I noticed a trend of aged rums amongst most of the featured brands, catering to the more complex palate and cunning connoisseur. The vocabulary and adjectives used regarding the aged rums made me feel as if I was at a scotch event, which made this rum soiree pretty official.
Some of my favorite featured aged rums that I was able to try were Santa Teresa 1796, Rhum Clement XO, Rhum J.M VSOP, Mount Gay Extra Old, Bacardi 8 and Cockspur 12 year. I also really enjoyed the Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb, a Rum based orange infused liqueur, because the orange infusion actually tasted real. I find a lot of the flavored spirits/liqueurs disgusting, but happend to enjoy this one!
On another note, I was excited to see the Brugal station, since I grew up always having Brugal in the family liquor cabinet. I was able to try Brugal Reserva Anejo for the first time at the event and thought it was delicious. It tasted very good neat but then the person at the Brugal Station mixed it with pineapple juice and sprite which was probably the worse thing that he could have done. Who in their right mind would drink dark rum, pineapple juice and sprite? He should have just offered rum daiquiris like the guy at the Appleton station if he wanted to impress folks with his "mixing" skills. It also would have been nice if they had taught us how to make proper rum daiquiris at home.
I spent most of the event downstairs sipping on the Bridgetown Stomp cocktail, meeting new people, getting reacquainted with old industry friends and of course flirting with a new cute guy since the single life can be such a drag sometimes.
The featured cocktails were, The Bearded Lady (blackBeard Spiced Rum, lime juice, pineapple juice, falernum, demerara syrup), Bridgetown Stomp (Cockspur 12 Rum, Cinzano Rosso, Campari, Amaro Cio Ciaro, demerara syrup, Regans' Orange Bitters No. 6), Double Barrel (Plantation Grande Reserve 5- year old, Plantation Jamaica Rum, Benedictine, Grand Marnier, lime juice, orange juice, cane syrup, Angostura Bitters), Trinidad Express (10 Cane Rum, eldeflower cordial, lime juice, grapefruit juice, sauvignon blanc) and Zacapa Daiquiri (Zacapa Rum, lime juice, simple syrup).
The presentation of all of these cocktails was very nice, but I definitely had my favorites. The Bridgetown Stomp, was a variation of the Negroni, supstituting the gin for Rum and other delicious ingredients were added, to take this cocktail to the next level. The cocktail was to die for and a noted mixologist friend of mine thought so as well! My least favorite cocktail was the Trinidad Express because I found it to be a little too sweet and the balance of the cocktail was just a tad off. The Bearded Lady was sweet as well but very much to my liking since the balance was on point. Out of a scale of 1-5, I would give The Bearded Lady: 4.5; Bridgetown Stomp: 5; Double Barrel: 3; Trinidad Express: 2.5; and the Zacapa Daiquiri: 4.
Overall, I thought that Liquor.com did a very good job curating the Rum Grand Tasting Event. I would have loved to see a couple of other amazing Rum brands, i.e. Pyrat XO Reserve and Neisson Rhum but it was a wonderful experience! I had a blast and so did a couple of friends that I brought with me. The people that I spoke to at the event seemed to be interesting, intelligent and some of them were very easy on the eyes as well. I look forward to trying the food at Lani Kai in the near future and frequenting more Liquor.com events! Until next time, xoxoxoxo.
That was a good time. Especially the new cute guys, ha! Can't wait to read your next posting. xo
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