Rumfest Recap – Part 1 – Ron Barceló

We came, we saw, we drank some rum. This was our first visit to this yearly rum institution and it was fantastic! So this is part one in a series of posts devoted to the drinks and other happenings, well, the bits we can remember anyway, of Rumfest.

Within five minutes of entering the Royal Horticultural Halls we had landed at the Ron Barceló stand. Kirsty from Love Drinks talked us through the history of these Dominican Republic rums and treated us to a sample.

This brand of rum has been distributed by Love Drinks in the UK since July of this year I believe, and until Rumfest we hadn’t had the opportunity to try it.

Let’s talk about Ron Barceló Imperial. The aroma of this rum sent my head swimming with wonderful thoughts, citrus and chocolate, late nights at the beach, jumpers for goal posts. Maybe not, but something about it reminds me of childhood anyway.

On to the taste and it actually does live up to the aroma, no burn on the throat with this rum at all and a very syrupy and smooth taste. The Ron Barceló Imperial oozes quality and the bottle (lets face it, the bottle IS important) is fantastic and would look good on anyone’s rum shelf.

We can heartily recommend this rum. Get a bottle, you will not be disappointed!

A tremendous start to Rumfest for us, and shortly after this stand we realised we would have to slow down or things might get messy…

The UK Rumfest 2009

This weekend sees the biggest event in any Rum fan’s calendar, the fantastic Rumfest!

Myself and Ross will be there to sample all the wonderful rums and also to document the event for everyone who can’t make it. We’re hoping to get photos and video as well as tweeting live from the event.

This will be my first rumfest and I’m sure it will be fantastic!

If any of you have any specific requests or are going to Rumfest and fancy a chat with someone like minded don’t hesitate to get in touch.

See some of you there!

UPDATED: Rumfest done and your happy bloggers are back at home, nestling some very fine rum in our hands. Our updates will follow this week, where we review the rums we tasted and report on all of the happenings…

Summer Rum Cocktails

I’m a bit late with this one as I’ve had some severe technical issues, limiting my blogging some what.

RumDood is continuing his excellent Rum 101 series and his latest post is Six Summer Cocktails.

While we’re half-way through summer here in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemispherists are still waiting for their summer, it seemed like a good idea to talk about six summer rum drinks to keep you cool and refreshed while in your bathing suit.

• Daiquiri
• Caipirinha
• Mai Tai
• Jamaican Mule
• Mojito
• Queen’s Park Swizzle

The Jamaican Mule is, of course, a Dark ‘n’ Stormy. Renamed due to the copyright issue I mentioned in my last post.

Rum 101: Six Summer Cocktails

Cocktail Copyright

Having a quick look around the blogosphere (how much I hate that term cannot be measured in ounces) and stumbled across a slightly worrying fact.

Apparently the cocktail Dark ‘n’ Stormy is a registered trademark in the US. It’s registered by Goslings and the trademark DEMANDS that any cocktail calling itself a Dark ‘n’ Stormy uses Goslings Black Seal rum.

The strange thing is my recipe for a Dark ‘n’ Stormy calls for Goslings by name, because frankly,  it tastes better than other alternatives.

This little fact might make me change the name and use a different Rum. I do hope this doesn’t become a trend, the possibilities are endless, and a little bit scary.

The White Zombie

RumDood has posted his version of this cocktail invented by Rob V. Burr of Gifted Rums.

2 oz Rum Cream (Cruzan Rum Cream)
1 oz Jamaican Rum (Appleton Estate V/X)
1 oz Rhum Agricole Vieux (Clement VSOP)
1 oz J. Wray & Nephew Overproof
.5 oz Cointreau
.5 oz Absinthe (La Fee)
.25 oz Allspice Dram

Combine ingredients in a tin and shake with ice.  Strain over crushed ice and dust with fresh nutmeg, garnish with a cinnamon stick.

This is a cocktail recipe I’d really like to try myself, maybe even adapt, just need to source some of the ingredients.

Be sure to check out Gifted Rums for the development of this cocktail and, of course, RumDood for the full details of his version.

Zacapa XO Aged Rum

I’ve read a LOT of good things about this rum, so many people are enthused by it but it is one of the most expensive rums around.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to try this one out and I’ve found it, I think. The site I get all my rums from (TheDrinkShop) has put this little beauty on special offer! It’s down from £81.15 to £72.95!

Every month, I allow myself one complete extravagance, and I think this will be it. I often buy art prints with my monthly allowance but I can’t help thinking that this would be art itself.

The bottle and box alone are fantastic!

Anyone tasted this? Do you think it’s worth the price? Let me know!

Zacapa XO Aged Rum for £72.95!

Caribbean Rum Cake

I’m currently sampling a rum punch brought back from Antigua by my traveling friend, this recipe from Culinary Escapade for Caribbean Rum Cake would be the ideal accompaniment.

I’ve sampled the Tortuga Rum Cakes before and they are, as you would expect, absolutely lovely. There is something special about a cake that you have made yourself however, so try this recipe, it looks delicious!

My sister just came back from a week long trip to Jamaica. She brought back some Tortuga rum cakes and was raving about how moist and delicious they were. Her biggest complaint was the fact that you could only get them in the Caribbean and that they were tiny.

Needless to say that after listening to her describe said cake, I was hankering for some myself. Out the window went my diet, but it was well worth it.

See the full recipe at Culinary Escapade.

Mojito Ice Lollies / Ice Pops

There is a fantastic recipe on the Simply Piee blog for Mojito ice lollies.

Brilliant idea and I will be attempting these myself.

This is a fairly simple recipe and it is easy to adjust to your taste. For example, I prefer my mojitos more sour so I put less sugar in the recipe. Also, I love rum so I increased the rum ratio. I should warn you, if you put too much rum, the mixture will not set.

Be sure to head over to the Simply Piee blog to read the full recipe.

Seven Tiki Aged Rum Review

As the Spiced Rum variant of Seven Tiki has just been launched in the US (rolling out in California and Florida) I thought I would take the opportunity to review the aged rum.

Seven Tiki Aged Rum is a Fijian rum made with the finest quality Polynesian sugar cane and the purest water in Fiji.

It has a very smooth taste but is full bodied comparable with the larger brands of aged rum. As a sipping rum this is a definite alternative if you’d like to try something different. It doesn’t quite have the same pull for me as the Caribbean rums but as an ingredient in a cocktail or with a mixer this is perfect.

At only £18.62 at the time of writing, it comes in cheaper than most of the big brands and for a premium aged rum that price is incredible.

Mai Tai Cocktail Recipe

The Mai Tai cocktail (roughly translated from Tahitian as Out of This World) is a firm favourite with rum fans and cocktail fans in general, the reasons are obvious if you try this cocktail recipe yourself.

A few of these and you will be out of this world too…

Ingredients:

• Crushed Ice
• 30ml of Bacardi
• 30ml of Mount Gay
• 15ml of Cointreau Orange Liqueur
• 15ml of Amaretto Almond Liqueur
• 15ml of Lemon Juice
• 90ml of Pineapple Juice
• 90ml of Orange Juice
• 15ml of Sugar Syrup
• Dash of Grenadine

Optional Garnishes:

• Pineapple Slice
• Lime Slice
• Mint Sprig
• Cocktail Umbrella

Half-fill large goblet glass or any tall glass with crushed ice, add the ingredients in the order they are listed above. Then stir well and garnish with what you have, you can just use a mint sprig and lime slice for a more traditional garnish but I like to throw it all in there.

You can substitute the Mount Gay for any quality gold rum.

Enjoy, If the weather improves today I’ll be sampling a couple of Mai Tai cocktails myself this evening.