Bacardi Debuts Torched Cherry Rum for Summer
Bacardi flavored rums are unlike any other. In a lineup of unmarked bottles, Bacardi blends always stand out as being the most fragrant. Whether you're a Limon or a Dragon Berry type of rum drinker, your preferred flavor will fill the room with aroma. I attended a Bacardi-hosted event to determine just how they make their varietals so intensely flavorful. In correlation with the summer launch of their latest flavor, Torched Cherry, Barcardi invited journalists to come and mix their own cherry rums.
After learning about each of the various flavors that go into Torched Cherry, we were given a selection of infusions to experiment making our own. While we were given five flavors to come close to the Bacardi original, we weren't given the entire lot of flavors in the mix, thus protecting the prized recipe.
We began with Black Cherry, a jammy and fruity infusion that most resembled the classic cherry taste we find in food. Next we added Maraschino, king of the cocktail fruits for that ripe sweet and cinnamon flavor. Cassia Distillate, the medicinal cherry you taste in cough drops added a further level of familiar cherry. I left this over-the-top sweet flavor out of my own mix, but when added to the whole, it's the cherry taste that stands out in a rum and coke. Acerola, resembling bing or dried cherries balanced out this Cassia Distillate. And finally we added Torched Aloe Plant, the flavor that brings it all together, a minty and herbal flavor that fully brings out the mix of cherry flavors.
The new Bacardi flavor, infused with cherries from Barbados and spiked with a tinge of Torch Plant Aloe, took Beverage Scientist Kara Bogden 18 tries before finding the perfect blend. It's a mix that blends every childhood memory of cherry we have into one perfect summer mix that is neither too sweet nor too sour.
For the essential cherry coke this Memorial day weekend, try mixing three parts natural coke with one part Torched Cherry rum over ice.
