redd granite

Those of you in other parts of the country may not feel the effects of late July early August, a time when I feel in general we in Texas basically get a case of the Late Summer Blues. Allow me to pontificate. This is the time of the year when the heat becomes just oppressive. The Fourth of July holiday as disappeared from your rear view mirror. School looms in the distance, but still a few weeks away. With the heat, and all of the above, it just leaves a lot of us down here downright lethargic. Unmotivated. Maybe the Mexicans have it right, I think we would all do better if we just closed our tents, and took a nice lengthy Siesta in the middle of the afternoon when the heat threatens to cook the souls of your shoes.

Bottom line, it leaves us struggling to keep focused. Some of us get caught up in the pennant race in MLB. Still a lot of baseball to play, but if you follow a team that has a wing and a prayer chance, you may just have something to keep your attention. Constant posts to Facebook seem to help, let all of your poor friends know that you are going to the gym, scratching your balls, whatever.

I even write this in pure boredom. Sorry. The Texas Rangers whom I choose to follow this year in the pennant race since my beloved CUBS suck so bad, are just plain boring tonight in their game against Oakland. Pshaw….I think I will go to bed.

Peace

Been a while since we took in a concert. I took the opportunity to join good friends to see Scorpions and Ratt at the Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas.  A midweek concert worked well for my schedule.  I honestly expected a somewhat sparse crowd for a mid week event. Of course, I am not the biggest Scorpions fan and somewhat more of a Ratt fan, but still, neither are on my top group radar. It all proved to be an interesting enough night.

Venue. Briefly, this venue holds about 6,000 total in three lower sections and a fairly massive upper section.  Between the sections are several suites for the true party types….but that is what you get, a party, cause you are not close to the band.  Our seats for this event were not nearly as close as I usually get. The venue is somewhat pie shaped from stage outward.  Good sound for the most part.  The extreme sides can be challenging, and this where we were for the seats

Crowd. Here was my biggest surprise.  I estimate the crowd to be around 4500. This is what I consider very good for these bands on a Wednesday night.   The average age of the crowd was easily close to 40. Conservative looking for the most part, and really controlled in the audience response. Ratt was trying to get more out of them, but the Geritol age had apparently kicked in. I estimate the crowd 60% male.  Nearly half were in more professional looking attire (I being one them since I drove in straight from work).

Ratt. Ratt: The punctual band. They fell right in line with the corporate rock requirements.  Started right at scheduled 8:00, and played exactly 3 minutes over what they were supposed to.  Now thats calculated and friendly to the corporate rock word of  timed contracts. This was the 8th time seeing Ratt, the sixth with Stephen Pearcy at the helm.  For those of you not quite familiar with this outfit, Pearcy is the original lead singer.  But this unit is prone to bouts of moodiness and outright  asshole attitude made him difficult as a band mate and not accepted by the audience.  In the current years, however, we have seen a more mellow Pearcy. Still quite cocky, but that is OK. He engaged the audience fairly well.  He was gracious for the most part….but he did give the impression he was not all that into the show.  Every time there was a musical bridge, he walked backstage during the lead solo. There was no interaction between Pearcy and Warren Di’Maritini, the long time guitartist. There was interaction between Pearcy and the other band mates, most specifically, the guy who came over from Quiet Riot (do not know his name) after Kevin DeBrow kicked. The sound was not mixed very.  Guitars far overshadowed vocals, and even the drums. The band was moderately tight, but nothing special. They did many more background vocals than I remember them doing in other outings. Overall, decent, not great, just decent.  Pearcy needs to stay on stage and look like he is engaged.

