Dictador 100 Cafe

There's a joke, among Lutherans, that coffee is the third sacrament (after baptism and communion, of course). There are even more jokes about how much coffee clergy, especially Lutheran clergy, drink - the big crisis at our annual assembly in Madison was the coffee running out way too early in the day. There are also additional jokes about how much Lutheran clergy drink things that are...stronger than coffee. These jokes all have their grounding in some reality; I didn't end up on this site for nothing, and...well, where there are four Lutheran pastors, there will be a fifth. If you know what I mean. At least once in seminary, there were two Lutheran pastors-in-training, a fifth of Jack Daniel's Black, a sneaking out from a Catholic-nun-run retreat center, and an illicit campfire down by a river. They still ordained me, so here we are. So, blah blah blah, Lutheran clergy love their booze and their coffee. But...do we love them together? This little experience in the world of flavored rum suggests that I could be persuaded that they belong together, at least sometimes. Dictador's baseline rum here is brown sugar forward without much nuance, but then again, it's also got a pronounced influence from the coffee. It's brown sugary, lightly sweet rum with a big hit of coffee bean - and clearly coffee beans pre-brewing, almost like chocolate covered espresso beans. Those things will light you up, too - I ate 40-50 of them in a sitting one day in college before my 1pm class, and by the end of my back-to-back lectures at 3:45, the room was moving before my eyes like I was on a ship, I couldn't sit still, and I was talking at about three times my normal speed. Anyhow, I'm not going to reach for this all of the time, but as a late evening dessert dram, it's not bad at all. The cocktail possibilities are extensive, too. I appreciate, too, the care by which this was infused and aged - this is not a bottom shelf, dump some coffee flavored syrup in it and call it a day kind of affair. It's still quality rum allowed to infuse with some quality coffee beans. Again, not my daily go-to, but plenty enjoyable on its own terms.