Caribbean Rum Company Introduces Cane Rum

    Chris Blair form Caribbean Rum Company dropped by the Rum Bar yesterday to introduce me to a new white "cachaca style" rum.   Made from 100% premium Mexican red and blue cane.  The fresh harvested cane is immediately pressed and sent to fermentation  where it spends the next five days fermenting naturally with no additives.

    The rum is column distilled to 190 proof, filtered and cut to 100 proof for bottling.  The rum has a distinct aroma of grassiness and sweetness.  On the palate, it is clean and smooth, but the high proof and the unaged qualities of it burn a bit in the back of the throat.  The finish is a nice one that lingers for a while with a dry "agricole" like finish.

     This is a mixing rum, but it would fit very well for a Caipirinha or a T Punch.  I has a clean quality that would lend itself to these cocktails very well.   I think that it is also a good fit for a Mojito or other tiki style cocktails as well.

     I do like the rum, it is unique in its flavor and still a very clean tasting white rum.  ;o)
 

Summer and Back on the Water - Paradise!!

    After the past winter of extended snow and just plain lousy weather it is real nice to see the winds calmed down and the warmth back so a day on the water can be pure pleasure.  Hope you take an opportunity to get out and relax with some beautiful scenery and a picnic lunch out on the water this summer.  Enjoy the experience. 

The International Spirits Challenge Award Presentation Monday

     "The Honorable Artillery Company London is the 2014 setting for celebrating quality and excellence in spirits. Here the world's leading drinks producers, design specialists, marketeers and retailers meet for this prestigious event and to pay tribute to some of the finest spirits, designs and campaigns in the world."
     Trophy winners will be officially presented their awards by the International Spirits Challenge for the Tasting, Design & Packaging, and Marketing awards.
     Guests will enjoy a grand three course dinner accompanied by award winning wines and spirits, superb entertainment, divine cocktails and the opportunity to sample the Gold and Trophy winners from the challenge in our tasting zone.
     "The International Spirits Challenge is the most authoritative, respected and influential spirits competition in the world. The ISC recognises three key areas of the industry: Tasting, Design & Packaging and Marketing."
      The competition is founded on a rigorous and independent judging process, which serves to encourage the high calibre of spirits, designs and campaigns entered into the competition each year. Receiving more than 1,000 entries from nearly 70 countries worldwide.

The Gold , Silver and Bronze winners have already been announced for 2014 and there are some old rum friends that have been named winners in the Gold, Silver and Bronze levels.

Awards	Points
Trophy	90 to 100
Gold	80 to 89.9
Silver	70 to 79.9
Bronze	60 to 69.9
Special Awards
Individual Distiller of the Year
Distiller of the Year
Supreme Champion
Outstanding Contribution

Gold Winners

1. Doorly's XO
2. Pusser's
3. Chairman's Reserve
4. Havana Club Seleccion de Maestros

Silver Winners

1. Dos Maderas Luxus
2. Plantation St. Lucia
3. Santa Teresa 1796
4. Botran Reserva

Bronze Winners

1. Bacardi Reserva Limitada
2. Plantation Original Dark
3. Havana Club 7 Anos
4. Botran Solera 1893

These are not all of the medal winners, but some of the ones that are familiar to most of us around the American rum world.  There are winners in every category of spirits, and wines as well.  All of the Trophy and Special Awards will be announced at the Awards Dinner on Monday night.  ;o)

Siesta Key Introduces a New Distiller's Reserve Expression

     The first batch of the Siesta Key Distiller's Reserve Spiced Rum  will be available for sale at the Drum Circle Distillery  2212 Industrial Blvd, Sarasota, FL 34234
(941) 358-1900 at 10:00 AM on July 12th.  This is going to be a first come first serve event, so plan on being there early.    The details and the rules of the event are available on the Drum Circle website.   You can find out all about the times etc. there.
    

     "Distiller's Reserve" was created by Troy Roberts for his own personal enjoyment, but this personal expression became very popular among his many friends.    Siesta Key Distiller's Reserve Spiced Rum will be available on July 12th to the public at the tasting room of the distillery on a first come basis. Supplies are still very limited and it is currently only available for purchase at the distillery tasting room.   This is batch #1 and a real collectable, and based on the original spiced expression is sure to be a winner in your collection.

     "The Distiller's Reserve spends time in barrels in a traditional solera method. In the solera method the oldest rum is never fully emptied from the barrels. The flavors from the real spices, honey, and Florida sugar cane continue to refine over time. The result is a very special spiced rum best enjoyed neat or on ice."

