The Rum Renaissance Festival Grand Tasting really hit it out of the ballpark this weekend with a much larger exhibit space compared to last year. The Deauville Hotel ballroom turned into rum heaven where dozens of brands showed off their spirits, ranging from clear whites for mixing to dark aged rums for sipping and everything in between. A second ballroom served as a competition stage and booth space for rum lifestyle products.
Leading up to the weekend: a Zombie Jamboree, numerous VIP parties and judging sessions by the RumXP squad of international experts.
Saturday boasted a lively crowd that seemed greatly inclined to dancing and ended with more butt shaking at an Appleton Rum VIP party at The Delano's Florida Room, which was great until the typical guidos and barely legal bitches of South Beach clubdom arrived.
Sunday was definitely calmer.
On both days, rum experts delivered informative and entertaining seminars in two separate conference rooms, which gave some relief to the frenzied rum tasting going on downstairs.
Among the sessions: Philip Duff spoke on rum terroir and asked if it really exists -- ingredients can come from several islands while aging happens in Europe, for example. Journalist and author Ian Williams, aka Rum Pundit, discussed rum history, which is important to America's past. And Global Rum Ambassador Ian Burrel lectured on the proper daiquiri, which has a fascinating history tracing back to Indonesia and traversing the entire path of new world colonization.
(Click on the subject links for exclusive interviews.)
The weekend ended late Sunday afternoon with a wild tiki drink competition where zombie cocktail fanatics from across the pond won first prize.
Indeed, you'd have to be a zombie in a coma to not have a blast at this event while learning a thing or two about cane spirits. And though it was buzzing with energy, rum groupies young and old are a fun, laid-back crowd. All snobbery checked in at the door. Now that's refreshing.
Oops! Someone's boob got tikied. It's a badge of honor!
RECIPE
My favorite cocktail of all this year used savory elements to balance out the sweetness of the rum. Move over mojito!
Passion Fontaine
1 1/2 oz. Dos Maderas 5 + 3 2 muddled basil leaves 1 pounded jalapeño slice 3/4 oz. Boiron passion fruit purée 3/4 oz simple syrup 1/2 oz. Boiron lime juice
Shake with ice and strain over fresh ice. Garnish with a basil leaf and jalapeño slice.
Jeff "Beachbum" Berry mixing up a 1950's version of the legendary Zombie cocktail.
Rum experts, judges and fanatics have alighted in South Florida from all over the world for this week's third annual Rum Renaissance Festival. The event kicked off in Fort Lauderdale on Monday with the Zombie Jamboree at the Mai Kai. Robert V. Burr, son of Robert and Robin Burr, founders of the festival, organized the event.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Also known as "RumScout," the younger Burr's enthusiasm for rum was clearly evident during an impromptu interview while we took in some fresh air between drinks and dinner. For him, making rum drinks is an art form. "Mixology reminds me of jazz. Nobody does it like Miles or Bird," he said. "Everybody does a different riff, even though it's the same melody."
ZOMBIES ARE ALIVE AND WELL
Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, author and expert on tiki cocktails and cuisine, lectured on the fascinating history of the Zombie cocktail, which heralds back to 1934 when Donn Beach created the popular drink at his restaurant Don The Beachcomber in Hollywood, California. Beach was reticent about the ingredients in the cocktail, some of which were written in a secret code. As a result, bars around the world started creating their own versions of the wildly popular Zombie. Berry's meticulous research unlocked the secrets and as a result, we were able to taste as close an approximation as possible to the 1934 original as well as a 1950's version.
World War II, which sent so many American soldiers into the Pacific and Polynesia, certainly didn't put a damper on the immense popularity of tiki drinks that came after the Zombie. Soldiers returned with tales and souvenirs from the Pacific, Hawaiian eventually became a state, James Michener published Tales of the South Pacific, which would eventually become a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein -- all this and more would romanticize the Pacific Islands for Americans. Don Beach himself settled in Hawaii and kept the tradition alive, although it's ironic that drinks made with Caribbean rums have come to be synonymous with Pacific cultures.
As I always say, the history of the drink is just as interesting as the drink itself and Monday night's Zombie tasting was no exception to my philosophy.
ZOMBIES OUT ON THE PROWL
After Beachbum's lecture, we sampled modern versions of the Zombie from half a dozen independent mixologists.
These two tiki bar owners from Manchester, England, were irrepressible. They "anglicized" their Zombies by adding the juice of various berries. Lyndon Higginson (left) of Keko Moku and Bart Murphy (right) of Hula Tiki Lounge.
