How to Store Rum

The weekends excitement which lead to the discovery of my whizz bang, ridgy didge, real deal cocktail muddler, today had me thinking about what else to put in my Rum Room (something new for a change!), for those of you who haven’t read my rum room post then you probably are wondering what I’m talking about, you can catch up here:

The rum room diaries!

For those of you that do, you will know that I am currently planning and will one day soon begin creation of my little home away from home, my private getaway, my cocktail bar in suburbia – The Rum Room!

Wine lovers have their wine racks, ice buckets and de-canters. I want to know what cool things you readers have at home to make your rum drinking experience more enjoyable!

Do you prefer a tall glass, a short glass, lime, no lime, mint, dry or cola? Do you store your rums in the freezer, in a wine rack, under the bed? – I want to know it all so feel free to share your gadgets, gizmos, tips and techniques and don’t hold back, no body’s judging you! Sharing is caring, and that’s what I’m all about.

Can’t wait to read your responses!

The day I found my muddle!

Hi guys, sorry it’s been such a long time, but I’ve been sweating it out in the middle of a heat wave. 12 days over 38c (100f) degrees in a row and I’m exhausted!

However I’m not one to moan about the heat, but rather embrace it and use it as a good excuse to enjoy some frosty cold rum drinks (providing my freezer holds up).

I decided that to truly be a good cocktail maker I was going to need to upgrade the old rolling pin to a more standard for of mixing device, a muddler. Not that I needed an excuse to escape to the cool, air-conditioned stores of the local shopping centre, but I decided that to find my muddler this would indeed be the perfect place to start.

Unfortunately for me, my muddler hunting adventures were continually stomped on store after store by “complete bar kits” and “ultimate cocktails makers” containing no more than a corkscrew and a shaker! I was devastated.

Luckily for me, my girlfriend (known to some as Lil Miss Rum Drinker) is not just a pretty face. “Why don’t you ask a bartender where you might find one?” she questioned – what brilliance and yet another excuse to go and try a new rum!

That night we headed off to our local cocktail bar and asked the bartender where we may find a muddler. He explained that he got all of his from alcohol reps as promotions but gave us a few places to try and we thanked him.

Just as we were about to leave he calls out to us and says “wait, I may have found something for you”. We venture back to the bar to find it… an ancient, wooden, bar hardened, rum strengthened beaten up old muddler from the deepest darkest recesses of the store room! Ooh if this muddler could talk what stories it would tell! “Here you can have this one, we can’t use it any more…” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – a real life muddler from a real life cocktail bar (ok ok, I know small things…) but I was happy.

Little Miss Rum Drinker carried out our new muddler in her hand bag so not to attract any unwanted attention and we made our way home.

Now that I have my muddler at the ready, I have no excuses not to let the cocktails flow! I will be uploading pictures of my acquired muddler in my next post so you can see this little beauty in all its glory. The first addition to my Rum Room collection of Rum Memorabilia!

Stay tuned.

The Rum Room

The news is out! We all know the best place to enjoy rum drinks (short of an exotic location surrounded by crystal blue water and giant coconut bearing palm trees) is in your own home with your fellow rum lovin’ friends and I have decided to build the king of all home rum drinking areas (because the lounge is just too boring!) by creating my own exotic location at home, that’s right… I’m planning to build my “Rum Room”!!

In case you were wondering (I know you were) my “Rum Room” will be a room in my back garden shed (the room was already there when I bought the house and didn’t really know what to do with it until now – it’s a big shed!) and this room shall be dedicated to making and consuming rum drinks the way they should be made and consumed… in style, with friends, with the feet up and the hair down!

I’m still in the early stages of design for this exotic rum drinking room so I will add updates to this story as the room of all rooms come to life – stay tuned, this is going to be good!

In the mean time if any of you have a room of your house, a basement or attic, maybe a dedicated bar for sharing fun times with friends – I want to hear about it!

Negrita Spice Carribean Rum

Well this weekend I had another party, and another chance to share my rum experiences with some more friends. The choice for this weekend was Negrita Spice Carribean Rum.

Negrita Spice Rum is based on dark Carribean rum and has a selection of exotic spices mixed in for good measure. The result is really strong flavour, and after a couple of drinks, had to make a less potent mixture (again with dry ginger and lime) as the flavour became over powering. That could have had something to do with my friend being a bit un-attentive whilst pouring the drink (never a good idea to confuse dry ginger with more rum…)

Not a bad rum though, good for a few with your friends, would be interesting to see what its like in a cocktail!

My rating 3 barrels!

My night with Captain Henry Morgan

The afternoon started off slowly with a nice drive into the suburbs to the liquor store on the way to my friend’s house party.

Upon stopping at the store I had some trouble finding the Rum Drinks section, but after a few minutes of browsing I found it shining in all its glory.

