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These bottles with the aged rum inside them are best seen as rare antiquities with historical value. It's highly unlikely that anyone will ever drink that rum.

by cs702 3y ago

arcticbull 3y ago
lol, I'd drink it, if I found a couple more people to split the bottle cost with me. Might even grab two, one to drink and one to display. Thing is, I bet is not very good. If it were, I think it would be a lot more expensive.
chomp 3y ago
And academic value, it's interesting to see the composition of food and beverage from decades (centuries?) past. However, I found an article where the purchasers drank the rum. It's natural curiosity.
- cs702 3y ago
  > the purchasers drank the rum People never cease to surprise me -- and prove me wrong!
MisterBastahrd 3y ago
If I were a multimillionaire spirits enthusiast, I'd absolutely drink it. Either someone will drink it one day or someone will accidentally break the bottle and seal and it will lose its contents. Might as well knowingly use it than unknowingly waste it.
_yb2s 3y ago
I drank an unopened bottle of 120 year old scotch I found buried in sand at the beach. Planned to donate it to a museum but the cork fell out on its own so I tried it. Was pretty awful tasting TBH.
- etrautmann 3y ago
  How did you come across this? Were you digging with the intention of finding something?
  - _yb2s 3y ago
    Just walking on a beach, and ran across it randomly.
- TheRealPomax 3y ago
  If the cork fell out on its own, what possessed you to even try it? That bottle had been interacting with the environment for years, if not decades.
  - bunga-bunga 3y ago
    To be fair, all the interactions were sanitized with 40% alcohol.
  - _yb2s 3y ago
    It fell out after several months of drying out, I think it was sealed until then. I made a mistake of storing it vertical when it sat horizontal for a century. It was drinkable, just not very good.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  Liquor doesn't really age in the bottle. Learned that the hard way from a 100 year old bottle of 5 year whiskey a buddy found at an estate sale.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > Liquor doesn't really age in the bottle I know this is the industry answer, but I don't buy it. For one, anyone who has stored liquor or wine vertically knows that the cork is constantly drawing out moisture. So at the very least, an older liquor in a corked bottle will be dehydrated compared to a younger one.
    - TheCoelacanth 3y ago
      That's more like (very slowly) spoiling. "Ageing" is usually used for when it changes the flavor in a desirable way.
      - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
        > more like (very slowly) spoiling. "Ageing" is usually used for when it changes the flavor in a desirable way. I've tasted whiskies bottled in the 1940s and 50s. I rather liked whatever they were doing in comparison with fresher bottles. Over shorter intervals, sealed bottles of Chartreuse increase in complexity with time in a manner I find difficult to describe as anything but aging.
        kasey_junk 3y ago
        It’s just straight up wrong to suggest that liqueur doesn’t change in glass and I don’t think anyone in the industry would say otherwise. They are really talking about imparting the aging vessel on the spirit when they say aging. And glass doesn’t impart anything. Whiskey breaks down over time even if store really well. Sometimes that results in a good outcome, sometimes not. It also could be you just like the recipes from back then. Chartreuse is famous for “aging” in glass. My hypothesis is it’s just such a wild flavor profile muting it (which is what most often happens as spirits breakdown) makes for a more complex taste.
OkayPhysicist 3y ago
It wouldn't be anything special, anyways. Liquor ages in barrels. Once it's bottled, best case scenario it stays the same. The best you could hope for is learning "ah, so this is how Rum tasted 300 years ago"
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  That's pretty impressive to think about though; there are few foods I can think of where it is possible to taste something as it would have been centuries ago. I believe there are also reports of people trying honey from Egyptian tombs, but I'm not aware of any other foods that are able to be preserved indefinitely.
pcurve 3y ago
People have. https://cocktailwonk.com/2018/09/drinking-the-harewood-house-1780-rum.html https://cocktailwonk.com/2018/09/drinking-the-harewood-house... Spoiler: it wasn't impressive. "The Harewood gives the impression of a lightly aged rum, perhaps a year or two. Letting it breathe a bit more, I was surprised to pick up cucumber – admittedly a most unusual rum flavor descriptor. With more time, I picked up spice notes, but not much vanilla. All in all, an extremely interesting rum, unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. But if had to choose one rum as my one desert island selection, it wouldn’t be the Harewood, much as I enjoyed it."