Scorpions. What is it about midgets with booming voices? Like the recently departed Ronnie James Dio, the lead guy for the Scorpions, who stands maybe 5′ tall has a voice that just soars.  Not as good as Dio’s was, as he was at the top in my book, but a great set of pipes, nonetheless. Admittedly, I am not a big Scorpions fan.  This is the third time that I have seen this German outfit. I am not sure if there music was overplayed back in the day or what, I am just not that big of a fan. The show tonight was the best that I had seen out of the three outings I have witnessed.  This show was set with an interesting stage where the drummer rose far above the stage. Well lighted, it was a good set and more dramatic than that I have seen in the past. The Scorpions made themselves sound and act like headliners.  There was much energy in the show, and the crowd embraced it for what they could being their age and Texas roots conservative pussy roots. There was great interaction between all of the original members of this band.  Hell, you do not even know they are German except for two things:  Lead singer slurs his words as if he is liquored up (he was not); as English is not his main language, although I am sure much better now than when they started 25 + years ago. And the second was lead guitarist Rudolph Schenker….not that boy looks and acts German….almost like the Hans and Frans act from Saturday night live many years ago….what also impressed me about Rudolph was his array of guitars.  He easily carted out 8 different guitars, one being a cool looking Fly-V acoustic.  I want one.  Was not close enough to get brand, or it may have been made especially for him.  He was his usually energetic self, running wildly across the stage. Scorpions act also incorporates calculated photo ops….this is where the band gets together and plays next to each other so the audience can shoot pictures. Klaus (lead singer, re3member now fist name, not last)  was his usual drum stick throwing self, easily tossing 100 sticks into the audience.  Hell, I bet some in the front got multiples.  (yes, I have a drum stick from Scorpions on another outing…he throws so many, you can hardly miss)

They played from 9:40 until 11:10, popping the corp. suits requirements by 10 minutes over.  They were tight and together.  Overall very good.  The few new songs they played I liked as well, including the one ballad. (Takes balls to play a ballad on new music minutes, but that is part of their signature)  But speaking of ballads, my one disappointment was they left off two crucial songs from the set :  Still loving You (yes, that power ballad) and Rhythm of  Love. Especially the missing of Still Loving You, because this song, with his voice, is just pheonominal.

Business. I estimate this concert took in revenues in excess $380,000.  4500+ people, at average of  $60 per ticket (yes, they were expensive) and at $20 average concession spend, and $20,000 for the parking robbers.  Not bad for a Wednesday night

I think this is a decent show to go see.  It really comes down to how much you want to spend for these groups……peace

I am on a mission from God. Yes. He spoke tome today as I was driving my normal Friday afternoon 110 journey. I drive this way every Friday of the working week. So the good Lord spoke directly to me, loud and clear, that I need to try every BBQ joint between the two journey points and find the best BBQ. Now I cannot not listen to God, how sacrilegious that would be. So I heeded His call and started today. The call was to

Now my BBQ tastes may not align with the experts, but suffice it to say, I believe my tastes would align with most of you. I am only testing and commenting on Brisket at these joints….so what I look for is a great smokey flavor, hickory or mesquite, one that leaves you not feeling you need BBQ sauce. The verification for a good smoke out is the 30 minute after belch, if you taste the smoke the second time over everything else you ate with it, including the sauce you likely put on it, you have a great smoke taste, (that keeps giving and giving). I like a slight marbeled Brisket. OK. It is not healthly, but if you are eating BBQ for health, you missed a turn along the way somewhere.  Best BBQ is a wide definition to most, but here is my first attempt….and oh, yeah, this is central and north Texas area, so my apologies for the regional discussions.  Again, maybe my Russian spamming friends may learn something new to go with their vodka. (Contact me directly using the contact form here, my Russian friends, I will send you recipes.  Spam that! The Brisket needs to be uber tender, where you can EASILY cut it with a fork. Of course, the smoke ring  must be there.