A refreshing Zombie made with DonQ.
Joe and Nicole, expert rum judges, own the Rhum Rhum Room in New York City.
Atomic Grog also supports tiki culture and is based in South Florida.
A good Zombie is not your ordinary fruity cocktail. Forget your average strawberry daiquiri or piña colada here; this is the mother of all tiki drinks, and while it does contain fruit juices, this vintage beverage also packs a buzz, hence its namesake. All Zombie's feature various rums in combination with other liqueurs, juices, falernum and bitters. A Zombie is a classy, elaborate tropical concoction with intense flavors -- quite the cut above the watered-down slushy drinks you'll find at the average bar.
The tiki craze is alive and well today among rum lovers worldwide. In fact, tiki culture is popular a group of Ohioans developed The Fraternal Order of Moai, which now boasts several chapters around the country, including one in South Florida called the Gumbo Limbo.
RUM FESTIVALS AND MORE
The Rum Renaissance Festival is on-going until Sunday. The weekend promises to be memorable, with two grand tasting days at the Deauville Hotel, featuring cocktail competitions, seminars and more. It's a celebration of all cane spirits, not just tiki culture. With tickets at only $25 for a full day or $45 for both Saturday and Sunday, this has got to be one of the best cocktail "education" events in South Florida year-round. For other tasting events year-round, visit Gifted Rums.
Robert V. Burr writes the blog RumScout and co-hosts a local underground Tiki Horror Club with Andrew Lazo. The events combine bad movies with great drinks at a modest price of admission. Find the club on Facebook.
The 10th annual Hukilau Festival, a celebration of all things tiki and Polynesian Pop, takes place June 9-12 in Fort Lauderdale.
THE MAI KAI
For a true tiki experience in South Florida, head to the Mai Kai. "This is one of the best tiki bars in the world," Burr said. And that's clearly evident in the beverage menu, which features classic tiki drinks that are hard to find elsewhere in the area.
A Mai Kai bartender in front of one of their signature drinks.
If you live in or visit South Florida, don't miss the Mai Kai for a special treat. You'd never expect such a lushly landscaped oasis would be on a bland, strip-mall area of North Federal Highway, yet there it is and has been since 1956. Newcomers should experience dinner and a show, which features music and dance from various Polynesian islands with male and female performers. I was expecting it to be kitschy, but it was definitely worth it; I've seen greater Polynesian kitsch in Waikiki.
A taste of Polynesian culture is available year-round in Fort Lauderdale at the Mai Kai, which offers an excellent selection of tiki-inspired drinks. Photo courtesy of Mai Kai.
Dinner and show costs $45 per person. Choose an appetizer, main course and dessert from the Bali Hai menu, drinks not included. You can also order a la carte from the regular menu and pay $10.95 to enjoy the show while dining.
If you're a regular, or don't want to see the show, you can still have dinner elsewhere in the restaurant's different rooms, including outdoor seating in a garden area with waterfalls. Try the marinated roast pork, which is cooked tender in the Mai Kai's huge stone Chinese ovens.
For light bites and drinks, stop by the Molokai Bar, which I especially loved, since it's decorated in the fashion of a pirate ship. Happy hour takes place daily from 5 - 7 PM and offers 50% off appetizers plus most drinks.
The Rum Renaissance Festival grand tasting event on Saturday was everything it promised and more: a veritable feast, nay an orgy of rum tasting galore. As a rum newbie, I learned more about the spirit in one afternoon than a lifetime of drinking could afford me, for which my liver is obviously grateful!
Robert Burr, one of the event's founders, is happy. "The festival exceeded all of our expectations," he said in a phone interview. "We had an excellent turnout. And that is an indication of my theory that rum will have a renaissance is pretty valid. Rum is not new: it's old. But it has been under-appreciated."
Held at the Shore Club hotel on Collins Avenue (which I affectionately call the Whore Club), the event also offered some prime people-gawking, South Beach's favorite pastime. My friend MKH and I, members of the American-Cuban Alliance of Honky White Folk Who Never Sunbathe, were fully clothed in pants and hats.
We stuck out like sore thumbs what with all those snowbirds traipsing half-naked through the courtyard on their way to and from the pool. I just love it how people travel hundreds of miles to be in a large tub of chlorinated water with about 500 hundred other bodies, when -- lo and behold -- a perfectly good Atlantic Ocean sits neglected nearby.
