Lenny Gotter, Roger from RnD, and Bill Adams at the Deco Coffee Launch Party
Review site, RnD (featuring Roger Patteson and Dave Russell) has 30 years of experience tasting rum in the Caribbean. They search the World for the finest rums, often tasting them right where they are made, and review them honestly. Deco is pleased to share their great review of Deco Coffee Rum where Roger rates it as an 8.5 and Dave gives it a 8 out of 10! Here’s their complete review…
Objective Notes
Very Smooth (on the RnD scale of Harsh-Smooth-Very Smooth-Extremely Smooth)
Deco Coffee Flavored Rum is dark brown to black in color. As expected the predominate aroma is fresh roasted coffee beans (A dark roast) along with very faint vanilla. A medium body is discovered on the initial taste along with flavors of espresso and a flavorful dark roasted coffee. The finish is medium in length with a nice coffee bite that lingers a while longer in your mouth. No doubt about what you are enjoying!
Anecdotal Notes
Roger – Deco Coffee Flavored Rum is distilled locally in Portland, Oregon by Lenny Gotter and Bill Adams who are the owners of Deco Distillery, now a part of Distillery Row, a small but up and coming district of artisan distillers. They take distilling and passion for creating new flavored rums seriously delivering unapologetic and bold products. Lenny Gotter says “This isn’t like any other coffee spirit. You can count on that!” I agree. He also added “I originally came up with idea after making my own liqueurs, and after using real coffee, was so happy with the deep rich flavor decided that a flavored rum would be even better. Doing all the flavor testing was a bit of a challenge tho, as I am fairly sensitive to caffeine, so I had to schedule weekend days and try everything out early in the day so I wouldn’t be awake all night!”
Portland, Oregon is known for its large number of microbreweries (28) and microdistilleries (14), as well as a coffee passion. So no better place to produce a rum flavored coffee. Deco distills the base rum from molasses in a reflux still that is a combination of a pot and continuous column still. After a short time in stainless steel tanks the rum is combined with 60 pounds of ground fresh roasted arabica beans from the famous Stumptown Coffee Roasters per batch. It’s allowed to sit for a couple days imparting the bold flavor before it’s racked off and filtered twice prior to bottling. Deco Coffee Rum won a Silver Medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition in the Flavored Rum category.
I was invited to the launch or “birth-date” party for Deco Coffee Rum at the famous Thatch Tiki Bar in Portland March, 22, 2010. A great setting to experience and enjoy several creative and great drinks including the Black Tie (great coffee Mai Tai), Deco Magic (wonderful blended cocktail), and the Deco Espresso Martini (which also uses Deco Ginger Rum). The recipe for the Espresso Martini is posted on our “If you must mix” page.
Dave – An art-deco black and brown label rendered in the distiller’s classic style fits well with the blackish color pushing through a tall, clear glass bottle. The black synthetic cork under attractive silver plastic foil seems perfectly suited to the overall visual appeal of this rum.
Taster’s Opinion
Roger – Deco Coffee Flavored Rum is an intense coffee flavored rum and not some sugary flavored liqueur. Bottled at 40% it has a very robust coffee flavor, similar to a cold coffee drink, but more potent! It’s fun to try neat but it really is meant to make creative and cool cocktails like listed above. Be aware that this rum has a lot of caffeine in it. Enjoy!
Dave – Deco Coffee Rum makes for a decent cuppa java, and an even better rum. Use it wherever you had been using Kahlua previously and step up a more sophisticated taste. Deco has achieved their goal of creating a delicious coffee flavored rum, just right for adding to cocktails that require coffee flavor. Amongst rum aficionados, Deco might give Starbucks a run for their money in the iced coffee business!!
Taster’s Rating (10 is best): Roger – 8.5 Flasks, Dave – 8 Flasks.