We tried a joint in Ennis, Texas today.  Bubbas (no website) is along I-45.  This place has been there for years, and I have always heard it was good. They have two levels of service, self for the BBQ line, and sit down to order.  Their menu does consist of more than the typical BBQ joint.  They add in several grilled fish offerings as well as steaks.  I have no idea who good or bad these are.  Unfortunately, Bubba fell real short.  The Brisket was very tough (although very lean for you health heads).  The taste was smokey, but in a strange sort of chemical way.  I could not put my finger on it, but it was a strange taste.  Quite unfortunately it turns out, the young lady who served me, who was the cashier who is not supposed to serve, but she saw noone was helping me so she did, ignored the weight scale that is normally used in these joints (always hated that, for you Russians, Brisket is a in expensive meat and BBQ is priced fairly high for casual dining), and she piled a load of Brisket on my plate. I felt compelled to eat it even though it was nasty.  The side were excellent, however, great potato salad with the right combo of mustard and perfectly cooked taters…..and very importantly, served at the right chilled temperature. The sauce was good. It was fairly standard tasting.  Of course, I slathered it on huge when realizing how poor the Brisket tastes.

Bottom line, $10.97 for Brisket plate and 2 sides, and a soda.  About normal.  Unfornately, Bubbas falls fall short to be considered in the best BBQ catagory.  I give it the boot, ah, that is 1 boot out of 10

Peace

I am never more amazed at the result when I join my friends in the Dazzling Weasel Faces for performances. The latest was our annual, uh, make that semi annual trek to my home stomping grounds in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The fact is, I only am able to join DWF maybe 4-5 times a year. Would like it to be more, but life drives us down a different freeway too many times.

This year, we were all able to pull it together. Of course, I am from Kenosha, Wisconsin, so this trip doubles as an opportunity to see family. This was a rich experience as we are all from different areas of the country.  This weekend, we converged on Kenosha, with a beautiful side trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin….if not more than any thing, to show my Texas comrades Lake Geneva. The thing is, my life is in Texas, but you never really lift your foot from the cement that is your home. There is always one foot there….and every time I go, we just pick up as if I never left

Performance wise, this was an advanced set of nights.   Friday we played at Tailgators ( no website, obviously another opportunity of for Open Media Concepts ( my web development company) to do a website for them. My 87 year old mother came to this performance.  It was special..she knows the DWF from college days when they were young and retired. Some 33 years later, she is still there to hear us play together once again.  The performance kicked.  If anything, all of us were concerned about blowing our wad on this one when the Saturday night performance loomed. Thanks to Eric and Tailgators…..great stage to play and we hope to return next year.

Saturday found us at Cooler Near The Lake.  Again, no website (OMC calls once again). We played here two years ago with spanking results. Tonight, it was also good.  Maybe not as good as we would have liked, but the crowds were great and receptive…and we ended up blowing out our play list and going for 4.25 hours…..so many originals were played this night. Also, one thing we normally do not do is improvise much, since we all live in different cities, we NEVER practice, rather, just depending upon our musical instincts to get us through. I really enjoyed the improvising on Locomotive Breath, Banshee (which kicked) and a late entrant as we were running out of songs, Sea Breeze! Marty and Dave did a phenomenal job in improvising during my opening (lasting about 3 minutes easily on a 3 minute song) as I gathered the lyrics in my mind. The response bewildered me….as if it was a well known song (written by me on the shores of Lake Michigan about 1.5 miles from the Cooler in 1973) .  Then Marty and Dave got going on Beatles tunes, because some of the folks in the back of the room really dug it….I hate the Beatles….but I had to lend my harmonies…..

Just a great night.  Not the best of our efforts music wise…. but it all added up to a pretty special evening. Look for reddgranite and the DWF to be in Vegas next July with the annual Cooler By The Lake Las Vegas trip.  Jody is a killer planner, and……and I think OMC needs to help her out next year with a website to coordinate and collect bookings…..and with any luck, the Dazzling Weasel Faces with Redd Granite will be playing Vegas next July…….

Peace

Redd Granite live with the Dazzling Weasel Faces on their US Summer Weasels Ripped My Flesh Tour:

Friday, July 9 – Tailgators, Kenosha Wisconsin

Saturday, July 10 – Cooler Near The Lake

Will be a great time for all, come out if in the area. Posts and Pics will be uploaded on reddgranite.com and dazzlingweaselfaces.com sometime next week…that is if Marty gets his act together…..are we taking bets?

