From the Bar – a handful of new spirits and wines to try plus a new snack

We went on a shopping trip to replenish the bar. These were mostly on sale at the PA liquor stores when we were there last week.

Bacardi Black (Carta Negra) Rum – This is a strange one. To our palate, it is wood and smoke, coal smoke. There is the standard sweet molasses rum taste, but it’s nearly overrun by the bitter smoke. We’re also still not sure if we like this. I think it should work in some kind of a tiki-style drink(something named for a volcano!), but haven’t come upon a good recipe. When mixed with cola, it has this peculiarly nostalgic taste of Vicks Formula 44 cough syrup.

Devotion Vodka – I was looking for a vodka to keep on the shelf, and this bottle caught my “goth before there were goths” eye; a pair of angel wings and a fancy font will do that. This is very smooth, a fairly heavy mouthfeel for a vodka, and a bit of sweetness on the flavor, but not much else. It is a corn based vodka, and happily doesn’t taste anything like the corn whiskies aka moonshine, that are enjoying some popularity. It’s marketed as “gluten-free” “no sugar added” and “gmo-free”, all things that I do not care about in the least.

Rhum Barbancourt 5 Star(aged 8 years) – After reading so much about tiki drinks, I wanted to try a rhum agricole. They are quite different than molasses-distilled rums. There is still a bit of the rum taste, but it’s like the lightest rum ever, very smooth, with a touch of grassiness and citrus fruit.

Woop Woop Chardonay – This is a decent unoaked chardonnay from Australia.   For $10, it does the job. Since it’s unoaked, I can taste the minerality of it. It’s very dry, and I find it similar to pinot Grigio and similar wines.

Sky River Blackberry Honey Wine – This caught my husband’s eye since he knows I love biplanes and blackberries. One of my favorite books when I was in junior high was “Falcons of France” about the Lafayette Escadrille (you can read the book at internet archive) This was a good mead, or more appropriately a melomel, with a bit of the berry funkiness to it. We’re definitely mead purists, making our own, but this was a good one.

And a new snack!

Pasta Chips – This is a new snack that I’m quite taken with. We got the Garlic Olive Oil flavor and they don’t stint on the garlic. Yum!  The chip is a very thin cracker made from pasta and baked. I really like the crunch, and I’m a texture fiend.

That’s all. Eat and drink well!