Gnomey Rodger

I have often enjoyed a good spiced rum and Coke. Many of my first drinking experiences were based around spiced rum. This was one of the most important varieties for me personally. I did not feel like I could say I made good rum until I had a spiced rum I was proud of. Spiced Rum is one of those easy to make but impossible to master type spirits. I made variation after variation trying to find my favorite. Each time I learned a little more about what I liked, or disliked, in a spiced rum. You learn what spice imparts what flavor and how much is too much. I learned that I am a fan of Nutmeg, Cloves, and Citrus in my spiced rum so those will be easy to identify but the list is much longer, see what you can pick out.

This one was pretty tough to name, I knew I wanted something pirate related but also did not want to encroach on another well-known pirate brand. My goal is not to directly compete with any market brands and I would rather focus on just making the best product I can. Several of the friend and family circle wanted another pirate captain and to find a variation of him that we all liked. I actually really struggled with this, I was playing with ideas of taking a pirate ship somehow and making that work but I couldn’t get anything gnomish that I liked. I don't remember who, but at some point in the discussions one of us threw out using the "Jolley Rodger", the pirate flag, and putting a Gnorm on it. We played with a few variations of this and landed on the existing logo. We had some fun with giving him a few gnomish characteristics, like his beard and hat, to tie it in with the rest of the product line.

I already admitted to Nutmeg, Cloves, and Citrus. There is a long list of ingredients though. I make this variety like a tea, We take our ingredients and after a good toasting, steep them in the White Wizard Rum. The process takes a little longer but I feel you get a better infusion and I can pick out much more of the individual ingredients this way. The dangerous side of this is that sometimes you get an extremely potent spice that imparts much more than normal. We have had a couple batches where the Nutmeg or the citrus ran away and made the batch much stronger than we were expecting. To remedy this we would make a larger batch and try to adjust on the fly. It's not always possible but I would rather have the best product I can make and risk a potential hiccup.

After our spices have been steeping for a set amount of time we then strain it out. I could use a super fine filter and get every potential bit of particulate out of the spirit but that’s so much of the flavor out. I am happy to explain to customers why there is a bit of sediment that has settled out of the rum after sitting for months. That’s the flavor settling down, give it a quick shake and enjoy.