Peace

This post is more localized to Dallas area than usual, so once again, you spamming Russians are welcome to view and learn about Texas! We like vodka too!

With the fourth of July upon us  (again, you .ru guys, this is Americas celebration of independence…always helping everyone to learn something), and nothing more to do, I had the rare opportunity to take in my first dirt car race of the season. Normally not running on this holiday, one local track decided to go for it, and it afforded my first opportunity to see Dallas area’s newest dirt track.

Background. Located in Crandall, Texas, about 30 miles south of Dallas, RPM Speedway was started last year by a partnership that includes a local modified driver, Ronnie Sigman. Sigman raced mostly at the other crandall dirt track (yes thats right, this town of 2500 residents has (had?) two, count em, two dirt tracks), at least I think it is still there, Thunderbird Speedway.  Not sure if this one survived…cannot find reference to it on the internet, and it used to have a website. The Dallas area dirt car market has been quite bizarre. As of 5 years ago, there were 5 dirt tracks operating within 50 miles of each other on Saturday nights. A new high school in Royse City Texas claimed one of them, and Greenville, switched to Friday nights, and now back to Saturdays. The king of the dirt tracks locally, Devils Bowl Speedway, the birth place of the World of Outlaws, has been in steady decline these past five years.  The economy hit race teams hard as well, and this assisted to the decline of Devils Bowl, although I am told a multitude of rules by the owner has aided in the decline as well.  In the middle of the worse recession ever, enter RPM Speedway in Crandall, literally across the 2500 town from Thunderbird Speedway.  RPM normally runs Fridays, and Thunderbird Saturdays. In case you think the market dynamics are strange on this one, consider Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale Texas.  It is literally across the parking lot from Kennedale Park Speedway, indiependent tracks both running on Saturday nights.  You can literally see Kennedale Park cars running from the top of Cowtown stands….

Facilities. Everything is brand new here. The buildings are modest and built with budget in mind, but from ground up.  It sits on 30 acres or so. It is a tight 1/4 low banked dirt oval with outer wall surrounding. The pits can accommodate a high car count, as witnessed on this Sunday night.  160 cars were present through 6 classes. They could have squeezed more in as well. The stands look like they could hold up to 3000, not including the pit stands for teams. The stands are all brand new.  The entrance to the track for cars crosses right in front of the stands, providing nice up close view, and a safety buffer between the stands and the track.  Even with the pit row in front of the track, you still feel close to the action. The sprint car pic below shows the car coming on the track, as well as a sprinter on the track. Concessions are an issue.  The good as that everything is made to order…(unlike Devils Bowl, were much is pre-made) The bad news, one line in, and out, and with everything made to order, the queue gets very long. One major guffaw in the facilities.  They should have consulted my firm Penland Corner Consultants for design advice.  Folks, you do not, absolutely do not, put stands facing the south in Texas at a place where dust will be generated.  It flows directly at the stands…..ouch, this was so basic, not sure how they missed it.  Parking was ample, (though filling up close).  There is one in and out for audience, separate for race teams, although you can exit the race teams entry at the end the night, but traffic could be an issue.

Classes. These guys started out last year running modifieds, limited modifieds, street stocks, and bombers. This year they added Sprints to the regular shows, getting a car count around 12. Editors note:  This class is nearly dead in the local area as it simply costs too much to run, and anyone who has invested tend to do traveling shows where money is much bigger. But these Sprints are a upcoming class called 305….this matches the engine C.I. Supposedly much less costs than the 360′s normally run. On this tight 1/4 mile, you could not tell they were any slower, but they would be on the Devils Bowl 1/2 mile.

