yes, even the orange peel – with ice until well-chilled and strain into a cold cocktail glass. Garnish with a fresh strip of orange peel.
*To make maple-nutmeg syrup, combine 8 ounces each of Grade B maple syrup and water, and 1 tbsp freshly-grated nutmeg. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Let cool, strain out solids, bottle and chill.
My problem with homemade tonic water has always been a flavor profile that was too esoteric for the general audience. This recipe takes some of the positive qualities people have come to understand from commercial tonic water and updated them with fresh ingredients.
One question I'm often asked is "Do you have any drink-related book recommendations?" Well, funny you should ask, I've compiled a list of the ten books every professional bartender or home mixologist should own. I keep every one of these close at hand and have read most of them several times. I suggest you do the same.
The problem with living in Oregon is the absence of little wooden shacks by the sea that sell cases of fresh ginger beer stacked on back porches. But with some readily-available ingredients, a recipe I've been revising for several years - and a few free minutes - I can easily transport myself to a little fishing boat on the ocean as I sip a Dark and Stormy made with fresh, house-made ginger beer.
It's always mojito season somewhere, so this advice is timely in your area about half the year. Wether you're making them or simply enjoying them, this advice will help you look like a pro in no time at all.
The flavors of the Richmond Gimlet are imbued with sunshine. Fresh mint mingling with the herbaceousness of gin and the tartness of lime have made this drink a Eugene classic for many years now.
You'll get a lot of snarky advice on this site about how to make a proper drink, but if you ever need to know what not to do, this is the video for you.
Not to be confused with the Spanish wine-and-fruit-based alcoholic beverage sangria, sangrita (meaning "little blood") is a traditional accompaniment to a tequila served completo; a non-alcoholic sipper that cleanses the palate between fiery doses of agave.
The world of booze can be mystifying to people that don't work in bars or around alcohol all the time. I hear a lot of assumptions about the industry I'm in that are - much like 90% of what you hear in bars - completely false. Here are a few you've probably heard yourself.
The debate rages on: Should we try to look cool and crack open the Boston shaker or be tidy professionals and use the Hawthorne strainer the way God intended? Be sure to leave your two cents in the comments section.
The traditional garnish for a Pisco Sour is a couple of drops of bitters in the foam, but I've never been particularly impressed with the way these few paltry drops of bitters sat in their little egg-white mattress and didn't play along with the rest of the drink. I envisioned a Pisco Sour with a uniformly-distributed bitters-scorched foam: slightly crisp as the fire burnt the sugars, and slightly warm as the foam insulated the rest of the frosty cocktail from the heat. A pisco creme brulée in a glass!
I get so many visitors looking for tips on how to write a bartending resume that I thought I should finally post a tutorial on how to write your own. Click the headline to read more.
I always love showing up to a party with a gallon jug of pre-mixed margaritas, so I've decided to share my recipe. This margarita recipe is the perfect blend of strong, sweet, and sour. But be warned: this recipe packs a serious punch.
There isn't much I can say about this video that hasn't been said already. If you've read anything I've written about cocktails, you'll understand why this video symbolizes everything wrong with the state of bartending in America today. Watch and learn, but be warned: this one isn't for the feint of heart.
About Me
My name is Jeff Morgenthaler and I'm the head bartender at Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon.
I've been tending bar since 1996 and writing about it since 2004. Mixing drinks has become something of a passion for me in recent years, and I strive to elevate the experience of having a drink from something mundane to something more culinary.
The writing I do here is intended as a work in progress. My recipes are like my opinions: they are constantly being revised and refined as I work them through my mind and my fingers. Comments and participation are encouraged, so please don't feel the need to tread lightly here.
I see a fair amount of liquor in my average day. I work in a bar and am surrounded by 200+ bottles of the stuff for ten hours a day. Liquor reps drop by the bar and leave me samples of new products on a regular basis. I get press releases, forwarded emails, RSS feeds, swag, and sometimes full-bottle liquor samples in the mail. And it seems to me that everyone wants to talk about the versatility of their product.
“Try this new absinthe! It’s $80 a bottle and doesn’t taste like anything. It’s very versatile, great in cocktails.”
