Deco Coffee Rum IS “Portland in a bottle”. Its fine, rich texture and its lovely aroma, delight the senses and cure the most hideous of hangovers. In a town where the residents pride themselves on their coffee and their booze, Deco Coffee Rum is the perfect combination of both.
Northwestpalate.com recently reviewed us and had wonderful things to say.
http://northwestpalate.com/northwest-spirits/coffee-liqueurs/
We’re extremely pleased with the great review and write-up from Proof66.com. They really “got” what we are striving for with our bold and flavorful Rums. In a head-to-head challenge, they compare Deco Coffee Rum with Kahlua and Deco Ginger Rum with Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum. We couldn’t be any happier with their results! Our Coffee Rum was preferred by their tasting panel 47% to 27%, and our Ginger Rum was preferred 62% to 30% over the Captain! Looks like we have a mutiny aboard the pirate ship!
Here’s the complete article from the Proof66 site:
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Deco Distilling flavored rums are about as gentle as the Northeast Atlantic coastline in storm and about as subtle as the political message behind the movie Avatar. Is that necessarily a bad thing? No, not at all. Sometimes what one is looking for is a little braggadocio and explicitly stated positions. But we think you should be warned: when you look at Deco Distilling Coffee Rum and see “coffee” or look at Deco Distilling Ginger Rum and see “ginger…” well, please believe them!
Portland, Oregon-based Deco Distilling was kind enough to provide us with two bottles of their craft distilled flavored rum to try. They’re one of the new craft distillers springing up from independent-minded Portland, Oregon (and, indeed, the entire Pacific Northwest). Founded in 2009 by Lenny Gotter and Bill Adams, their goal is to produce rums dedicated to finely distilled spirits creating explosive flavors. Their first two flavored offerings were coffee and ginger and these are what we set out to try.
First, a quick cultural lesson. While Seattle tends to be the city the tabloids recognize as the epicenter of coffee culture, it should be noted that Portland is as much the “City of Craft Brewery” and the “City of Coffee” as it is the “City of Roses.” Their independent attitude has equally fostered craft-distillery, organic gardening, and shamelessly mixes professional basketball with their sushi. So if you think rum is more properly made in the Caribbean, think again. If you think ginger isn’t as much a part of the Pacific Northwest as rhododendrons and apples, reset your geography. Portland is a wealth of exotic flavors mixing in a spirit of independence, small business, and economic sensibilities resembling more Henry David Thoreau than Donald Trump. [...]
Thanks to everyone with great taste in the Portland area who voted in PDX Approved–the Portland Mercury Reader’s Choice Awards. For a relatively new distillery, we’re proud to be on the short-list of go-to Portland spirits makers according to the people who really matter–all of you! Congratulations also to our sister distilleries in Distillery Row, New Deal, House Spirits and Integrity Spirits. We also just have to note how cool it is that this is even a category in a Reader’s Poll anywhere–take that Seattle!
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!”
The Boozeniks are passionate about finely crafted spirits, finely crafted cocktails, and the individuals involved in the industry. They taste every spirit at least three tastes before they publish a review, and in addition to tasting, they discuss possible applications and play with recipes, to help them describe and place the spirit. Here’s their review of our new Deco Coffee Rum:
If there’s anything Portlanders love, along with beer and spirits, it’s coffee. Capitalizing on that love affair, Deco have taken their Silver Rum and flavored it with coffee from local favorite Stumptown Coffee Roasters. The result is an interesting spirit with more presence than most flavored spirits, but with far less sweetness than most flavored liqueurs.
Nose: Dark roasted coffee. Sweet but slightly warm nose. Some dark berry fruit like that found in the aroma of some fruitier, winier African or Indonesian coffees. Cane sweetness from the rum.
Taste: Bittersweet, strong, dark coffee. Oily and full-bodied. Coats the tongue, the mouth. Definite earthiness to it. Lightly fruity, like the nose, but with more bittersweet tastes and bitter dark chocolate flavors taking over. Relatively smooth.
Finish: Slightly bitter. Salty. Definitely earthy with a long, but not complex aftertaste. Just a long, bittersweet, coffee flavor.
Notes: Pronounced, rich coffee flavor that is not buried by too much sweetness like some popular coffee liquors. I look forward to substituting it for those in some cocktail experiments. I also see this working especially well with bitter chocolate and flavors of cherry, and orange peel.
They warn on the label that this may contain caffeine. Given the amount of coffee sediment at the bottom of the bottle I would not be surprised if it had quite a kick.
Please visit the Boozenik website where you can read all of their in-depth spirits reviews and industry news.
At the recently held 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, our new Deco Coffee Rum was awarded the Silver Medal in the Flavored Rum category by a judging panel of expert spirits tasters.
A record number of entries, 1106 products from 61 countries, were evaluated by 33 of the finest palates from the spirits industry. These judging panels were comprised of spirits experts from noted restraurants and hotels, well-known spirits journalists from major national media, spirits buyers for large purveyors, and spirits consultants. Judging was based on a blind, consensual procedure ensuring competitive integrity, making this competition the most reputable and recognized competition in the spirits industry.
Taste it and judge for yourself
Try our new Coffee Rum today and taste the rich, smooth coffee flavor that the experts agreed was worthy of a medal!
Portland’s local weekly, Willamette Week has recommended Deco Ginger Rum on their Last Minute Gift Guide! And we couldn’t agree more! Deco fine and flavored rums make great stocking stuffers and hostess gifts! From the intro:
Problem: Christmas is 10 days away, and you still haven’t found the time or willpower to drag yourself out shopping. Now you have to brave the crowds of other late present-seekers, trudging miserably through the rain in search of gifts your relatives won’t sneer at. Forget it—just grab a few of the cool items pictured on the next 20 pages and call it good.
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 Ginger Rum where Roger rates it as an 8.5 and Dave gives it a 9 out of 10!
Here are their review summaries (you can read the entire review at the RnD Site):
Roger – Deco Ginger rum is a unique and bold new rum. Its strong, unapologetic flavor isn’t intended to be enjoyed neat or on the rocks, but rather in outstanding cocktails or simply with your favorite soda. Worthy of adding to your collection whether you are an award winning mixologist, ginger lover, or just rum fan.
Dave – Unique even among spiced rum, I’ve not tasted anything else like it. Perfect for cocktails that require some ginger essence and spice. While Deco’s Ginger rum is smooth enough to sip neat or with a little ice, it really deserves a custom recipe that rewards the spicy ginger flavor. Deco’s Ginger rum has wide appeal to cocktails, it can used be the singular alcohol foundation for a tasty cocktail, or as a splash to add a zesty pick me up to many Caribbean concoctions.
From Travel Age West magazine:
Portland’s new “it” neighborhood is home to Distillery Row, providing visitors with a tour of local spirits.
Long known as an epicenter for craft products, Portland has a thriving microdistillery scene that’s developing as new distillers introduce unique spirits. The Central Eastside district – an industrial area quickly becoming Portland’s new “it” neighborhood – is home to Distillery Row, a collaborative effort of five distilleries to provide visitors a tasting tour of local spirits.
Two newcomers to Distillery Row include Deco Distilling and Stone Barn Brandy Works. Deco’s focus on rum might make visitors write off Bacardi forever. Stone Barn produces fruit brandies from local ingredients such as apples and pears in addition to grappa, ouzo, rye whiskey and liqueurs of coffee, strawberry and apricot.
On Oct. 23 and 24, the Great American Distillers Festival celebrates all things something-proof in downtown Portland. The local event, which brings in craft distillers from around the United States, returns for its sixth year and is open to the public.