     "Siesta Key Distiller's Reserve is hand-crafted in small batches in Sarasota, Florida at our small, artisan distillery. We make our spiced rum by infusing our award winning rums with real spices and then adding honey for a bit of sweetness. We do not use any artificial flavors or sweeteners and you can taste the difference. "

     I have a bottle coming to me, and look forward to reviewing it for my self, but if you want you bottle, there are only a very limited supply.  If you want yours be first in line at the drum Circle Distillery in Sarasota when it goes on sale at 10:00 AM.   Troy will be there to sign your bottle and care of as many of you as the limited supply will permit.  Remember there are only 300 bottles in existence. 

 

 

Marijuana Legalization Paralleling Post Prohibition Issues

I found an interesting article of how the new problems created by the legalization of marijuana are ending up paralleling the problems of post prohibition era in the 1930"s.  This is  a very good read.

By the time Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president of the United States in 1932, the Great Depression had been underway for three years—and Prohibition had gone on for what the literary critic and crank H.L. Mencken quite accurately described as nearly "Thirteen Awful Years." A quarter of the American workforce was unemployed. FDR had run on Repeal, proposing a win-win solution: The federal government would allow states to reopen the breweries and distilleries to create much-needed jobs, then heavily tax the alcohol to pay for what would become the New Deal.


Prohibition, which started as a "noble experiment" in 1920, ended up rolling out the red carpet for organized crime. Violence wracked cities as criminal syndicates fought over territory while the police force, politicians, and Prohibition Bureau agents were bribed to look the other way. Citizens widely disregarded the law of the land, and even congressmen employed their own bootleggers, despite the fact that most voted "dry."

The 18th Amendment had made the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol illegal. It wasn't illegal to possess alcohol—the powerful Anti-Saloon League understood that people would rebel if they couldn't drink the stocks of booze they already had at home. Instead, drys naively believed that people would finish off what was in their liquor cabinets and then simply stop drinking.

Prohibition didn't snuff out the liquor traffic as planned; instead, it merely deprived buyers and sellers of recourse in the courts when sales went sour. Bootleggers met the American public's undiminished demand for drink with a robust but unpredictable supply. Consumers had no dependable idea what they were buying, often winding up with rotgut industrial alcohol repurposed as "gin"—topped off with water in the bathtub, hence the term bathtub gin—or "Scotch," the same brew blended with some food coloring and iodine.

So Americans were sick (sometimes literally) of Prohibition. But the logistics for repeal were tricky: If Prohibition ended, how should the country control and regulate alcohol? With so much money at stake, and with a robust black market currently controlling sales, it wasn't going to be easy to create a new legal regime.


John D. Rockefeller Jr., a teetotaling Baptist and the richest man in the country, turned his back on Prohibition in a June 6, 1932, letter to his friend, Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler. The letter was printed on the front page of The New York Times the next day.



Read More at http://reason.com/archives/2014/06/04/how-not-to-legalize-a-drug

This is one of the best researched articles that I have ever run across on the subject of "post prohibition era" and the problems that the US had to face to control alcohol and get the criminal element out of the picture.  ;o)

Pusser's has New Expressions for Europe and Great Britain

     Pusser's is offering some new expressions to Great Britain and the Continent this year.  Nothing
new on the horizon for the US market though.  We will still have out usual Blue Label and Red Label versions.

     Pusser’s Rum has lowered the abv of its Blue Label and launched a Spiced expression to attract the navy and a younger audience.

     In an effort to regain distribution with naval bases and mess bars, Pusser’s has lowered the abv of its flagship blue rum to 40% – the maximum strength allowed in military bases.

      The new 40% abv expression, which contains the same blend of rums as its 54.5% predecessor, will be rolled out this summer at a new, lower RRP of £20. The US and US Virgin Islands will continue to get the Pusser’s Blue Label 42% abv rum.

     The original Pusser’s Blue 54.4% will be rebranded as Pusser’s Gunpowder Proof in new black and gold packaging.

Pusser’s Spiced Rum

      Simultaneously, the brand will also launch Pusser’s Spiced, a 35% abv blend of rums steeped in ginger, citrus, vanilla, cinnamon, anise and other spices for seven days.

     George Freegard, international brand manager for sales and procurement at Pusser’s, said: “With the launch of Pusser’s Spiced, we hope to attract a younger audience with the rum’s unique ginger qualities.”

