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Diablerie, v. 1, issue 1, January 1944
Page 13
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diablerie 15 ing molars, and demanded another sample. I slopped a drop on my palms, and rubbed my hands together, and sniffed the boquet. Finally, having killed nearly half the bottle, I said, "Darling, I am stumped. This stuff is a bit too full-bodied to be a fine old brandy, and it is way too delicate for any rum, sometimes I suspect it is rum, only it can not possibly be." Derisive laughter at the baffled conneisseur, It was an 86 proof Demerara, one of Lemon Hart's special bottlings. Year after year, I've hunted another specimen, but vainly. Trinidad rum, a classic, is quite scarce, but worth hunting. Cuban, Porto Rican, and Virgin Islands rums, as they exist today, are things I prefer, out of a deference to distinguished readers, to ignore entirely. Save that they are doubtless distilled from cane products, they're scarcely rum; though the other day I did find a passably honorable exception. Oddly enough, some very sound stuff is cooked off in this country. Far, far indeed from the truly great rums, but equally far from the enormous quantities of mediocre stuff which comes from islands which should and could produce better. Our "New England" rums - the name is put in quotes because some of it isn't, according to the label, actually distilled in New England, is a sound product, of medium body, on the dry side, and with a distinct tang of oaken cooperage. The best I've thus far found is bottles in bond, seven years old. Normally, rum for the American market runs from 86 to 100 proof; and it is amazing how smooth the last named can be. The 151 proof, confined almost entirely to bars, where it's used for flavoring those ghastly fruit salad concoctions, such as Zombies, must be handled with care. In small quantities, 151 proof Lemon Hart or Rudson's Ray can be drunk straight. Clark Ashton Smith handles the straight stuff in the blithe way of an Edmond Hamilton hero facing a dozen ray guns. Most people, however, quickly and painlessly paralyze themselves - unless they pause for a few moments of brawling and furniture-wrecking preliminary to passing out - by trying to mix 151 with coke. They will, in spite of every precaution and warning, pour too big a shot. The only way to dispense this concentrated rum, designed originally, I have heard, for use in the North Woods, where the voyageur's pack must be kept light as possible, is to cut it to 90 or 160 proof and serve from a decanter. Since this is not an action story, I omit anecdotes about careless folks who took a bottle of that king of all rums, Hudson's Bay 151 Proof Demerara, and set out to mix Cuba Libres. Today's print is already too full of tales of violence and tragedy. My parting injunction is, DRINK MORE RUM, and, DRINK IT STRAIGHT, or with a bit of ditch water, hot ot cold, to make grog. There is more fun and less hangover in rum than in any other spirit. If I were to be stranded on a desert island, or to set out in a spaceship, and had my choice of stimulant my selection would be rum- rhum - ron, good no matter how you spell it. the end
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diablerie 15 ing molars, and demanded another sample. I slopped a drop on my palms, and rubbed my hands together, and sniffed the boquet. Finally, having killed nearly half the bottle, I said, "Darling, I am stumped. This stuff is a bit too full-bodied to be a fine old brandy, and it is way too delicate for any rum, sometimes I suspect it is rum, only it can not possibly be." Derisive laughter at the baffled conneisseur, It was an 86 proof Demerara, one of Lemon Hart's special bottlings. Year after year, I've hunted another specimen, but vainly. Trinidad rum, a classic, is quite scarce, but worth hunting. Cuban, Porto Rican, and Virgin Islands rums, as they exist today, are things I prefer, out of a deference to distinguished readers, to ignore entirely. Save that they are doubtless distilled from cane products, they're scarcely rum; though the other day I did find a passably honorable exception. Oddly enough, some very sound stuff is cooked off in this country. Far, far indeed from the truly great rums, but equally far from the enormous quantities of mediocre stuff which comes from islands which should and could produce better. Our "New England" rums - the name is put in quotes because some of it isn't, according to the label, actually distilled in New England, is a sound product, of medium body, on the dry side, and with a distinct tang of oaken cooperage. The best I've thus far found is bottles in bond, seven years old. Normally, rum for the American market runs from 86 to 100 proof; and it is amazing how smooth the last named can be. The 151 proof, confined almost entirely to bars, where it's used for flavoring those ghastly fruit salad concoctions, such as Zombies, must be handled with care. In small quantities, 151 proof Lemon Hart or Rudson's Ray can be drunk straight. Clark Ashton Smith handles the straight stuff in the blithe way of an Edmond Hamilton hero facing a dozen ray guns. Most people, however, quickly and painlessly paralyze themselves - unless they pause for a few moments of brawling and furniture-wrecking preliminary to passing out - by trying to mix 151 with coke. They will, in spite of every precaution and warning, pour too big a shot. The only way to dispense this concentrated rum, designed originally, I have heard, for use in the North Woods, where the voyageur's pack must be kept light as possible, is to cut it to 90 or 160 proof and serve from a decanter. Since this is not an action story, I omit anecdotes about careless folks who took a bottle of that king of all rums, Hudson's Bay 151 Proof Demerara, and set out to mix Cuba Libres. Today's print is already too full of tales of violence and tragedy. My parting injunction is, DRINK MORE RUM, and, DRINK IT STRAIGHT, or with a bit of ditch water, hot ot cold, to make grog. There is more fun and less hangover in rum than in any other spirit. If I were to be stranded on a desert island, or to set out in a spaceship, and had my choice of stimulant my selection would be rum- rhum - ron, good no matter how you spell it. the end
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