Recommendations for a good rum to spike apple cider with?

[MaggieTheCat]

Title pretty much says it all...for my holiday party this year, I want to serve a warm, spiced apple cider. One recipe I came across calls for "dark rum" but as I don't drink much at all, I have no idea what would pair well with the cider. Any suggestions? Non-rum suggestions are welcome, too!

[KiaKat]

El Dorado dark rum. A liter should be less than $20, and it's freaking awesome stuff.

Another option is if you can find an apple brandy. That stuff is really tasty in cider.

[Jester]

If you and your guests are fans of cinnamon, Fireball is a killer cider spiker. It's not rum, but it is fantastic.

As for rum in cider....

Captain Morgan's is a classic. If you want something a little different for spiced rum, we all know how much I love Kilo Kai.

For non-spiced rum, I've always liked Appleton Estate VX in cider. It blends perfectly. Another basic rum that would probably work well would be Flor de Cana 7. Or even Mount Gay Eclipse.

Dark rums? Depending on your budget, you could go with Zacapa 23, though it's not cheap. Not ridiculous, but not cheap. Zaya might be interesting in cider. You can always go with Bacardi Select, which isn't great, but is pretty damn good for a Bacardi product, and a good mixer. Myers's is the classic dark rum, but might be a bit heavy for cider. Don't get Cruzan Black Strap, though; while it's a great mixing rum, it's heavy licorice tones might conflict with the cider.

Those are my suggestions....let me know if you have more questions about the above rums or any others.

[MaggieTheCat]

Thank you both for the suggestions! I am not familiar with Fireball but may have to look for and try it out. I do love cinnamon, especially in cider. Do you think it could be combined with something else, like Captain Morgan, or would that be overkill?

[Greenday]

Screw the rum (sorry Jester), go with Goldschlager. You're welcome.

[Jester]

No apologies necessary, dude. After all, my very first suggestion was a non-rum as well.

Goldschlager is a cinnamon liqueur. I love it.
Fireball is a cinnamon whiskey. I love it, too.
Either would be great in cider if you love cinnamon.
Conversely, if guests don't like cinnamon, they'd hate either one.

Now, myself, I would not use either of those in combination with a rum, as that would be overkill, purely on an alcoholic standpoint. But even if you adjust for proportion, any decent flavored or spiced rum combined with either of the cinnamon boozes above would be, in my case, not flavor overkill, but flavor confusion: the various flavors would just fight, making the beverage either muddled or over-flavored. A basic rum such as Appleton VX would work with either of the cinnamon liquors, but the only reason I could see for doing that would be if you're trying to tamp down the cinnamon flavor, which, depending on your guests, may actually be a desirable result.

Your best bet is experimentation. If you can afford it, buy two or three of the liquors suggested, and do some pre-party small scale testing, with you as the lucky lab rat. Figure out what works. If you're just going to buy one bottle, go for one of the cinnamons, and any guests who don't like cinnamon can simply forego it and just drink the cider as is.

As a responsible host, remember that when you put a standard shot of liquor in a standard-sized cider, you are in fact serving a double to your guests, alcoholically speaking.

[yeahwhatev]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/611744465506631/

[Jester]

Completely unfamiliar with the linked rum (never even heard of it!), so I can't give any insight on it, positive or negative.

[Sapphire Silk]

I've used cinnamon schnapps. It was wonderful

[PhiSigGirl1988]

I've had Goldschlager mixed with Woodchuck cider, which was pretty tasty. I can imagine it would taste great in regular apple cider as well. I think Jester pretty much covered everything. Fireball is awesome and would probably taste really good. It's one of the few liquors (that I've had thus far) that I can take shots of without cringing. And Captain is pretty much always a good choice.

[wolfie]

As a responsible host, remember that when you put a standard shot of cider in a standard-sized cider, you are in fact serving a double to your guests, alcoholically speaking.

I had a bit of trouble wrapping my brain around that - did you mean a standard shot of liquor in a standard-sized cider? Also, there are 2 kinds of cider - sweet and hard. OP didn't say which they were using, but turning it into a double would only apply with hard cider. Sweet cider is basically a minimally-processed (and un-fermented) apple juice.

[Jester]

Wolfie both spotted my typo and pointed out a flaw in my thinking,

First, I did in fact mean a standard shot of liquor put into hard cider. I've corrected that mistake in my post.

Also, if the OP is spiking non-alcoholic cider with booze, my comments about serving a double do not apply. The original post seems to suggest that is, in fact, what the OP is planning on doing. Only if you put a shot of liquor in a HARD cider will it cause a double.

My bad.

[MaggieTheCat]

I honestly had not thought of spiking hard cider, but that sounds awesome as well, so I think I'll offer both. Also, a friend of mine has a bottle of butterscotch schnapps that she says is really good with apple cider, turns it into a sort of caramel apple taste, so she is going to bring that for us to experiment with!

[XCashier]

Hmm. Perhaps serve the nonalcoholic apple cider as is, and have a selection of bottles your guests can choose to add to their cider?

Certain farm stands around here make their own sweet cider, and it is heavenly. The scent alone is absolutely dreamy. I need to get some this year.

[Yfandes]

If you have a Trader Joe's in your area, they have Flip Flop rum for $3.99 a bottle (at least the ones in So Cal do). I quite like the dark one for mixing.