Meyer's Dark Rum--how to drink it?

February 27, 2011 3:39 AM

I received a gift: a bottle of Meyer's Dark Rum. How do I drink it?

Never really drank rum before and know almost nothing of it. Is Meyer's Dark Rum the good stuff or otherwise?

I tried it straight--just for testing purposes--and I found it rather harsh. I mixed it in with some Pepsi, and the first couple of sips tasted quite good, but when the fizz petered out it tasted pretty terrible.

So how should I drink it? More to the point, how do you drink it? Hivemind, help me.

posted by zardoz to Food & Drink (38 answers total)

Best answer: Mmmm....Planter's Punch!

I don't make mine exactly like this, but this is a good enough place to start.
posted by downing street memo at 3:46 AM on February 27, 2011

Meyer's isn't good enough to drink straight, but it's still rum. It can work with fruit juice or ginger ale, or with both if you'd like to make a big bowl of punch. Alternatively, if you have any friends who are pirates, just give it to them.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:10 AM on February 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Meyer's and Pineapple.

Does what it says on the tin.
posted by bilabial at 4:33 AM on February 27, 2011

I use it mostly for cooking. It's good for using with curing salmon, or for a really nice grilled pineapple marinade (melt butter, add brown sugar, cook til melted, stir in rum, slather over pineapple, grill).
posted by Ghidorah at 4:35 AM on February 27, 2011

Best answer: Try mixing it with ginger beer for a 'dark and stormy'

Great ginger beer which is back in the market after a hiatus: Stewarts. I also like Goya for its strong bite. Others like Reeds.
posted by sciencegeek at 4:37 AM on February 27, 2011 [6 favorites]

Good with tonic and lime...
posted by mbx at 4:58 AM on February 27, 2011

Myers Rum needs aging. Not of the rum; of the rummy.
Once past 50 years, Myers is delightful straight.
posted by hexatron at 5:24 AM on February 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

dark rum is great in banana bread.
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:39 AM on February 27, 2011 [2 favorites]

Rum is also tasty in pastry cream.
posted by spec80 at 5:47 AM on February 27, 2011

Best answer: I'll happily drink Meyer's all day straight or with a squeeze of lime.

But if you're going to mix it, the three best ways are:

1. with ginger beer
2. with pineapple juice
3. with hot chocolate
posted by 256 at 6:00 AM on February 27, 2011

Best answer: Get some tea masala* and add about 2 tablespoons to the rum and shake well. Shake it up every day for a week or two. When it's properly infused, strain and pour back into the bottle. *poof* you have delicious chai rum! Add to coffee or tea or pour over half and half or milk (tastes great in soy milk, to). It's delicious!

* or make your own:
3-4 whole cloves
2 pods cardamom
1 crushed cinnamon stick or 2 tsp good powdered
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (use ground..fresh doesn't work well here, imo)
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
give it all a quick crush with your favorite crushing instrument.

posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:03 AM on February 27, 2011 [7 favorites]

Hot Chocolate, definitely.
posted by Buffaload at 6:09 AM on February 27, 2011

I knew a guy who always drank his morning coffee with rum mixed in. So, there you go - add a couple of cigarettes, and you've been given the gift of the Breakfast of Champions.
posted by cmonkey at 6:24 AM on February 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think dark rum is best for baking. You can try adding it to recipes that have dates or bananas, and sometimes recipes that call for espresso to be added could work well with dark rum instead. Flourless chocolate cake! Add a couple of tablespoons of dark rum to the recipe. Frankly, I'd stick to cooking with it. The drink recipes I've found look kind of gross or at least require quite a few additional ingredients. These drink ideas look a little better.
posted by belau at 6:45 AM on February 27, 2011

Best answer: Seconding the vote for using it in a Dark and Stormy, but you'll need to wait until summer, because it's a drink best consumed when it's really warm.

On the other hand, my wife's grandfather enjoys a drink he made up himself, which consists of two lighter types of rum(Bacardi and Mount Gay, I think) mixed with a splash of tonic water and a floater of Myers. I've had a sip, and it does indeed taste like a giant glass of random rums mixed together.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:52 AM on February 27, 2011 [5 favorites]

Nthing hot chocolate.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:04 AM on February 27, 2011

It's a more warmer weather plan, but dark rum is great as a floater on (lighter) rum-based frozen drinks.
posted by bizzyb at 7:18 AM on February 27, 2011

Best answer: I like to use it to replace the vanilla in French Toast. Mmmm.
posted by ORthey at 8:51 AM on February 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, and here's a chocolate truffle recipe I've posted before that calls for a 1/4 c of it. Great, great truffles.
posted by ORthey at 8:53 AM on February 27, 2011

Just want to second planter's punch, one of the great drinks of the world. Experiment with recipes, of course. The more you experiment, the more you'll like it.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 9:17 AM on February 27, 2011

A fun project might be to make your own falernum. A recipe from Rum Dood and Kaiser Penguin's make your own falernum.

