Fresh off the success of my first Temptryst rum review, I was living on easy street. Life certainly didn’t get any better than being able to review such a fine product while simultaneously basking in the warm glow of exclusivity that comes with having a premium product that isn’t available yet. The world was my oyster, and I had shucked the…
I had shucked…
OK even I don’t know where to go from “I had shucked”, so let’s move on.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, a package arrived on my doorstep with the return address of Au’Natural. Inside this package was a familiar square bottle that I immediately recognized as some of Daniel Watson’s Temptryst rum: Temptryst Mesquite.
Appearances
The Mesquite rum has a dark amber color. It doesn’t look heavy, and a quick swirl in the glass reveals that this isn’t an illusion. The legs of the spirit are good and fairly strong, sliding slowly down the side of the glass.
Nose
After giving my glass it’s requisite swirls (I swear my wife must think I’m crazy – sitting at my desk or the table just swirling my drink around and then staring at it from about 3 inches away, muttering to myself), I explored the nose. The nose is surprisingly cool. I know it sounds odd to say that something smells cool, but there just isn’t any other way to say it. There is very little warmth coming up from the glass. As the actual scents permeate the nasal passages, you can find the expected woody notes: mesquite and even a tad of what I would swear is cedar, followed by a slight richness of molasses. The first image that comes to mind is the collection of brush and salt cedar behind my parents’ house in San Antonio. This smells like a Texas rum.
Character & Palate
Just as the rum doesn’t appear heavy, it is very light on the tongue. You immediately find the same woody notes that were evident in the nose. The images of the Texas countryside again flood to the mind. There’s a dry, smoky quality to the rum, with very subtle sweetness underneath – coffee and cocoa. The sweetness is dominated by the smoky mesquite flavor.
The finish was clean, as expected. There was almost no burn at the back of the throat, and you’re left with the familiar tingle on the tongue.
To be honest, at first blanch, while this is a good sipping rum, it didn’t grab me like the Cherrywood did. It’s dryer, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I tend to like the richer flavors to come through in my rums. The flavors that I really wanted to find were requiring more effort to find, and I’m inherently lazy. Things were looking bleak for the Mesquite…it might be limited to only a 4 out of 5 rating.
Take A Breath
I decided to let the glass sit while I scribbled down my notes (all of my tasting notes are originally handwritten on a Kermit The Frog themed notepad…no, there’s no reason for that). With a lot of rums – as with wine – if you let the spirit sit and breathe for a bit it will open up to you and you can find more treasures hidden in the glass. This isn’t always the case. Sometimes all you get is a fading spirit as the effects of evaporation take their toll.
With the Temptryst Mesquite, the former is definitely the case. After I had finished my scribbling, I revisited the nose to see if my scrawled “Molasses???” made any sense or if I was imagining things. I was amazed at the difference time had made. The nose was significantly richer, with the sweetness of the molasses being much more prevalent than it had been at the initial inspection.
This was exciting…like reaching the climax of a good book. I plunged back into the glass to see if the flavor profile had undergone the same change. The taste was a bit sweeter than before, with a molasses flavor at the front, followed by the slightest hint of fruity notes (citrus?), and then immediately consumed by the smoky woodiness of the finish. THIS was the rum I was expecting. It was wonderful and complex, with the various flavors neither beating you over the head nor requiring an excavation to find.
The Long & The Short Of It
Temptryst Mesquite is an excellent rum. It starts very simply and coolly, catches its breath, and then opens like a flower to present its true depth and complexity. This rum has a distinct, outdoorsy taste to it. After emptying my glass, I wanted to run outside and fire up the grill, grab some fish, some cedar planks, and get cooking. While I don’t think that this is going to necessarily unseat the Cherrywood as my favorite of Daniel Watson’s creations (thus far), it is definitely going to find a permanent home on my shelf and in my rotation of libations.
Dood’s Rating: 5 Bottles of Rum Out of 5
Tags: rum, rum reviews, temptryst
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Cedar sounds interesting and I definitely understand what you mean by a cool nose. I need to get my hands on these rums.
Very nice review Dude! You covered the bases nicely. Good work!