Spiced Rum

Rum and Root Beer was an accidental creation of BayCon. I was invited in for a mandatory drink by and old acquaintance. He had Meyers Rum but no Coke. So I grabbed the closed thing I could find -- Henry Weinhard's Root Beer.

This proved to be the most fortuitous accident of my drinking life. Root Beer complements rum much more cleanly than Coke. It also works well with spiced rum.

Mike has been present for many expirements with the Rum and Root Beer. We've varied both ingredients up and down the scale. Rums include Captain Morgan, Captain Morgan Tatoo, Captain Morgan Silver, Whalers, and Sailor Jerry. Root beers have included Weinhard's, IBC, Jones, Hansen's, Mug, A&W, and the favorite, Virgil's.

Virgil's and Captain Morgan Tattoo has been cited as the best combination.

Ratios vary, but with a sweet rum 2 parts Root Beer to 1 part rum works. Add more root beer as your taste suits.

Once again into the breech of Rum based cocktails! Whiskey is the drink of choice here, but we're gearing up for Baycon '08 and having some fun with Captain Morgan Tattoo and Bulleit Bourbon.

So here is another pirate creation for use with dark rum and extreme caution. We were going to call this the "Will Turner" but that innuendo is too direct. My will was turned and we changed the name to Bootstrap.

Good sweet rums are wonderful for mixing with sodas. The right spiced rum brings a whole new lampshade to any soda party. With Bootstrap it is Cream Soda. This is one of the more successful experiments in the vein of the Black Pearl.

Feel free to push the boundaries with the ingredients, I don't think you can go wrong.

• 1oz (3cl) Captain Morgan Tattoo
• 5oz (15cl) IBC Cream Soda

Serve chilled over ice in an 8oz highball glass and garnish with a straw.

Though this is a whiskey site, there are times when we have to talk about other spirits. In this case it is Rum, in particular Sailor Jerry Rum. It's a 92 proof spiced from Hawaii that appeared at the office a couple of months ago. I bring it up today because it is a worthy spirit, a great rum and a bargain right now.

Rite Aid is selling 750s of Sailor Jerry for $9.99 right now. That is a heck of a deal for a rum that normally goes for $15-$18.