My Homemade Bay Rum AS

So here it is. After 16 days of waiting I finally got to use my homemade Bay Rum AS.




I used the recipe I found here on B&B:

4 Ounces Vodka
2 Tablespoons Jamaican Rum
2 Dried Bay Leaves
1/4 Teaspoon Allspice
1 Stick of Cinnamon, broken in pieces
Fresh Zest from a Small Orange


The Bay Rum smells really good though I find the cinnamon to overpower it quite a bit. I wanted a little more bay leaf smell. This stuff is spicy. Very Christmas'y. The scent fades pretty quickly at about an hour. I think I read adding glycerin will help prolong the scent so I might try that. I must say my face loved this stuff. I couldn't believe how soft it made my skin. I love the smell, though I tend to like citrus/musk combo's in the hot months and save the woodsy/spicy scents for winter. I had only smelled Masters Bay Rum to reference and now realize that Master's is a very different bay rum compared to the norm.

As an aside, this recipe is what brought me here to B&B. Little did I know how hooked I would get It was a nice learning experience and now I have a few new ideas for AS recipes I can't wait to make. This was a lot of fun to do and has brought me another hobby (like I needed another ). Thanks guys!

I would find it very hard not to take a sip each morning! Haha.

Very cool. How long does the scent stick?

Welcome to the BR AS world - love the bottle. Let the fiddling begin with your next batch. It is surprising how a very minor tweak can change the outcome. You may as well get ready to explain: "Actually, I'm not drinking all that vodka - I'm just making aftershave... really, I AM!"

Where did you find the bay leaves? Did you use Pimenta Racemosa (West Indian Bay Tree), or did you use Laurus nobilis (the Bay Leaf commonly used for cooking)?

So how does it taste?

I used Laurus Nobilis. I couldn't find the "real" bay leaves locally. Maybe I'll just buy the shrub online and plant it in my backyard, pretty sure South Florida is a perfect climate for it.

I pilfered the bottle from a spice rack, which I thought was quite fitting. I wish I could find more. The bottom of the glass reads Made in Japan.

LOL I can't seem to bring myself to taste it, my brain tells me it's aftershave.

MajorTom said:

I used Laurus Nobilis. I couldn't find the "real" bay leaves locally. Maybe I'll just buy the shrub online and plant it in my backyard, pretty sure South Florida is a perfect climate for it.

I pilfered the bottle from a spice rack, which I thought was quite fitting. I wish I could find more. The bottom of the glass reads Made in Japan.

LOL I can't seem to bring myself to taste it, my brain tells me it's aftershave.

Click to expand...

That might be part of why it smells more like spices than bay. You can get the essential oil from natural food stores with a good health and beauty section, or like i did, order it from Amazon.

How many drops of bay leaf oil do you put in this recipe?