Words On Wednesday

Want to order an old favorite, but sound fancy doing it? Get a Cuba Libre! It's just a rum and cola with lime, but it sounds cultured. Plus, it's fun to say: Cuba Libre. As the Lima One Capital annual company party was approaching, I was discussing it in the office with the data engineering team. You know, before I got laid off? I really felt like if there were no hard feelings, they should've let us still attend the party to go out with a bang. Alas, I digress. At that point, I still had every intention of attending the celebration. One of the data engineers said she planned on getting a Cuba Libre. I was intrigued, a Cuba Libre? I hadn't heard of that. "Oh, it's just rum and Coke with lime." How droll. I love a rum and cola, and I frequently throw lime in it because lime is amazing. Turns out, I had been drinking Cuba Libre for years and didn't even know it. Beyond being simple and delicious, it's also cheap. When you don't have a job, you...

To celebrate Thursday Thursday Eve falling on Christmas Day, I wanted to feature a drink that really felt like Christmas in a cup. After some digging, I found the Coquito . A lot of times, when people think of Christmas, they picture that Hallmark movie set with snow everywhere and people bundled up. Problem is, this is South Carolina. Most years, Christmas is sunny with a high of 65. It ain’t cold. It ain’t even really cool. I usually end up wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it’s comfortable. If we lived somewhere cold, spiced buttered rum would be perfect. Instead, I wanted something cold, ideally something I could share with my cousins while we fry the turkey out back. That normally looks like a bottle of some whiskey that we stick in the back of my truck and mix with whatever soda is available. Surely I could find something a little more celebratory. I skimmed through a few lists of Christmas cocktail ideas, but none of them really seemed to fit what I wanted. Either they had a lau...

Costco recently discontinued their “Original Spiced Rum” for a few months and brought it back as the simply named “Kirkland Signature Spiced Rum.” Is it the same thing in a different bottle? I had to find out. Name: Kirkland Signature Spiced Rum Source: Kirkland Signature Style: Spiced Rum ABV: 40% Price: $16.99 Volume: 1.75L Price per oz: $0.29 I used to love Costco’s spiced rum . I always kept a bottle on hand. It was super cheap and really good, with a high enough alcohol content to really pack a punch when you wanted to make a strong drink. And one of the really nice things was its availability. This isn’t one of those limited releases that you have to keep an eye out for before it gets bought up, or wait until something more expensive catches a rare sale. Every time I walked into the Costco liquor store, they had a full pallet of it, and the price was always the same. This is the type of consistency and dependability that I live for. At least, it was. I went for my regular Costco ...

While it’s still cold, I wanted to take the opportunity to rave about spiced buttered rum for a moment and how it is the ideal way to stay warm. For the longest time, I heard about spiced buttered rum at Christmas parties and other such gatherings. Growing up, my family were teetotalers, so there wasn’t any alcohol anywhere. When we were old enough to buy our own alcohol, my cousins and I would just bring our own alcohol to Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc, and sneak it into red solo cups outside. Having a pitcher of alcohol actually featured in the party was unspeakable. Eventually, I just decided to make some for myself. It was cold and I wanted to try it, so I looked up a recipe  and made some of the butter mix. Fortunately, the process is that you make a batch of the butter and just cut off a pat, add rum, and top it with hot water to melt the butter down. This would be a huge pain if you made the mix per drink, but you can make enough per batch to get probably 20 or more servings....

As my first (and probably only) Thirsty Thursday Eve covering monthly discounted liquors from North Carolina, I thought it all too appropriate to pick the first style of alcohol that I ever reviewed here : spiced rum. Specifically, Admiral Nelson’s 70 proof spiced rum. Name:      Spiced Rum Source:      Admiral Nelson ABV:      35% Price:      $7.95 ($9.95) Volume:      750ml Price per oz:      $0.31 ($0.39) For a long time now, my approach to bottom shelf liquor has been, “just how bad can it be?” This cheap spiced rum surprised me, however. I’d genuinely say it’s good. It’s very smooth, even accounting for the small proof reduction. I try to base my judgement on smoothness from a standard 80 proof perspective, and adjust my expectations accordingly. This spiced rum is 70 proof, but it drinks more like a 40-ish proof liquor. It’s sweet and a little spicy. The flavor profile isn’t exactly dee...

Feeling a little adventurous during my most recent Costco liquor run, I decided to branch out from my standard Spiced Rum  and try their Kirkland Signature vodka. I had noticed the American Vodka before (they also have a French Vodka), and noted that it seemed to be the cheapest item by volume in the store. Even cheaper than the rum that I’m so familiar with. I considered picking up a bottle numerous times before, since it only costs $13 for a handle. Still, every time, I decided against it in favor of something else. Anyone who knows my tastes in alcohol understands that I just don’t do vodka. I’ve tried a few brands here and there, and none of them have done much for me. One of the first alcoholic beverages I ever purchased was a bottle of Svedka , and let me tell you, it was awful. Just north of Southern Comfort, and I’d rather drink Nyquil straight than anything with SoCo in it. I hung onto the bottle of Svedka for a while, out of the inability to waste it, and final...

Of all the things I might discuss for the first Thirsty Thursday Eve  post, Costco’s Kirkland Signature Original Spiced Rum seemed to be the most appropriate. I love everything from Costco anyway, and their drinks are no different. I recommend it to pretty much anyone who partakes in alcohol, and I always have a bottle up on the shelf. It may not be the single best distilled spirit I’ve ever had, but it’s really good, and really cheap. Price is the biggest selling point for this spiced rum. I can get a 1.75 L handle from my local Costco for $15. I don’t know of another liquor you can get for that cheap, let alone something worth drinking. Some quick math shows us that 1.75 L is approximately 60 oz. For a 1.5 oz shot, you can get right at 40 shots from a handle. This comes out to about 37.5 cent per shot. You get a shot of rum for less than 40 cent. This stuff is cheap. When I say cheap, though, I speak solely on price. This rum does not *taste* cheap. I won’t say the qua...