I picked up these two Louisiana rums at a grocery store around the corner from our hotel in the French Quarter. I was so impressed a bottle of the now-discontinued 504 Silver from Louisiana I wanted to try some other brands.
Both are 80 proof pot still rums made from sugar cane juice and bottled without age in a barrel (edit: Bayou is made from molasses, Sweet Crude from sugar cane syrup). The overly heavy grassy notes you sometimes see in cane juice rums aren’t present, though the softness I found in 504 or in the Cacachas I’ve tried isn’t there either. Both are clean with mild flavors and a bit of astringency. Nothing particularly special other than the idea of having a rum made in America and using cane juice rather than molasses, and the promise that a rising tide of rum production in Louisiana will lift all boats.
Both were similarly priced, though the Bayou White seems a little richer than the Sweet Crude.