These bottles with the aged rum inside them are best seen as rare antiquities with historical value. It's highly unlikely that anyone will ever drink that rum.

by cs702 3y ago

These bottles with the aged rum inside them are best seen as rare antiquities with historical value. It's highly unlikely that anyone will ever drink that rum.

arcticbull 3y ago

lol, I'd drink it, if I found a couple more people to split the bottle cost with me. Might even grab two, one to drink and one to display. Thing is, I bet is not very good. If it were, I think it would be a lot more expensive.

chomp 3y ago

And academic value, it's interesting to see the composition of food and beverage from decades (centuries?) past. However, I found an article where the purchasers drank the rum. It's natural curiosity.

cs702 3y ago
> the purchasers drank the rum People never cease to surprise me -- and prove me wrong!

MisterBastahrd 3y ago

If I were a multimillionaire spirits enthusiast, I'd absolutely drink it. Either someone will drink it one day or someone will accidentally break the bottle and seal and it will lose its contents. Might as well knowingly use it than unknowingly waste it.

_yb2s 3y ago

I drank an unopened bottle of 120 year old scotch I found buried in sand at the beach. Planned to donate it to a museum but the cork fell out on its own so I tried it. Was pretty awful tasting TBH.

etrautmann 3y ago
How did you come across this? Were you digging with the intention of finding something?
- _yb2s 3y ago
  Just walking on a beach, and ran across it randomly.
TheRealPomax 3y ago
If the cork fell out on its own, what possessed you to even try it? That bottle had been interacting with the environment for years, if not decades.
- bunga-bunga 3y ago
  To be fair, all the interactions were sanitized with 40% alcohol.
- _yb2s 3y ago
  It fell out after several months of drying out, I think it was sealed until then. I made a mistake of storing it vertical when it sat horizontal for a century. It was drinkable, just not very good.
OkayPhysicist 3y ago
Liquor doesn't really age in the bottle. Learned that the hard way from a 100 year old bottle of 5 year whiskey a buddy found at an estate sale.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > Liquor doesn't really age in the bottle I know this is the industry answer, but I don't buy it. For one, anyone who has stored liquor or wine vertically knows that the cork is constantly drawing out moisture. So at the very least, an older liquor in a corked bottle will be dehydrated compared to a younger one.
  - TheCoelacanth 3y ago
    That's more like (very slowly) spoiling. "Ageing" is usually used for when it changes the flavor in a desirable way.
    - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
      > more like (very slowly) spoiling. "Ageing" is usually used for when it changes the flavor in a desirable way. I've tasted whiskies bottled in the 1940s and 50s. I rather liked whatever they were doing in comparison with fresher bottles. Over shorter intervals, sealed bottles of Chartreuse increase in complexity with time in a manner I find difficult to describe as anything but aging.
      - kasey_junk 3y ago
        It’s just straight up wrong to suggest that liqueur doesn’t change in glass and I don’t think anyone in the industry would say otherwise. They are really talking about imparting the aging vessel on the spirit when they say aging. And glass doesn’t impart anything. Whiskey breaks down over time even if store really well. Sometimes that results in a good outcome, sometimes not. It also could be you just like the recipes from back then. Chartreuse is famous for “aging” in glass. My hypothesis is it’s just such a wild flavor profile muting it (which is what most often happens as spirits breakdown) makes for a more complex taste.

OkayPhysicist 3y ago

It wouldn't be anything special, anyways. Liquor ages in barrels. Once it's bottled, best case scenario it stays the same. The best you could hope for is learning "ah, so this is how Rum tasted 300 years ago"

hotpotamus 3y ago
That's pretty impressive to think about though; there are few foods I can think of where it is possible to taste something as it would have been centuries ago. I believe there are also reports of people trying honey from Egyptian tombs, but I'm not aware of any other foods that are able to be preserved indefinitely.

pcurve 3y ago

People have. https://cocktailwonk.com/2018/09/drinking-the-harewood-house-1780-rum.html https://cocktailwonk.com/2018/09/drinking-the-harewood-house... Spoiler: it wasn't impressive. "The Harewood gives the impression of a lightly aged rum, perhaps a year or two. Letting it breathe a bit more, I was surprised to pick up cucumber – admittedly a most unusual rum flavor descriptor. With more time, I picked up spice notes, but not much vanilla. All in all, an extremely interesting rum, unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. But if had to choose one rum as my one desert island selection, it wouldn’t be the Harewood, much as I enjoyed it."