The Show. There were 160 cars in the pits. There was what looked to be one wrecker…I thought I was in for a long one, and I was, but not for the reason thought. Ended up to be two records, tow push cars, and one gigantic fork lift (they fork the sprinters that have flipped and are not able to be towed conventionally). It started late, at 6:30 vs. 6:00. The show moved along well.  The flag man and announcer are from Devils B0wl ( at least last year).  I think there is friendly cooperation between to the two as they do not compete directly. RPM partner Sigman races as a regular at D.B. on Saturday nights. But what the promoters could use to learn from D.B. is track surface management. Granted, the conditions for this night could not have been worse for dirt surfaces (I am no expert, but know a little….) a) 160 cars, I do not think they expected that good of turn out; b)a trash load of rain the preceding days making things a total mud pit; and c) windy hot afternoon, which dries the surface quickly but leaves the underneath clay soft…Devils Bowl (specifically promoter Lanny Edwards) are masters of track preparation, knowing what is needed for every condition.  This was the down fall of the RPM show. They track degraded quickly into a rutted bowl. They had to spend an hour after the intermission fire works to grade the ruts of the track…and it just deteriorated again making racing very difficult for the teams and tearing up equipment. Bottom line, the show ended at 1:16 a.m.

Now these guys have some cool ideas and given a little more experience, should improve.  At Devils Bowl, when there is a restart, they manually set the cars on a chalk board. Here, they request drivers to purchase a radio that is direct to the driver.  All line ups for restarts are done this way. Very cool.  Tonight went slower, since there were many non-regular teams who did not have the radios. The other thing they do well, is somehow convince the drivers that when the spin out, keep going instead of forcing a restart.  The heats, they did this nearly 100%. They features, where the money is paid, not so much.  But they are much better than the Bowl…where this has been a problem for years.  This is the singular most time consumer in a show. And there is no good answer.  These guys have a great start. Racing is tight, and especially the modifieds bump each other aggressively. Not sure how more race stopping accidents did not happen, especially on a rutted track, but hats off to the drivers.  There was one nasty sprint car tumble, driver OK…just a lot of work to do on the car the following day.

Overall. I will return. I am hoping some of the observances I saw here were due to overwhelming response to this event. Even on ASCS events at Devils Bowl where 40 traveling sprint teams come, they do not usually go over 100 cars.  I guess, including the pit area (they pay to enter as well) that there were at least 3500 people.  They charge more than the Bowl…$12 for adults and $5 for kids. Big revenue night for them. I estimate their total revenues were in the $40,000 range, including concessions. They have some programmatic challenges.  I will assume the track conditions tonight was unusual due to the circumstances. ( I will have to go to my local BofA branch where one of the modified drivers works and find out if this is an issue….good going Derek, you cam from way in the back to finish 6th, in that mess?  I think that was good performance)

Concessions. Speaking of concessions, I had to try them out. Very, very expensive. Their cheeseburger is truly a 1/2 pound, but $5.25…made to order. That with a diet DP set me back $7. A little high for my tastes.  Please note, you can not buy beer here. Crandall is another of our wonderful areas where the conservatives think they need to tell you how to live, and apparently, RPM has not got their “club” license. The great news is, unlike the Bowl, you can bring your own cooler in with anything but glass bottles. Hats off RPM.  There are separate sections for alcohol and non-alcohol.  You also can go out into parking lot at any time. So next time, I will bring my grill, cooler, and when they have to grate the track again, I will be out there having the time of my life.

Vans Warped Tour made its stop on its eight day in Dallas Texas on July 3.  With nothing better to do on this questionable weather day, I decided to take in the event, risking the weather and getting pretty far out of my comfort zone, to see a bunch of mostly new bands and follow the original intent of this website to review live Concerts. So a review of Von’s Warped Tour is in order.  But this one has a different twist, as does the Von’s Warped Tour agenda. This tour is unlike others billed with a marketing sound bite (think Ozzfest, Cruefest, or even Rocklahoma).,  This is a one day event that features over 70 bands on what I think I counted to be eight stages.  There are no headliners. No schedule where the less popular bands open and leading up to headliners who is a name recognized band (Ozzfest and Cruefest end with?  Congratulations, your 7 years of college did not go waist). There are few things about this event non-musical related that are stunning apparant here