The first rum I looked at was Captain Morgan Black Label Origional Rum, seeing it was going to be a long night and I didn’t fancy a killer headache the next morning, I continued browsing hoping to find a lighter shade of rum. (Also I didn’t want to scare my friends off with the strong rich flavour of the darker rums, best to ease them in!)

As I moved along the shelf I came accross a fancy looking bottle with a pirate (not unlike captain Jack Sparrow of Black Pearl fame – who I find absolutely hilarious I might add – “why the rum?”).

This looked like a good one and after reading that Captain Henry Morgan was “possessed with great charm” winning him “respect of noblemen and the loyalty of his crew“… I felt sure I would be the most popular guy at the party!

So anyway, I like my Rum Drinks to be mixed with dry ginger ale and fresh lime, due to the fact that limes are quite expensive at the moment and that parties are for catching up with old friends not spending half the night slicing and squeezing limes for my drink, I grabbed a squeezy bottle of lime juice (insert screams of horror here – I hear you folks!).

Next on the agenda was a big bag of party ice (more screams…) and a bottle of Diet Dry Ginger Ale – it tastes the same as regular ginger ale and you consume less calories so you can drink more*, its a win win situation!

I set sail to the party which started at 4. I shared my Captain Henry around with a few guys, introducing them to the wonders of rum, which they we very grateful of. However it seemed I was the only one drinking more than a couple of glasses of Henry’s brew and by 2am supplies were getting a little low and my concern for my wellbeing in the morning was growing!

Time to pull the pin then, and hop into my makeshift sofa fold out couch for the night (I highly advise pre-arranging this before a big night of sampling fine rums) and off to la la land I went.

9am I woke after a good nights sleep and braced myself for the inevitable onslaught of head thumping…and to my surprise – no headache! It must have been all those secret Jamaican herbs and spices that they add to the rum, and their secret healing qualities!

After bacon and eggs breakfast and a nice cup of coffee, I set off for home happy that the night I shared my Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold with my friends really was gold!

My Rating of Captain Henry Morgan’s Original Spiced Gold: 4 barrels!

* Dry Ginger folks not rum! I don’t recommend or encourage binge drinking.

Rum Drinks for Ladies!

Pirates, conquerors, explorers… the list goes on, we’ve all heard the phrase: “ho ho ho and a bottle of Rum”? It brings to mind images of men sailing ferocious seas, battling fearsome battles, exploring new lands, killing and stealing from one another… it’s all a big part of the dramatic idea of the history of Rum!

But that’s just what it is, history. Now day’s ladies all over the world are sitting down to a good Rum Cocktail for a catch up on the gossip with the girls. Funny thing is half of them are probably unaware that what they are drinking is actually rum!

The number of female rum drinkers seems to be increasing of late* (*from my personal observations!), but I’m not sure if anyone has done a study into it!

Hang five while I check…

…ok I’m back!

Well not only were there no results for “increase in female rum consumption” there wasn’t even any Google results for “female rum drinkers”!! It’s a conspiracy! That being the case I’m taking it upon myself to get some facts on the number of women rum drinkers!

I think I’ll set up an “I’m a female rum drinker and proud of it” section this blog for all the lady rum drinkers out there – where they can do what they do best – gossip about their favorite rum drinks / cocktails… I’ll keep you updated!

If you can’t wait until I set up the poll (these things take a bit of time to get the right answers) just subscribe to the blog and then you’ll be alerted when its time to join up and mingle with your fellow (err… other lady?) rum drinkers!

Let’s get the word out there – ladies DO drink rum! Ladies feel free to comment and let me know what your favourite rum drink is!

Lose yourself in a Rum Cocktail

Anne Darwin is one woman who certainly seems to know a good Rum Cocktail when she sees one! Unlike her ability to keep a dodgy scam like the faked death of her run-away canoe hubby a secret!

In a recent article I read on gossip site People.co.uk, I couldn’t help but notice several references to Rum Cocktails in The People’s article about the arrest of Anne Darwin’s husband John.

In the article there is a discussion with a Panamanian property boss who spoke with the Darwin’s shortly before the arrest. She seems quite fixated with the fact Anne was drinking a lot of rum cocktails! She says in the interview:

“As Anne sipped rum cocktails I asked if she and John had family back home…”

Now her meeting with the Darwin’s occurred in Panama, as good a place as any to find a good Rum! Further down the article, she again mentions Rum Cocktails:

“Anne kept ordering rum cocktails. John didn’t drink any and let her do all of the talking.”

Either she found it odd Anne drank so many cocktails or she was just jealous she had to work and couldn’t join in? Who knows!

Maybe some creative Rum Companies could come up with a good way to use this as a publicity stunt to increase their exposure?

It worked for Bondi Blonde when Paris went to jail!!

Stay classy rum drinkers!

Rum Drinks Online

Hi all and welcome to Rum Drinks – the place where you can share and learn all there is to know about Rum and all good things associated with this fabulous drink! Rum is not just a drink it’s a lifestyle choice!