(MKH pictured here with a modestly dressed and buxom Bacardi babe.)
But I digress ... back to the rum business!
No sooner did I hobble up some stairs with my crutches (Whore Club is not handicap friendly, by the way), I was happy to see Paul Sevigny from Splash Cocktail -- my new favorite bartender -- at the first exhibitor booth. He was improvising cocktails on the fly with a French fruit concentrate product called Les Vergers Boiron, a thick fruit purée that is 100% pure, with no added sugar or artificial flavors. It's perfect for professional pastry chefs, so why not bartenders? Unfortunately, it's not yet available retail, but I hope it will be soon enough -- the intenselyrich mango, passion fruit and blackberry flavors I sampled made me reconsider my usual distaste for syrupy, sweet drinks.
As for the other booths, oh my! Where do I begin? There were dozens of exhibitors, a dizzying number that made it impossible to try them all in the span of a few hours. And by dizzying I don't mean sloshed: you can't get tipsy and expect to take good notes!
Even though some exhibitors were serving cocktails, most were actually eager to supply rum enthusiasts with small portions of their spirits, which is really how you should "taste" the rum -- neat or with a single ice cube (see video below).
Do you see the variety of countries from which these spirits hail? I find the history of rum to be just as interesting as the beverage itself. For example: Zacapa is aged at one and half miles above sea level; Mount Gay is the oldest brand in the world (since 1703); and Castries Rum Cream relies on locally grown peanuts and spices.
To know the history of what you're drinking makes the beverage all the more interesting to imbibe. I encourage anyone who is new to rum to explore the history behind each distillery. You'll learn quite a bit about our little corner of the world here in the tropical western hemisphere.
I also learned much about distinguishing one brand and type from the other by color, flavor and aroma. No, they don't all taste the same, and to arrive to this conclusion you need to instruct your palette in the art of subtlety, not to mention patience!
What I loved the most from the whole festival? Hands down, the rich, dark rums that you can sip slowly like brandy. Mount Gay, J. M Rhum, Zacapa and Zaya come to mind. Zaya has some incredibly fragrant vanilla and chocolate notes; it's like drinking a rain forest full of orchids.
On the other hand, I could definitely do without Bacardi's fruit varieties. The Dragonberry (dragon fruit and strawberry) tasted more like a corn syrup pop tart than real dragon fruit, but I suppose these varieties are good for mixing.
Nowhere to be found was the chilled swill that you'd find at Wet Willie's down the street at Ocean Drive. However, a frozen nitrogen drink featuring Don Q, while impressive in its elaboration and a decidedly tasty mix of guava and mint, could not, unfortunately, hold up to the Florida humidity. A 7-11 slurpee stays colder longer.
As I suspected, after the VIP tasting during Part 1, Castries Rum Creme was absolutely yummy in the hands of a capable bartender. Rob, Paul's business partner (my second favorite bartender!), made an incredible Thai Basil drink that is even somewhat healthy: muddle some jalapeño, basil and ginger, combine with vanilla vodka (he was using Stoli), Domaine de Canton (ginger liqueur) and Castries, shake, pour over ice in a highball glass and garnish with basil leaves (see video below). Again, the savory and sweet combination really adds zing to any aperitif. Castries Rum Creme was also wonderful all on its own, over ice.
A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT BURR
Burr, with whom I shared a delightful phone conversation about South Florida and Caribbean history a few days after the event, hails from a long line of South Florida pioneers and influential Miami citizens. He publishes the The Great Gables Guide and is also very involved in promoting the Redlands.
Burr used to publish a magazine about scuba diving, which led him to the islands, where he would, invariably, taste rum and collect stories about rum. "Somewhere along the way, I decided I should get every bottle of rum that exists," he said.
And that's how it all started. Burr believes that rum drinking is really a journey. "When someone begins to discover rum, there's so much variation," he explained. "Everyone will find a rum they like. It's a way to celebrate island cultures. Every island has wonderful attributes and I think we see those reflected in each rum. I know a lot about rum, but I am always discovering."
Though an expert, Burr is definitely no rum snob ready to preach some hoity-toity gospel about the spirit. He reminds me of Gary Vaynerchuck, who has done for wine nationwide what Burr is doing for rum here in Miami -- making it cool and groovy, accessible to everyone and a joy to discover.
Burr shares my taste for cocktails that have clear, defined flavors. "A true, original daiquiri is really simple -- lemon juice, sugar and rum. The simplicity of it cannot be duplicated," he claimed. "Also, ginger beer and rum were made for each other."