“This vodka is different than all the others. It retails for $49.95, it’s distilled eight times from fresh organic kiwifruit. It’s very versatile.”
“The latest berry liqueur! It’s made from six types of berry and was developed by three out-of-work cocaine addicts. And it’s only $14.99 a bottle! It’s super versatile!”
Let me tell you something about a truly versatile liquor, the kind you reach for every day. The real beauty doesn’t come from the fact that it’s cheap. It isn’t brilliant because it mixes well with every kind of fruit juice you can throw at it. Versatility doesn’t happen when a liquor doesn’t taste like anything.
The greatest, most versatile products out there find themselves in my hands more often than not because they’re simply perfect and are priced with a tag we all can afford.
When I received this bottle of Matusalem Gran Reserva, I was naturally skeptical. But after blowing through an entire fifth of the stuff over the course of the past week, I can honestly recommend it – not just because it tastes great, and not because the price point is exactly where it should be, but because it is truly a versatile rum.
I poured it straight, I poured it on the rocks with a dash of orange bitters. I made mai tais, I made daiquiris, I mixed it with cane-sugar Coca-Cola from Mexico and fresh key limes. It was sensational in a Beauty Beneath, and it shined in a rum old-fashioned. It took everything I threw at it and asked for more. It’s got butter and vanilla up front, an understated mid-palate without a lot of heaviness, and a nice, quiet finish that begs for another sip.
I’m lucky: I get to buy bottles every week with someone else’s money. But I have this thing, this horrible, horrible thing that kicks in when I feel like I’m ripping someone off. And it won’t let me sell you a $10 shot that’s only worth $3, I just can’t do it. So finding new products in this sea of PR is kind of a nightmare for me.
And that’s why this rum is so versatile: it’s 35 bucks! You can buy it, you can use it, and you can pick up another bottle when you’re done. You don’t have to horde it, you don’t have to keep in hidden in the back of the liquor cabinet. It’s a truly versatile rum because you can actually use it.
And that’s my review. Thanks for reading.
Comments
18 Responses to “Matusalem Gran Reserva 15”
31 Jul 2008 at 10:12 pm 1. Andy
I think you just sold me on a buying bottle of rum tomorrow.
We’ll be expecting a full report here in the comments section, Andy.
01 Aug 2008 at 12:43 am 3. Pete
I have to agree, this entire article is pretty much what I thought of this rum when I first bought a bottle on a whim. The taste profile came out in pretty much exactly the way you describe, right down to that soft, moreish finish.
I think in terms of value, this is definitely one of the best bottles I’ve found. And you’re right about the versatility from a price point of view too – to me a £50 product could be the most drinkable and mixable spirit ever, but I’m not going to buy bottle after bottle.
£20-25 is about right for a high-quality, almost-every-day bottle, and this is where the Matusalem wins out. My main everyday rum is Havana Club Anejo Especial (£17), but when I want that little something nicer, out comes the Matusalem, with no worries about whether I can afford to buy another bottle after this one.
I have been nothing but pleased with all of the Ron Matusalem products. The only rums that come close in my opinion are the Appleton, Plantation or Barbancourt rums.
Of course,they all mix well, but the aged rums give scotch a run for the money (and in terms of cost, they really do!).
Cheers!
Blair
01 Aug 2008 at 12:41 pm 6. Scortch
I was lucky to discover this about 6-7 years ago when a buddy bought a bottle on the whim that he’d simply never heard of the stuff before (it was a whopping $23 a bottle back then!). Tried for the first time straight, it was quickly dubbed “Liquid Gold” and has been a personal fav that has done nothing but won more and more fans in my circle over the years.
Yep, a great rum. Be sure to check out their other products, too. Their Platino is very much a Cuban-style rum, and makes for a great Mojito. It’s a great white – and I don’t say that often.
Yes, the Matusalem is an awesome rum that i’ve been lucky enough until recently to use a lot. It was used in a few menu cocktails and my fav with the Matusalem was a 12 year lullaby. Rum, Curacao, lemon and port. We can’t get it easily here in Wa. I’ll have to grab a bottle next time I go to Portland.
04 Aug 2008 at 8:34 pm 11. Mike M
This has to be my absolute favourite rum producer. The only problem is that the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) in Ottawa stopped carrying it.
