I didn’t really begin to explore alcoholic beverages until late in my twenties.  I find beer passable, but I tend to enjoy sweeter drinks more.  Mike’s hard lemonade or something like that tends to be more appealing most of the time.  I’m pretty new to wine so I’m not a refined judge of that type of alcohol either.  But I do know my hard spirits.  I know them WELL.

And this weekend I discovered my new favorite mixing rum of choice: Stroh 80.

Thank you Zane Lampray and “Three Sheets” on Mojo.

For starters, the 80 in “Stroh 80″ isn’t it’s proof rating as I had first thought.  NO SIR!  That’s the percentage of alcohol.  This stuff is 160 proof!  It burns in open air.  It’s banned from ALL modes of air transport.  It causes blindness if consumed in large quantities.

And it tastes GOOD.

Nothing this strong should drink this easily.  I could take down ten to twelve ounces of this stuff on the rocks without realizing what I was doing.  What’s really frightening is that it mixes so smoothly into basically anything.  If a mix calls for rum, it will be better with Stroh 80.  It will also have a stronger punch than Southern Comfort or Everclear.  Straight Souther Comfort or Everclear.  Rum and Coke (or in my case Stroh 80 and Dr. Pepper) shouldn’t have a stronger proof than straight vodka. Trust me on this.

So here’s my post-Memorial Day review of Stroh 80:  Good but over-powerful.  The mixology equivalent of fishing with dynamite:  It WILL get the job done, but you’ll probably break a few laws and do more damage than intended along the way.