And clearly, rum has found a friend in Robert.
Want to learn more about rum? Grab a copy of Robert Burr's Gifted Rums Guide; this inexpensive, small booklet features a few articles and a comprehensive listing of different brands and types of rum. For tasting events in South Florida, subscribe to Robert's mailing list. Each event costs about $20 and introduce tasters to about a dozen fine rums. Expect more events as the season picks up later this fall.
If you think rum is a frivolous, frou-frou spirit, or perhaps the stuff of projectile vomiting at college parties, think again. As MKH and I discussed on the ride over the Macarthur Causeway, the whole history of the Americas is tied up with sugar cane and one of its by-products, molasses, which in turn was used to make the spirit. Rum was probably just as much of a currency as the gold and silver imported from the New World.
Although I was in crutches, I managed to squeeze through the crowd and find a good spot to hold court at 8oz Burger Bar, a fabulous eatery on the fringe of crazy South Beach, but more on the food later. Our bartender, the energetic Paul Sevigny from Splash Cocktail, mixed away three different kinds of cocktails made with Atlantico rum from the Dominican Republic.
My favorite was the Rosa María: blackberry preserve, simple syrup, rum, burnt allspice and a garnish of rosemary, served over ice in a highball glass. I don't care for sweet girly drinks that drip heavy like treacle, so this was the perfect, light concoction -- the "just right" savory aperitif before a meal. The burnt allspice balanced the sweetness of the rum and transported me back to lying on a hammock somewhere under the stars by the Caribbean sea. Actually, the blackberry tasted more like guava -- so redolent and evocative of a homemade spiced punch I once had in Grenada.
My next favorite drink, because I like things spicy, was the Perfect Storm -- a lighter version of a Dark and Stormy, which is basically ginger beer and dark rum, also served over ice in a highball. Perfect Storm featured Atlantico rum, a little simple syrup, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur and was topped off by a hefty pour of Reed's Ginger Beer, followed by an aromatic garnish of fresh mint.
After 8oz, we headed over to the Mondrian just around the corner for a tasting of Castries Creme Rum from Saint Lucia, one of my favorite islands in the Caribbean. As the name of the beverage implies, it's very rich, blended with roasted peanuts, brown spices and vanilla. The drink served at the Mondrian, which remained nameless, also had cognac and nutmeg, and at this point I didn't want to sample anything resembling eggnog. I would recommended sipping Castries Creme on the rocks, plain and simple, to fully enjoy the creamy texture and complex flavors.
While at the Mondrian, we bumped into Soul of Miami and set out to laze and converse on the lounge chairs by the bay, which was quite pleasant. But good grief, the first thing I thought when I walked into the lobby was: "how fucking pretentious." The second thing I thought was: "this is the perfect setting for a Clockwork Orange rape scene," after being greeted by an animé style, doe-faced floating head on the wall. Plus, the fat, plastic-looking dildoesque columns and round chairs, combined with outdoor lamps that look giant albino portobello mushrooms is "fun" and "wow!" for about two seconds flat. This kind of gimmicky design will be so yesterday by tomorrow. The out-of-proportion style works well indoors at The Delano, because it's subtle.
(By the way, if you'd actually like to see the giant plastic phallus from the Stanley Kubrick film, head over to the World Erotic Art Museum on Washington Avenue.)
Anyway, I digress ...
At this point, MKH and I were starving, so we headed back to 8oz to try their famous burgers. Not all is eight ounces here, but no matter: the 6oz "Melrose" was divine, nay -- the best fucking burger I have EVER had. Fixings were arugula, caramelized red onions, roasted garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, coupled with Gruyere cheese, a sweet, toasted roll and a perfectly grilled medium patty. MKH had the actual 8oz offering, which he enjoyed. We shared a side of truffled potato skins, which were more like soft, twice-baked potatoes. They were delicious, but lacking on the promised truffle oil flavor. I'm glad I don't live on the beach anymore, because if I did, I'd probably gain a few pounds living near this gourmet burger joint!
Oh yeah, wasn't this post supposed to be about rum? Well fret not, MKH and I will be back on South Beach this Saturday for a grand tasting at the Shore Club. It's not too late for you to attend either, if you're curious to learn more about all things cane spirits, including cachaça. Visit Rum Renaissance for more information.
Video below: tasting the aptly named Rosa María. (I hope my friend Ines from Miamism Mojito doesn't think this is blasphemy!)