Read More at http://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2014/07/pussers-rum-lowers-abv-to-attract-navy/

     The one thing about living in the US, is we are the last to get the new cools rums in this world.  Oh well, there are so many good things I don't need to dwell on the not so good.  ;o)

 

Caribbean Rum & Beer Festival Cancelled for 2014

     What would have been the 5th Annual Caribbean Rum and Beer Festival has been cancelled for 2014 and will return in 2015.
  

    Cheryl Collymore notified the judges this past week to give us the bad news.  "We just wanted to let you know that it is with real regret that we have to announce the cancellation of the Caribbean Rum & Beer Festival in 2014. We have been trying to put something together for this year, but the economy in the Eastern Caribbean is real tough at the moment and it has proven to be impossible."

     The website  states it so clearly, and I'm really going to miss the trip there this year.

Returning in 2015

 

Returning in 2015 The Caribbean Rum & Beer Festival

 

 

 Read more at http://www.rumandbeerfestival.com/

The Caribbean Journal Reveals "America's Top Ten Rums"

Caribbean Journal's

America’s Top Ten Rums - 2014

As America celebrates its independence, there’s no better way to celebrate than with rum, one of the most important spirits in the country’s history. So for the second straight year, we will mark the Fourth of July with Rum Journal’s rankings of the 10 best rums made in America. (Note: we didn’t include rums from Puerto Rico and the USVI, as we consider them in our annual Rum Awards as Caribbean rums). Here they are:

1.      Papa’s Pilar Dark Rum

Named after the fishing boat of Ernest Hemingway, this 24-year-old rum lives up to its famous namesake with a blend of American and Caribbean rums blended and aged in Kentucky. The company will soon open a distillery in an old Hemingway haunt, Key West, Fla. (The blonde rum is also a tremendous spirit).  

2.      Lost Spirits Navy Style Rum

Relatively new to the scene, Lost Spirits is a California-made show stopper. It’s a Navy Style rum, a rich, hearty spirit that hearkens back to the glory days of raw, powerful rum. And it’s powerful — at 68 percent ABV. In fact, it reminds of a classic Demerara rum — it’s that good.  

3.      Siesta Key Spiced Rum

Troy Roberts’ Siesta Key rum, made at his distillery in Sarasota, is an exceptional spirit, particularly the Spiced variety, which has won Rum Journal’s Spiced Rum of the Year for two years running.  

4.      Dancing Pines Cask Rum

This rum is about as far from the Caribbean as you can get — the hard winters of Colorado. But Dancing Pines’ small-batch distillery produces some very solid rum, particularly the copper pot still Cask Rum, aged in charred oak barrels.  

5.      Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum

Former Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar rose to prominence in the spirits world with his excellent Cabo Wabo Tequila, and he’s crafted an equally good rum in Hawaii. This white rum is actually a rhum agricole style rhum, meaning it’s distilled from sugar cane juice, not molasses. It’s Martinique meets Maui.  

6.      Koloa Kaua’i Dark Rum

Another stunner from Hawaii, Koloa’s Dark Rum variety is a remarkably complex rum with an emphasis on coffee and cacao. And the Kaua’i distillery also produces a very good spiced rum, too.  

7.      Thomas Tew Single Barrel Rum

This rum from the Newport Distilling Company in Rhode Island is a rich rum that embodies the spirit of the rum that was once produced en masse in New England.  

8.      Prichard’s Fine Rum

Prichard’s comes from its eponymous distillery in Kelso, Tennessee. While it comes from the heart of Tennessee, it gives its neighbours a run for its money with a simple but robust taste.

9.      Bayou Spiced Rum

Louisana has long had a kind of kinship with the Caribbean, for a number of reasons, and the link continues with the entry of Bayou rum. The rum comes from locally-sourced cane, continuing a centuries-old tradition of rum-making in the state. And the spiced rum is actually quite good — it doesn’t taste artificial and has a unique, provocative flavour.  

10.  Cane & Abe Small Barrel Rum

This rum comes from the Old Sugar Distillery in Madison, Wisconsin, using locally-sourced ingredients. It’s not extremely complex, but it’s also quite smooth, making for what has become the new archetype of American-made rums: small-batch, smooth and bold.


Read all about it at http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/07/03/americas-10-best-rums-2014/

     Congratulations to all of America's finest rum distillers for making this esteemed list .  You can be proud to be one of the Caribbean Journal's best, it is a real honor.

