This has been my third straight year attending Tales of the Cocktail. Every year presents me with new experiences, new faces and a lot of new information (and some cocktails, I’m pretty sure there were cocktails too).

When I first attended in 2008, I was a wide-eyed rum enthusiast with no idea what to expect.  I had never attended Tales before – in fact, other than Ed Hamilton via his Ministry of Rum, I didn’t know a single person that was attending.  Five days and several hundred rummy beverages later, I had a bevvy of new friends to drink with all over the world.

Coming into my third Tales, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect.  There would be lots of drinking.  There would be a massive crowd of people at the Olde Absinthe House late every night.  The Carousel Bar would be completely packed with people who were in-between destinations – either heading to bed or heading back out into the night.  There would be dozens of other bloggers dressed in a manner similar to me, thereby making us easier to identify and mock in an open fashion.  There would be amazing food, good times, laughs, and likely more than a few mornings of cursing the fact that our planet orbits a large ball of unnecessarily bright fire as I dragged myself out of bed to hike to the Monteleone for whatever sessions I had signed up for that day – praying that the small plastic cups of whatever cocktail accompanied the speakers would smooth out my head.

Still, there are things to learn every year, and this year was no exception:

1. Jeffrey Morgenthaler may be physically absent from Tales, but Tales is never truly without him.
2. Gene’s Hot Sausage Po’boys are as good as advertised, and you will know you ate one for at least 14 hours.
3. Hotels will let you fill dishes with gunpowder and overproof spirits and light them on fire if you’re Wayne Curtis.
4. A potato works really well for forging a customs stamp when you’re running rum in the Caribbean.
5. Rum Runners during American Prohibition weren’t running rum to the US (they were running Scotch and Brandy) but they were running plenty of rum into Canada.
6. There used to be three bottles of Mandarine Napoleon XO in the US.  Thanks to a house full of bloggers, there are now two.
7. When everyone in your row is passing around a bottle of Laird’s Applejack for the duration of a seminar, you will get funny looks.
8. Chartreuse Swizzles are best-prepared at 2am in a glass vase to be shared by 6 people.

Does your shaking style really make a difference in the final temperature and dilution of your drink?

If you’re not a bartender, this question has probably never occurred to you.   If you are a bartender (or just someone who obsesses about cocktails for no particular reason other than they’re tasty – such as myself), it’s possible that this question has kept you up at nights.

In Saturday’s “The Science of Shaking” session, a panel consisting of Eben Klemm, Dave Arnold, and Alex Day shared their research thus-far on the matter.  This was no mere conversation about apocryphal data or wives’ tales, but rather a discussion of research performed in a laboratory.  The results of their research: neither your style of shaking nor the type of ice used has ANY impact on the final temperature or dilution of your cocktail.

This may sound to some like blasphemy.  It certainly flies in the face of what people have been saying for years now.  The “hard shake,” two-handed, one-handed, over-the-shoulder, at-the-chest, over-your-head, with-your-feet, it doesn’t matter.  You can use Kold Draft ice, hand-chiseled cubes made with pure glacial samples pulled from the moons of Saturn, or stuff you scooped out of the ice machine down the hall.  At the end of the shake, your drink will be the same temperature with the same amount of water mixed into the drink.

Based on their research, the panel suggests that every drink will reach a plateau of chilling and dilution – a point at which the two factors will come to an equilibrium – at around 20 to 25 shakes.  Those shakes can be done rhythmically, or in a spastic “monkey shake” fashion which involves jumping up and down.

The one element of shaking that they did seem to see making a bit of a difference was the shaker used.  Their experiments would seem to indicate that if given the choice between using a standard glass and tin Boston style shaker or a two-tin Boston or all-metal cobbler shaker, you should opt for one of the all-metal options.  This is due to the fact that the glass in a normal Boston shaker actually steals cooling energy from the enclosed system.  You can limit the amount of energy stolen by pre-chilling the glass if you’re an ardent supporter of the tin-and-glass kit.

Before you brandish your pitchforks or throw up your hands to declare that all that you’ve learned in the past 2 or 3 years was a waste however, consider the following things:

• There is no quantifiable data on how or whether shaking styles and/or ice can impact the texture of a drink by changing how much aeration occurs in the system.  That will likely be the focus of increased study, and could very well bear out that there really is “One True Shake.”
• Being freed from the dogma of “The One True Shake” allows bartenders to really explore their own styles and differentiate themselves from others (hel-lo Showmanship!).
• While which ice you use in your shaker may not matter, it certainly makes a difference when it comes to presentation to the customer.  No one can really tell if you’re using ice from the ice machine down the hall while it’s in the shaker, but once it’s in the glass you can bet the customer is going to be happier with clear, well-cut ice.

It wouldn’t be Tales of the Cocktail if there weren’t a session or two about rum.  There’s so much history to be read and so many stories to be told and so much variation that you really can’t escape it.  Thoughts drift to Jamaica, Barbados, and certainly to Cuba.

On July 10th at 2:30pm, Tales attendees can head to the Riverview Room at the Hotel Monteleone for what promises to be a lively discussion of a rum icon and its storied and often quite stormy relationship with la isla de Cuba in The Long Legacy of Cuban Rum.

