It’s been a little over a week since the 2nd annual Rum Bahamas Festival and I think my liver is finally talking to me again. Rum, food, Kalik, culture, music, art, pirates–the 2015 celebration of all things rum and Bahamas was a huge HUGE success.
This trip to Nassau, Bahamas didn’t include lazy days on the beach, no snorkeling beautiful reefs or chatting up locals at casual beach bars. This trip was work. If you can call being a rum judge and sampling over 40 of the world’s best rums work. Then yes, this was work.
The judges included the members of the International Rum Council, five local judges, rum consultant Ian Burrell and myself. We were responsible for judging the different rum categories and running the public tasting room.
The public tasting room was probably my favorite part of the festival. We did a blind taste test asking people to choose their favorite rum out of three, then we revealed the brand. Other times we would just give samples of top shelf rums from the XO, Spiced, White, Gold and Flavored categories. Watching people try really good rum for the first time is a great experience. Their faces light up, and they often say, “I can’t believe this is rum!”
Their are a lot of reasons to travel to the Bahamas. Next year, make one of those reasons the Rum Bahamas Festival, it’s an experience like no other.
Here are a few photos from this year’s festival.
2015 Rum Bahamas Festival
Sunset over the new Baha Mar Resort complex.
John Watlings Rum Distillery tour.
Mr. Grooms putting his judge hat on.
There will be more stories coming from this rum filled event. I’m trying to get the organizers to give me the recipe for the festival favorite cocktail, the Dirty Mule. So far they have beem giving me the Top Secret run-around, but I’m working on it!
Cheers,
RumShopRyan
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