1. This event is as much about selling shit than the music.
2. The event format lends itself to shameless self promotion, and I am not talking about on the stages

The explain number #1, above, first let me explain the venue.  There are all of these stages spread out among the grounds. I suspect in every city the venue is a larger open air venue. Laced between the stages are what could be up to hundred booths selling things, promoting things, giving away free things, you name it.  Not sure how all these vendors do in this still crappy economy, but they are there trying to draw you in. (They leave me more alone as they do not know what to make of an older audience member….).  Then there is #2, above. There must have been at least 50 or parties paid to walk the crowd selling cds and books, posters, you name it, largely from the bands.  Then there were those self-promoting there bands, inviting you to listen to a bit of there band playing through their headphones.  Yup, thats what I want to do, put on headphones that have been shared by hundreds. Hell, there was even a guy there with a sign promoting his promoting services.  As you can probably tell by my sarcastic observance here, I am not across this much in your face selling, especially seemingly at the expense of the music

So why at the expense of the music?  Well, first, there was no place to be found a list of artists and stages, and play times. It would seem Von’s Warped Tour would do a better job of publishing this if they really cared about the music on stage.  As it is, I was left to try to figure out who I was listening to.  I heard easily 30 bands, and can only name a few (below).

For those of you resident to Dallas familiar with Superpages.com center, the main stage under the covered area was divided into two stages, right next to each other.  One band would play on the left stage while the other set up on the right.  Yes there was a pit area, largely accessible since it would move left or right depending on which side was playing and the popularity of the band.  One good thing about this tour is that walk up ticket prices were $40, and there is no seating, all GA (FYI. for my hate of ticketmaster, the tickets were $35 plus over $10 in bullshit fees).  So it was a less expensive and easier venue to move around the retailers on.

I could only confirm seeing 7 bands….all others from the thirty or unnamed because I could not figure it out, or, they were quickly forgettable in my book. The seven I remember or could identify are ShiraGirl, Suicide Silence, Eyes Set To Kill, I See Stars Alkaline Trio, All American Rejects, and WE The Kings.  Sorry other bands, next time put up your band name on a banner or on the drum head….to cover over von’s Warped Tour lack of promoting who you are. ShiraGirl, (shiragirl).  Was just OK.  Did not remember much about their performance, so that is not real good as you must stick out in this band overload that the Warped Tour provides.  Suicide Silence (suicidesilence), I hated.  This is just growling for no apparent reason.  Of course, they were liked by the violent young male audience sporting an IQ of maybe 50 who go to these concerts to draw blood in the pit.  Not music in my book.  My major surprise was Alkaline Trio,(alkalinetrio).  I had forgotten they would be on this tour, and if you have read this site before, I have recently seen them, and this was now my third time to see them.  Again, I recognized them only by hearing their songs playing in the distance….short set, as is all of these, but I once again enjoyed them

The best up coming group I saw was I See Stars, www.myspace.com/iseestars, a group of  barely 20 year olds from Detroit. This guys need to figure how to handle the big stage  better, but they will in time, and their music, I thought was great. Energetic, hard yet melodic, and yes, there was the growling in this also, just not a constant stream of it, and I thought thoroughly enjoyable. The crowd thought so two. I also learned new pit management techniques here.  Seems the pit is evolving from just slam dancing to a) now they dance in the pit wildly swinging their arms will dancing nearly like an Irish jig. Again, with the IQ level here, it appears the appeal is the casual destruction of other pit members that is of interest here. b) the lead singer had a name for this one, but basically he guided everyone to separate a large space, and on his command, you run full speed from opposite directions crashing into each other. Nice.  Kids are too bored with their lives and apparently need jobs.  The result is annoying, more space is need for the pit when these ecstasy laced banshees swing their arms wildly. Oh well….not often I go to a show with this young a crowd. But go check out I See Stars….good up and comer.