The Sun Fades Away to End Another Week in Key West

     Summer sunsets have the heat of summer and the beauty of a red orange sky to just draw you end.   Sitting on the aft deck with a nice rum and watch the day slip into the sea is one of the most relaxing ways for me to unwind from the day.  Granted my job is not one of the more stressful ones, but when it is over I'm ready to put my feet up in the air and enjoy the day slipping away and taking my turn at sipping a fine rum.  ;o)

It Looks Like The Sugar will be on the Label Finally

   I'm glad to see that in the United States any way, we will be able to read the label and see how much sugar that there is in our rum and other spirits.    The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) reviewed on July 1, 2014 and issued this statement.

"Truthful, accurate, and non-misleading numerical statements about the sugar content of a product are permitted on alcohol beverage labels and in advertisements. Sugar is a type of carbohydrate, so a sugar content statement is a carbohydrate claim and must be made in accordance with the guidance set forth for carbohydrate representations in TTB Ruling 2004-1 and TTB Ruling 2013-2. Accordingly, a truthful, accurate, and non-misleading numerical statement about the sugar content of a product may appear on a label or in an advertisement if the label or advertisement also bears either a statement of average analysis in accordance with TTB Ruling 2004-1 or a Serving Facts statement in accordance with TTB Ruling 2013-2 and the serving size on which the sugar content statement is based is consistent with the applicable serving size under those rulings.

Numerical sugar content claims should be made in accordance with the guidance set forth in TTB Procedure 2004-1 with regard to carbohydrate content statements. Thus, the number of grams (g) of sugar in a serving must be expressed to the nearest tenth of a gram, except that if a serving contains less than 1 gram, the statement "Contains less than 1 gram (g)" or "less than 1 gram (g)" may be used as an alternative. If the serving contains less than 0.5 g of sugar, the content may be expressed as zero (or 0) grams (g).

Last reviewed/updated 07/01/2014

 

    This is good news for those of us that are interested in what we are consuming, and where we are getting the flavors that we are drinking.   I know Richard Seale of Foursquare Distillery in Barbados is a very out spoken proponent of the truthful disclosure of the contents of the rum.  This should help us see what we are really getting.     

Happy 4th of July to Everyone

     This is America's Holiday, but what am I doing working?   Providing the rest of you that have the day off with a place to come and enjoy your rum concoctions.   I do enjoy the holidays behind the bar, they always bring in the most interesting people to the bar.  



    



 I'm really excited to see who comes through the door today to make this year as exciting as the ones in the past.  Come by and have a cocktail with me between 11am and 6pm today if you are our and about here in Key West.  ;o)


Aging Everything in Barrels Hot Right Now

     I've been trying to get a small oak barrel for nearly 2 years now, but no one seems to be able to que, but when put into a former gallon wine bottle, it still has the effect of putting it into the barrel, but seems to be a bit more effective because of the extra surface that the rum has to contact the wood.
come up with one.  I'm looking to develop some aged cocktails for the bar and the boat.  There really seems to be a shortage of barrels just about everywhere these days.   I was able to get cut up pieces of barrels in Grand Cayman at the Cayman Spirits Distillery, they were selling them for your bar-b-

     I ran across this story of the worldwide shortage of barrels, and an expanded group of uses by nearly all facets of the alcohol industry.

Barrel Aging Is So Hot Right 

Modern Farmer

By John Adamian

June 30, 2014 

People want to do weird things in old barrels. 

     And Gable Erenzo, distiller for Tuthilltown Spirits in Gardner, New York, has heard it all. Among the uses for the distillery's booze-infused barrels: A local ice cream shop uses Tuthilltown barrels in some of its ice-cream-making processes. Fruition, a small-batch craft chocolatier in the Catskills, ages cacao beans in Tuthilltown's old barrels. Regional maple-syrup makers also use barrels from the distillery to age their syrup. And then there was the person with a project involving a whole hog. "I had a guy contact me about aging a whole pig in one of our barrels," says Erenzo. No telling how that turned out. 

     Food fetishists, craft beer people and mixologists have all embraced barrel-aging. The process can impart caramelized flavors of charred wood sugars, the heat and vaporous high-notes of spirits and hints of smoke to whatever spends time sloshing up against the staves of a wooden barrel. Because of the phenolic units in wood, a charred barrel can impart flavors nearly identical to vanilla and clove. (It can be too much: Wine makers often limit the barrel-aging time to avoid creating overpowering flavors. Like vintners, many brewers and craft-cocktail makers are simply content to impart those sweet and smoky flavors by using wood chips from old casks.) 