There are a good number of rum drinks that include falernum.
posted by sciencegeek at 9:27 AM on February 27, 2011

I didn't know you could do anything with myers other than "Myers & OJ".
posted by about_time at 10:45 AM on February 27, 2011

Bananas Foster!
posted by Sara Anne at 10:55 AM on February 27, 2011

I like a bit of rum in cold fruit juice in the summer.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 11:06 AM on February 27, 2011

Myers is good in hot drinks. Cocoa, spiced cider, coffee. I can't stand rum in sodas or juices, but to each their own. Never baked with hit but sure sounds like a good idea.
posted by dchrssyr at 12:40 PM on February 27, 2011

Nthing that meyers is not a good dark rum to drink straight.
Meyers & pinapple or meyers & Ginger ale are both decent drinks.
A dark and stormy is properly made with goslings black seal rum & barrette Ginger beer, FYI.
posted by natasha_k at 12:58 PM on February 27, 2011

Pour it into some lemon ginger tea for a cold-weather nightcap. It's also not bad in chai (which kind of makes it the entire British empire in a cup).
posted by thinkingwoman at 1:08 PM on February 27, 2011

Put a shot in an esspresso.
posted by pompomtom at 1:50 PM on February 27, 2011

Decent dark rum makes AWESOME vanilla extract. If you like to bake at all add a few vanilla beans (sliced open) to a cup of rum in an airtight glass jar and let it sit for about 3 months, shaking occasionally.

When that extract is used in baked goods where vanilla is the primary flavor I can actually tell the difference between it and the store bought stuff.
posted by Saminal at 1:55 PM on February 27, 2011

Best answer: I think if you're not a rum drinker, dark rum might take a while to develop a taste for. Most non-rum drinkers I met over the years usually prefer the light rum (clear) since it has less flavor. I've never met anyone who drinks rum by itself except tasting when trying out something new but maybe I'm not running in the right crowds.

If you think the taste of the rum and Pepsi was too harsh, I have my doubts you're going to warm up to it. I think the pineapple juice isn't going to be strong enough to cover up the rum for you. I'd stick to strongly flavored drinks like frozen daiquiris. The quick and dirty way to make them is get a can of frozen juice (some berry flavor normally), let it defrost enough to dump into a blender add a bit of rum and ice and blend. Add more ice until it's like a slushy.
If you like Captain Morgan (spiced rum), you can add a drop of vanilla to a rum and coke. That seems to smooth out the taste of the rum for some people.
posted by stray thoughts at 2:26 PM on February 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

I had a mixed drink the other day :Dark rum, pineapple juice, lime juice and a bit of simple syrup, over ice. It wasn't overly sweet (so go easy on the syrup) , and it was incredibly refreshing.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 2:49 PM on February 27, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers, all you rum drunks. I favorited a few, but all the answers are helpful. I'm more of a whiskey guy and this rum--so far--tastes really sweet and...I dunno. Weird. I happened to have some pineapple juice and mixed that with the Meyer's and it was...okay. The juice is pretty cheap, I'll upgrade that. The hot chocolate suggestion sounds pretty good, and the ginger ale. So I'll try both hot and cold. Maybe room temperature isn't ideal.

Thanks again everyone.
posted by zardoz at 3:07 PM on February 27, 2011

It's probably best to think of Meyers's less as the gin in your martini or the rye in your manhattan, and more like the float of sherry atop your fogcutter, or the wash of pastis in your sazerac. Which is to say, it's a valuable ingredient that can add a signature "RUM!" note to drinks, but isn't really best all on its own (or even with Pepsi). Keep it in your bar and use it when recipes call for it. It won't expire before you do.
posted by mumkin at 8:06 AM on February 28, 2011

For a Dark n Stormy, if they have it in your area, Gosling's makes an excellent ginger beer (which is meant to go with their rum of course, but it's just delicious and should go great with your Myers). I find it to be the perfect combo between sweet and spicy ginger beer. Regatta is another brand I love. Ginger beer though is definitely what you want, ginger ale is fine but too light in flavor to really work with rum in my opinion.
posted by haveanicesummer at 10:05 AM on February 28, 2011

My brother-in-law mixes it with tonic water. I thought he was nuts till I tried it. Rocks with a slice of lime.
posted by aquanaut at 12:10 PM on February 28, 2011

Nthing over ice with a squeeze of lime. Delish!
posted by thatone at 4:54 PM on March 1, 2011

There's nothing wrong with dark rum, but it's a very different product from light rum; IMO it is to light rum what Southern Comfort is to Jim Beam. Some people like it, some people hate it, personally I think it gives really terrible hangovers.

You have a lot of good suggestions for what to do with the Meyers'; I'd recommend that you try some light rum next. 10 Cane or Mount Gay Eclipse are my preferred brands, in that order. Those, I think you will find, you can drink pretty much straight or on the rocks. Actually you can pretty much try any whisky-based cocktail with light rum and nine times out of ten you'll get something drinkable.

And you'll hate yourself less in the morning if you have one too many, too.
posted by Kadin2048 at 5:19 AM on March 2, 2011

Response by poster: An update: I tried many of the suggestions above and none of them really clicked until I simply put some rum in my coffee. Perfection! Whatever it was that makes the rum harsh for me is cancelled out by the coffee's bitterness. And the sweetness of the rum still comes through. I only wish I knew this rum and coffee awesomeness before.
posted by zardoz at 11:42 PM on March 5, 2011