If you’re interested in a slightly sweeter and more vanilla/caramel flavoured rum, I would recommend their 10 year old bottle. It’s not quite as subtle as the 15 year old, but works well both straight up and in mixed drinks.
As I can no longer get my hands on this, I have moved on to El Dorado Rum, which has 5, 12, and 15 year old bottles. The 12 is incredible, and for the price ($36.00 Canadian if memory serves me correctly) it’s a good buy. I have yet to try the 15 yea old, but at 55+ a bottle, I would recommend the 12 over it.
The best bargain (at least until recently) was probably the 5 year old. The rum was a demerara sugar rum aged in oak for 5 years, and until a few months ago retailed for 10 cents LESS than Bacardi Silver (which is as bottom of the barrel as you can get in my opinion). While not nearly as mellow as the 12 year old, it’s still damn good.
Cheers!
(Now I have to hunt down a bottle of Matusalem again)
Just got back from Vegas so I barely found this. Great rum. The Gran Reserva is one of the rums that I keep stocked on my shelf at all times.
It’s great neat, rocks, in a cocktail, it whitens your teeth while you sleep, and gives your car an additional 6 miles to the gallon!!!
As Scottes said, you should definitely check out their other offerings. The Platino is often the base rum for any infusions I do and is great for having around at parties for punches, daiquiris, or mojitos.
When it comes to El Dorado rums, the 15 has been my all time fav rum since about 15 years, and Mike M, i think you owe it to yourself to at least try it once, its an incredible rum. And i`m not saying the 12 is bad;-)
The El Dorado rums are so special.They have 2 wooden pot stills – one is a single wooden pot and the other is a double wooden pot and then they have the wooden Coffey still, the only one still operating in the world.
I wasn`t clear, the wooden Coffey still is the same as the wooden continuous still, the single wooden pot still.
05 Aug 2008 at 7:37 pm 15. Mike M
Thanks Tiare, I may just have to. I’ll wait for a good excuse to get one, like finishing my thesis. =P
06 Aug 2008 at 10:52 am 16. Bruce T
This is the rum I have been looking for off and on for 25 years. My father raved of this rum and said it was the best he had ever had.
08 Aug 2008 at 5:02 pm 17. juliana
Dude, you get me to try the weirdest stuff – I don’t like gin, I don’t like rum, and yet I’ll look for this rum. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to come up this weekend (sadface), but I did call you out in my blog.
Hey Juliana -sorry we missed you this weekend, I finally enlisted some friends to help drain the last of my Matusalem bottle. And look at you, blogging on your own now! Very nice.
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31 Jul 2008 at 10:12 pm 1. Andy
I think you just sold me on a buying bottle of rum tomorrow.
31 Jul 2008 at 10:18 pm 2. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
We’ll be expecting a full report here in the comments section, Andy.
01 Aug 2008 at 12:43 am 3. Pete
I have to agree, this entire article is pretty much what I thought of this rum when I first bought a bottle on a whim. The taste profile came out in pretty much exactly the way you describe, right down to that soft, moreish finish.
I think in terms of value, this is definitely one of the best bottles I’ve found. And you’re right about the versatility from a price point of view too – to me a £50 product could be the most drinkable and mixable spirit ever, but I’m not going to buy bottle after bottle.
£20-25 is about right for a high-quality, almost-every-day bottle, and this is where the Matusalem wins out. My main everyday rum is Havana Club Anejo Especial (£17), but when I want that little something nicer, out comes the Matusalem, with no worries about whether I can afford to buy another bottle after this one.
01 Aug 2008 at 7:26 am 4. Tiare
Very good review of a very good rum.This rum is always positively spoken about in the Ministry of Rum forum.
01 Aug 2008 at 9:39 am 5. blair frodelius
I have been nothing but pleased with all of the Ron Matusalem products. The only rums that come close in my opinion are the Appleton, Plantation or Barbancourt rums.
Of course,they all mix well, but the aged rums give scotch a run for the money (and in terms of cost, they really do!).
Cheers!
