Spiced rum heats up as temperatures fall

As the temperature dips into the damp 50s, spiced rum makes its annual appearance. Bartenders who eschew this flavored spirit the rest of the year take advantage of wintry flavors to create drinks appropriate for the cold weather we think we're experiencing.

Union Square is not just the epicenter of spray-can snow and an electric-cooled outdoor skating rink; it's also a vortex of spiced rum cocktails.

Last year, Clock Bar served a hot buttered rum with spiced rum; this year it's a drink with maple-walnut syrup. The Burritt Room offers two spiced rum drinks: a spiced punch and a ginger-sherry flip. The Redwood Room offered a one-day special made with rum and warm apple cider that you could get for free by sending a Twitter message, but also offers another spiced rum cocktail for which they'd happily take your money any time.

The Burritt Room's average cocktail is not so spicy, but bar manager Kevin Diedrich uses the liquor to lure "Captain and Coke" drinkers into trying more adventurous cocktails.

Of two spiced rum drinks on the menu, he described one as "an introduction to the flavor of spices by doing punch." It is served by the bowl. The other, a flip made with egg yolk, is served as both a seasonal cocktail and a dessert drink.

"In the wintertime people want something heavier," he says.

Clock Bar's Tommy Quimby also uses spiced rum in a seasonal cocktail called When the Leaves Fall. He finds the rum's flavors bring autumn to mind.

"It has a nice spice to it and a little vanilla flavor as well, which adds a lot to the cocktail," Quimby says. "Then we also incorporate a lot of our own syrups and fresh ingredients that fall along with the seasons."

Not everyone is sold. Smuggler's Cove offers 225 rums, but only four are spiced. Owner Martin Cate says in order to carry them, "They have to show me that they were made with actual spices." None make it onto the drink list, however.

"There's no spiced rum drink on my menu because so many of my drinks already use baking spices," Cate says.

For much of the rest of the year, most spiced rum drinkers make do with cola. Mark Breene, vice president of rums for Diageo, says that two-thirds of Captain Morgan, the top-selling spiced rum, is consumed that way.

Two years ago there were just a handful of spiced rums, but now there are 60 to 75 brands of spiced rum, according to David Ozgo of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Ozgo estimates that spiced rum accounted for 29 percent of the total rum market in 2009, or about 7.2 million cases.

While the original Captain Morgan is 35 percent alcohol, lower than the 40 percent of most unflavored rums and other spirits, several new brands are stronger, including Sailor Jerry (46 percent), Blackbeard (43), Blackheart (46.5), and the Kraken (47).

Note that the seafaring theme holds steady.

While many of the rums are flavored primarily with vanilla and caramel - their representatives decline to disclose other ingredients - some new brands are actually promoting specifics. Cruzan 9 is so named for nine spices that go into it, including mace, pepper, ginger and juniper. Old New Orleans Cajun Spice adds cayenne to the mix. Chairman's Reserve Spiced includes coconut and a Caribbean bark called Richeria grandis. The Lash uses a base of 4-year-old rum and has visible flakes of spices that settle to the bottom of the bottle.

Indeed, spiced rum is so hot right now that otherwise unspiced brands - or brands that aren't rum - are angling in. Revelstoke is a newly revived "spiced whisky" from Canada. Beefeater launched a limited Winter Edition gin that includes cinnamon, nutmeg and Seville orange. Flor de Caņa rum doesn't offer a spiced flavor, but sent out a press release on how to spice it oneself.

Of course, the simple way to winterize cocktails is to substitute spiced rum for another spirit. It works well in cocktails like the hot toddy and eggnog, or with warm apple cider.

Or since the Clock Bar, Burritt Room and the Redwood Room are so close to Union Square, you could undertake a low-impact spiced rum cocktail crawl. If only the rink were a little bigger, you could skate from one bar to the next.

Camper English is a cocktails and spirits writer and publisher of Alcademics.com. E-mail him at wine@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page K - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle