Reader Mike R from Babylon donated a bottle of Brinley Gold Vanilla Rum to DnU HQ, to which we thank him very much. It’s a sweet, obviously vanilla-flavored rum, very dark in color. The color is due to added caramel color, which I consider a negative mark, but the rum is very tasty, very vanilla, and not overly sweet. It works well in mixed drinks that are helped with vanilla, like the Mudslide.

Mudslide

• 1 oz. rum, vanilla-flavored or light
• 1 oz. coffee liqueur
• 1 oz. crème de cacao
• 1.5 oz light cream, half-and-half, or whole milk
• enough ice cubes to fill up a third of a drink shaker

Add all ingredients into a shaker and shake well. Strain into a low ball glass.

There are a thousand different recipes for the Mudslide, and a lot of them call for chocolate syrup and/or vodka. That’s fine, but it’s taking a lot of the magic out of the drink, where a lot of flavors meld with each other in a unique and enjoyable way. I always prefer rum Mudslides.

The Brinley Gold is sweeter than light rum, so I put a bit more dairy in the drink than I usually would. Light rum is usually 80 proof, but Brinley Gold Vanilla is 72 proof—the loss due the additives, no doubt. But that difference does make Brinley Gold milder than light rum. The vanilla covers up any esters that may be in the rum, so there’s no complexity to it, but vanilla rum isn’t consumed for the subtle flavors that come from aging.