Blair
01 Aug 2008 at 12:41 pm 6. Scortch
I was lucky to discover this about 6-7 years ago when a buddy bought a bottle on the whim that he’d simply never heard of the stuff before (it was a whopping $23 a bottle back then!). Tried for the first time straight, it was quickly dubbed “Liquid Gold” and has been a personal fav that has done nothing but won more and more fans in my circle over the years.
02 Aug 2008 at 8:24 am 7. Jeff Frane
Lance Mayhew beat you to the punch by a couple of days over at his blog. Sounds like the rep knows who to visit to get the word out.
02 Aug 2008 at 1:08 pm 8. Jeff Frane
And it’s about $41 here in OLCC stores — for us peasants.
02 Aug 2008 at 5:57 pm 9. Scottes
Yep, a great rum. Be sure to check out their other products, too. Their Platino is very much a Cuban-style rum, and makes for a great Mojito. It’s a great white – and I don’t say that often.
04 Aug 2008 at 2:06 pm 10. Kevin Langmack
Yes, the Matusalem is an awesome rum that i’ve been lucky enough until recently to use a lot. It was used in a few menu cocktails and my fav with the Matusalem was a 12 year lullaby. Rum, Curacao, lemon and port. We can’t get it easily here in Wa. I’ll have to grab a bottle next time I go to Portland.
04 Aug 2008 at 8:34 pm 11. Mike M
This has to be my absolute favourite rum producer. The only problem is that the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) in Ottawa stopped carrying it.
If you’re interested in a slightly sweeter and more vanilla/caramel flavoured rum, I would recommend their 10 year old bottle. It’s not quite as subtle as the 15 year old, but works well both straight up and in mixed drinks.
As I can no longer get my hands on this, I have moved on to El Dorado Rum, which has 5, 12, and 15 year old bottles. The 12 is incredible, and for the price ($36.00 Canadian if memory serves me correctly) it’s a good buy. I have yet to try the 15 yea old, but at 55+ a bottle, I would recommend the 12 over it.
The best bargain (at least until recently) was probably the 5 year old. The rum was a demerara sugar rum aged in oak for 5 years, and until a few months ago retailed for 10 cents LESS than Bacardi Silver (which is as bottom of the barrel as you can get in my opinion). While not nearly as mellow as the 12 year old, it’s still damn good.
Cheers!
(Now I have to hunt down a bottle of Matusalem again)
04 Aug 2008 at 8:42 pm 12. Dood
Just got back from Vegas so I barely found this. Great rum. The Gran Reserva is one of the rums that I keep stocked on my shelf at all times.
It’s great neat, rocks, in a cocktail, it whitens your teeth while you sleep, and gives your car an additional 6 miles to the gallon!!!
As Scottes said, you should definitely check out their other offerings. The Platino is often the base rum for any infusions I do and is great for having around at parties for punches, daiquiris, or mojitos.
04 Aug 2008 at 11:41 pm 13. Tiare
When it comes to El Dorado rums, the 15 has been my all time fav rum since about 15 years, and Mike M, i think you owe it to yourself to at least try it once, its an incredible rum. And i`m not saying the 12 is bad;-)
The El Dorado rums are so special.They have 2 wooden pot stills – one is a single wooden pot and the other is a double wooden pot and then they have the wooden Coffey still, the only one still operating in the world.
04 Aug 2008 at 11:54 pm 14. Tiare
I wasn`t clear, the wooden Coffey still is the same as the wooden continuous still, the single wooden pot still.
05 Aug 2008 at 7:37 pm 15. Mike M
Thanks Tiare, I may just have to. I’ll wait for a good excuse to get one, like finishing my thesis. =P
06 Aug 2008 at 10:52 am 16. Bruce T
This is the rum I have been looking for off and on for 25 years. My father raved of this rum and said it was the best he had ever had.
08 Aug 2008 at 5:02 pm 17. juliana
Dude, you get me to try the weirdest stuff – I don’t like gin, I don’t like rum, and yet I’ll look for this rum. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to come up this weekend (sadface), but I did call you out in my blog.
Smooch!
10 Aug 2008 at 12:50 pm 18. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Hey Juliana -sorry we missed you this weekend, I finally enlisted some friends to help drain the last of my Matusalem bottle. And look at you, blogging on your own now! Very nice.