Why's It Always the Rum!?

So I've got my spiced rum spicing away. I looked on the Internet and came up with this recipe using a few as inspiration. Most recipes suggest using a gold rum. At the liquor store they suggested Pusser's Rum as a nice rum
for drinking. (At least the British navy found it good enough to give every sailor a pint-a-day ration of it for 300 years.) Well, I'll just say we weren't too impressed. So I decided to try making it into spiced rum.

Many of my spices I received from friends in the Caribbean. The cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves to be specific. Did you know that mace is the covering of the nutmeg shell? I used it in place of the ground nutmeg this time.

Spiced Rum

750 ml bottle gold rum
2 vanilla beans, split
1 cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
6 whole allspice
6 black peppercorns
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
3 slices orange peel (3 inches long, no pith-the white)
Peeled ginger about a 1" cube-may have to cut to fit into bottle

Pour about 1/4-1/2 cup of the rum out to make room for other ingredients. Add everything to the bottle and replace the rum you poured out. (Use any left for rum and Coke.) Replace lid and gently shake. After a week, taste test. Let the rum steep until. It is to your liking. 2 or more months is fine. When ready, strain through a cheese cloth lined funnel and put back into the bottle.

Use any spices you like in any quantities. Also any citrus you may prefer.

I included a picture if my latest batch of vanilla extract. This is after just one day.