Day 3 Miami Rum Renaissance Festival

     These days are just flying by, the days turn into nights and the nights back to day before you even know it.  Especially today where we finished the night with the RumJava launch party and started today with breakfast presented by RumJava.  This is an interesting operation, founded in St. Johns along with Brian and Mindy Cunningham.  Fueled by Mindy's passions for fine coffee and  Brian's passion for rum, this is a real snapshot of their marriage.  Their flourishing coffee business, Java'mon was the basis of the RumJava and its creation.   They took rum produced in Citrus Distilling's Pot-column still and infused it with their "Signature Blend" coffee beans along with some added flavors to create their Rum Java Signature Rum.  They have created a total of 5 expressions that are now available here in South Florida and coming soon to the Caribbean.

     Round 5 of the rum judging was next with the aged rums with no age statement.  These are some of the more enjoyable expressions to judge.  The reveal had very few surprises, but an enjoyable session anyway as it contained many of the rums that I enjoy on a regular basis.

     Ok, its is lunch time and today it is brought to us by George Manska, the mastermind of Neat Tasting Glass.  George availed all of us of the latest scientific information about how we all taste things and the effect of the dropping the idea that your tongue can sense different aspects of flavor on different parts of the tongue.
Aroma makes up the  major part of what you taste and the flavors that you sense.  He covered why the NEAT Glass can give you a truer and more consistent evaluation of the aromas from your spirits compared to conventional glassware.

     The sixth and final session of judging paired us with the Gold Rums and the Overproof Rums.  Gold was really enjoyable as was the overproof.  Overproof rums these days have improved in quality tremendously over the past few years, but by the end of the session, my lips and mouth was numb.  Good thing they were saved until last.

     Tonight is the welcome party for all of the rum producers that are presenting their wares this year in the "Grand Tasting that begins tomorrow at 1 PM when the doors open.