     But it sounds a lot cooler to say something is "barrel-aged" than flavored with "wood chips." 

 

    And, as a result, barrel-aging is high up on the food-trend meter, somewhere below bacon, pickles and IPAs, somewhere above eating insects. There are already barrel-aged coffees, barrel-aged honeys, barrel-aged hot-sauces, ciders, mustards, vinegars, pickles, beers, cocktails and more. We can expect to only hear about more barrel-aged products in the coming years. 

     Barrel-aging is high up on the food-trend meter, somewhere below bacon, pickles and IPAs, somewhere above eating insects. 

     But if there's a craze for all things barrel-aged, where do all those barrels come from? With America in the midst of a craft-distilling boom, most of the barrels being used for aging food products are first used to age spirits. Ten years ago there were 70 craft distilleries in the U.S. Today there are more than 600, cooking up gins, whiskeys, vodkas, moonshines, rum and more. The rules regarding American whiskey (excepting corn whiskey) dictate that the spirit must be aged in a new charred oak cask. That means every batch requires a new barrel to meet the specifications. Tuthilltown, for instance, uses an estimated 1,750 standard-size (53-gallon) barrels a year. These barrels are fueling a secondary market. 

     Those barrels, and many of the barrels used by distillers and brewers around the country, come from Minnesota - from a small company called Black Swan Cooperage, in Park Rapids. You might imagine that with bartenders, chefs, confectioners and brewers scrambling to get their hands on barrels, young craftspeople would be popping up to supply the demand for local barrels, using wood from nearby stands of forest. But it's not quite that simple.

Read more at http://modernfarmer.com/2014/06/sound-barrel-barrel-making-america/





     It never fails that when you have a plan for a fun way to make something really good, the
resources you need to make it happen dry up.  I'm still looking if anyone has a good sealed up small barrel to do some aging experiments with.  ;o)
 

Think Safe, Don't Text and Drive

Texts worse than drunk-driving 

The Times

George Arbuthnott and Audrey Ward

8 June 2014

 

     TOUGHER penalties for using mobile phones while driving are being considered by the government after research showed that it slowed a driver's reactions more than drink or drugs. 

     Robert Goodwill, the road safety minister, said he would take up the issue with the Ministry of Justice after The Sunday Times showed him the results of a study by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). 

     It found that a driver's reaction times slowed by 46% when he or she was making a call on a hand-held mobile, by 37% when texting while driving and by 27% during hands-free calls. 

     For those on the drink-drive limit of 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, reaction times were reduced by 13%. For those who had used cannabis it was 21%. Goodwill said: "I will see if we need to change the penalties." 

     More than 500 people are killed or seriously injured each year as a result of driver distraction. Penalties for driving while making a call or sending a text message range from three points and a £100 fine to a one-year ban.

 

Read more at http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/Politics/article1420279.ece

 

     I have to agree with this article, I drive a scooter here in Key West all of the time and nothing scares me more that a person driving and texting.  First of all they are probably driving with their knee and not really watching the road.  They tend to change lanes or take two lanes, and are very unpredictable and erratic in their operation of the vehicle.

 

     It is my humble opinion that this issue deserves as much attention by the NTSB as much as drunk driving.  Usually drunk driving is a bad habit of adults, but text driving covers the entire spectrum of drivers from the young to the elderly.  America as well needs to really wake up to this problem and clamp down on the offenders.  ;o)

Holiday Weekend: Time for a New Patio Cocktail

    With the weather hot and sultry, it is time to hit the patio or the boat for a great
chilled out Fourth of July holiday.   I've been playing around in the Rum Lab again and I've come up with a couple of ideas that I think you might enjoy over the holidays.  I'm thinking about a creamy cocktail and a one with some coffee notes.  Anyway, here is what I have come up with for you to give a try this week and anytime you find the urge to.

     First is a morning cocktail as a wake up and chill idea.




Keys Morning Coffee

• 1 oz. Matusalem 15 Year Old Gran Reserva
• 2 oz. Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao
• 1 1/2 oz. Brinley Gold Coffee Rum

Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled and pour into a chilled cocktail glass and serve.

Selvarey Alexander

• 2 oz. Matusalem 15 year Old Gran Reserva
• 2oz. Selvarey Cacao Rum or Marie Brizard's Chocolat Royal
• 2 oz. Half and Half

Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled and pour into a chilled cocktail glass and serve with a strawberry garnish.

     Enjoy the cocktails and have a great Fourth of July Holiday.  ;o)