Learn with pleasure, so you never forget
Author: Jessica
-
Clairin d’Haïti
This rhum is something else. Agricole as the French tradition would have it, it is still distilled in age old pot stills concentrating stronger flavors, that leaves it wanting of nothing, compared to its column distilled counterparts. (more…)
-
Through space and time…
There is a special feeling when you get to taste vintage spirits. This 1948 Montebello was one such experience. Flashbacks from an island hardly recovering from the impact of WWII… Like time traveling to a place you can be glad you never saw.
-
Why HSE hit it right on the head
Many commentators wonder about rum’s capacity to survive it’s hour in the sun.
A lot could be said about the market trends and the rumhouses strategies to confirm their strides toward global expansion. Those strategies are largely embedded in their branding, surfing on the one hand on the historical image of rum, rooted in piracy and adventure and one the other hand, on a sense of legitimacy inherent to notions of terroir and savoir-faire, giving rum and its makers an aura of expertise and class.
If this two prone approach has been successful in putting rhum on the map (and I totally suscribe to the idea of rum being a spirit worthy of appreciation by true connaisseurs) I would dare to suggest that rhum has something to offer which lies in the realm of the Caribbean experience.
As cliché as it may seem the Caribbean experience is a sensory one, made of smells and sounds and colour. Beyond the cliché, you will find hues that one has ever only heard of, you will catch scents that you can’t quite identify but still feel, and sounds of nature that are so deeply rooted in who we are that you wouldn’t even realize there here until they’re gone.
By calling upon Titouan Lamazou, an explorer, painter and lover of the Caribbean, for their 2015 white rum vintage, HSE from martinique encapsulates just that… The mesmerizing vibe of a Sunset on the southwest coast of any caribbean island.
And to be totally honest, I have fallen so strongly for the blends of purple and orange, that I actually made the basic color palette of my living. What can I say ? Rhum inspires !
-
RhumfestParis : when rum lovers meet !
There are few instances in which you have the opportunity to rub shoulders the people who make the rum world go round. Gloomy weather notwithstanding, the event was well worth the trip… A quick overview of the few I got a chance to meet with and here is to many more encounters!!
-
The First Rumantic
Before anything JM speaks of tradition. If you were lucky enough to be raised, like I was, on the shores of Martinique, that is one association that is by no means artificial… (more…)
-
My nose, your friend
Often I like to make the selection of a rum for a friend, a party trick. Figuring out their likes and dislikes, remembering details of a tastings that would make the experience pleasuring to them and walking them through it.
-
Sugar blooms
It is that time of the year again. Sugar blooms by the thousands swaying in the wind promise a bountiful harvest. Soon, the scent of burnt molasses will fill the air and I will remember to breathe…
