5 Minutes of Rum
Notes on rum, a few minutes at a time.
I'm not sure I quite "get" the new version of iMessage in iOS 10 with the stickers and the lasers and the other tomfoolery. But I know that there's at least 1 sticker pack that any iOS user who also has an affinity for tiki cocktails needs to get immediately: Snacks by Parakeet. Amazing art on snack-related stickers including stickers for a Cobra's Fang, Three Dots and a Dash, and a Tiki mug? Sold.
"The next topic was on bar design. Bar stations should be thought of as cockpits with much consideration going into tools, ingredient, and equipment placement. For efficiency's sake, everything should be in arm's reach plus or minus a pivot. Cheater bottles can help as can bartenders learning to be ambi-dexterous so that no time is wasted reaching across your body. Paul McGee added to the cockpit concept by suggesting to "treat your well like it's a desert island and make sure it is stocked for the entire night.""
As an outside observer, I'm fascinated with how tiki bartenders do their work. I can make a night of sitting at the bar and watching the assembly process. I've stolen at least one tip from every bartender I've watched for more than a few minutes. All that being said, this small peek from Frederic Yarm's visit to Tales of the Cocktail into how 3 different busy tiki bars (Lost Lake, Hale Pele, and Dirty Dick) prepare for a Saturday night of service was right up my alley.
With the ever-so-gradual easing of tensions between Cuba and the United States, a rum enthusiasts' mind has perhaps turned to rum. Specifically Cuba's Havana Club rum, which has reached nearly mythical status in the US partly (mostly?) on the basis of being forbidden fruit. Did you know that Bacardi owns the Havana Club trademark on the Havana Club name and is producing a line of rums for sale in the US? Head over to Inu A Kena and read a head to head battle between two Clubs Havana.
Wayne got himself a book deal and dug deeper, rummaging through libraries across the eastern seaboard and government archives in the Caribbean. In order to experience what an 18th century Hot Rum Flip truly tasted like, he paid an ironmonger to re-create a piece of antique barware that hadn't been used, let alone seen, for hundreds of years: the loggerhead, a metal rod heated over an open flame and then plunged into a drink to warm it up. "I went to two ironsmiths. The first made me a loggerhead but it was a little bit unsatisfying, not heavy enough to conduct sufficient heat. So I went to a second guy who made it with a big solid head on it; it took 45 minutes to heat it up, but that made a fine Flip. It's fun to go into craft cocktail bars now, like Meta in Louisville, and seeing them heat drinks that way all over again."
Speaking of Jeff Berry, he has a regular feature over at Difford's Guide called "The Peters Street Regulars" where he profiles some notable regulars at Latitude 29, his bar-restaurant in New Orleans. #2 in the series features Wayne Curtis, the author of And A Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in 10 Cocktails. Get that book if you don't have a copy already. And if you want to know about serious rum collecting, read #1 in the series featuring Stephen Remsberg.
Your favorite bar, and why:
Anyone who owns a bar and says that their bar is not their favorite bar is either lying or is the owner of a bar that I do not want to visit.
One of the many reason to love Jeff Berry. From Punch's short interview with the Bum.