Eyes Set To Kill (eyessettokill) was a very popular band with the audience.  They flooded a side stage leaving little room for movement.  Does not hurt that these are fronted by two chicks pleasant on the eyes.  I thought they were decent.  Nothing special to warrant the enthusiasm of the crowd. Ironically, for crowd surfing on this one, it was mostly chicks.  Whats up with that? Hmmmm.

All American Rejects  (allamericanrejects) was terrific.  Great music, great personality, highly energetic, this group has it together. In fact, the only criticism I had is the lead talked a bit too much, or which, he then admitted it and shut up.  They are a tight group with pop/rock songs that are very catchy.  The crowd embraced them as well.  The lead singer was lucky to have had the rain come through and lower the temperatures from mid 90′s to 75 or so…as he was in a funky white suite and tie…he is the branding of the group.  Go see them.  Great band.

The above is stock pic (this was not our Von’s Warped Tour, you can tell by the presence of sun and water, and lately the only water in Dallas is that falling from the sky) of my favorite band that I heard.  We The Kings (wethekingsmusic) was an interesting outfit of great music, personality, and great crowd presence. I had heard a few of the songs before, but most not.  They are good writers.  They even played an acoustic song, slowing the pace way down, but held on to the audience. Not the tightest group I have ever heard, but very comfortable in their sound.  Once again, this is Pop/rock.  Most of the more popular acts were of this sound. It would be interesting to hear longer sets of these guys and the All American Rejects. I recommend seeing these guys as well.

It is the unfortunate situation that this is all I could identify. There were a host of other good bands there, many that I know.  This is not by prime listening area…but fairly familiar.  I would have loved to know who I was listening most of the time, because, Von’s Warped Tour, most really do go there for the music.

Many of you know that the our “Low Budget Review Guy” is likely to review a cadre of things…films, travel, shopping experiences, you name it, all in the name of the what usually the less expensive experience. Well, LBRG is a rum guy. Big time. So he weighs in with his latest rum review, with comment by me of course:

My latest rum project is called, “Flor De Cana”, a product of Nicaragua. Per their label, they have been making rum since 1890. This 80 proof dark rum comes marketed in years aged of 4, 5, 7, 12 and 18. I purchased the Grand Reserve 7 years. The manufacturers state their rum has won 72 international awards in the past 5 years. You never really know how accurate those statements are, but I had read a good review, so I tried it. Those that have read my previous rum reviews know that I have migrated over the years from the white, or silver rums, to the golden and/or dark rums. I have found that the darker rums have a stronger “rum” taste, and although maybe don’t mix as well with some fruit juices or for Boat Drinks, the darker rums mix great with cola or diet cola (or my current fav Cherry Coke Zero). If you find a fruit juice or party mix that blends well with the darker rums, the end product can be sensational. So, for my palate, you may have a roller coaster– some lower lows but the highs are exhilarating. This Flor de Cana is a moderate priced rum, about $20 at my local Twin Liquors. As always, first I pour a shot to sip straight, slowly because 80 proof is 80 proof. Most rums are 80 proof, but I have seen a few lower and some that are 92 proof (scary). I like to try a straight shot to actually taste the rum. It has a forceful “bite” but not overpowering. It has elements of vanilla, and a backtaste of blackberries. It caresses the tongue, slowly before a strong finish. I would not recommend it as a sipping rum. But most rums are not, nor are they distilled that way. Rums are made to mix and match, to mingle and jingle and dance the sun down. Or, in my brother’s case, to salute the sun as it comes up. Mixed with cola, this rum is very pleasant. Mixed with fruit juice, it blends well. I will try it with a party mix in a blender this weekend. In short, a pretty good, but not great, rum. A good rum value for the price. My top 3 favorite rums are still:

Pyrate
Plantation Grand Reserve
Goslings Black Seal

The Quest Continues….