Seminar moderator and good friend of yours truly, Paul Artrip, will co-host the Bacardi-sponsored session about the legacy of rum and Cuba along with Jonathan Pogash and Bacardi’s Chief Historian, Pepin Argamasilla.   The panelists will take attendees step-by-step through the development of rum culture in Cuba and the birth and growth of the world’s preeminent rum brand.   From the founding of the company in 1862 through the Cuban Revolution and their eventual flight from the only home the company had ever known, the panel will discuss the company’s rise and its ability to turn tragedy into success.

The Bacardi formula for producing rum was first developed by patriarch Facundo Bacardi, and the company continues to use that formula today.  The rum made with this formula has played a major role in the creation of some of the most famous rum cocktails of all time.  The first daiquiri and mojito were both made with Bacardi rum.  When American and Cuban soldiers toasted to Cuba’s liberation from Spain, their Cuba Libre’s were made with Bacardi rum.  During America’s Prohibition, Cuba, Bacardi, and rum became synonymous.

While exploring the history of these Cuban-born cocktails, Jonathan Pogash will be mixing them up so that those in attendance can experience them first-hand with the spirit from which they were originally forged.

The panel will also discuss the Cuban Revolution and Bacardi’s role in supporting the establishment of a new regime in Cuba, only to be betrayed by the new leadership when they came to power.  Stripped of all they had worked so hard to attain, the family and company fled Cuba to re-establish themselves in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the United States.

Pepin will discuss how what was at the time an incredible tragedy that could very well have wiped Bacardi off of the map eventually made the company stronger.  No longer able to “settle” for being Cuba’s rum, Bacardi set off on a path of growth and development that eventually led to it no longer being synonymous with Cuban rum, but rum the world-over.

In the end, people attending this session will be able to walk away with a great deal of information on one of the largest spirit brands in the world.  They will know the history of some of the most iconic and best-loved cocktails made with rum, and they will have the full story of company that built itself to define a national spirit, and when cast out of that nation, managed to rise to the highest levels of notoriety for the spirit itself.

Tales of the Cocktail may have officially started on July 16, but for several intrepid rum-lovers, the festivities got going on a little earlier.
On Tuesday, July 15, Ed Hamilton opened the 2008 Ministry of Rum Tasting Competition.  This year’s competition saw 24 judges sitting on a panel to judge more than 60 different rums and cachacas.  Ed had separated the different spirits into their core groups: whites, golds, aged, flavored/spiced, cachacas, and this year saw only 1 rhum agricole and 1 overproof rum (the suspense for who will win the Gold for those categories will not be killing anyone).
The judges were an accomplished group of rum experts from around the U.S., ranging from famous authors to respected bar owners to sommeliers to fantastic bloggers and other who have been reviewing rums and other spirits for years…and some guy that must have compromising photos of Ed or something.  It was an impressive group with whom to be seated.
Ed got everyone seated in a room at Arnaud’s, and laid out the ground-rules for the tasting.  The rules were fairly simple.  Nose and taste the rums, write down a score in 4 different categories (aroma, initial taste, body, and finish), and add up the total.  Our sheets had spaces for any comments we wanted to make, and we were given another space to specify whether or not we felt the rum was deserving of a gold, silver, or bronze medal.  Each scoring category was rated from 0 – 25, adding up to a possible 100 if we found a perfect rum.  The only additional rule that Ed supplied was: please do not talk to each other while judging.  This was to hopefully prevent the power of suggestion from affecting the final outcome.
We began the day with the flavored/spiced rums, 19 of them in-all.  Glasses were laid out on sheets of paper with 1/4 to 1/2 ounce in them, with a number next to each glass.  The judges all began the process of nosing and tasting the spirits, which had already filled the room with a fruity perfume due to a problem with the cork covers that Ed had brought to preserve the nose.  These being the flavored rums, there was plenty of nose left.
This being my first experience sitting as a tasting judge, I was a tad nervous.  The intense, silent focus in the room was reminiscent of taking an important test in school.  Martin Cate, from Forbidden Island, had warned me about this the night before, saying, “You’ll feel like you’re taking your SAT’s or something.”  The only sounds in the room were those of sniffing and the occasional glass clinking.
Every judge seemed to have their own approach to working through the samples.  Some nosed all of the glasses first and then rated the noses for the entire group before moving on to the palate, while others worked through a single rum at a time.  Most (but not all) judges made use of a spit-cup to prevent intoxication, which could be a real concern with so much spirit on the tables.  Between tasting the various samples, judges would cleanse their palates with bottled water and neutral crackers.
After roughly 90 minutes, the judges had all turned in their scoring sheets, and Ed revealed which rums were which numbers.  The judges gathered closely around the bar, taking pictures and taking notes on which rums matched their tasting notes and scores.  There was a great deal of conversation about the difficulty in judging flavored rums because most of the classical rum characteristics that one looks for are covered with the flavors and spices.  Personally I tried to determine what the producer was trying to accomplish (e.g. is this peach or mango?), and then judged by how well I thought their offering demonstrated that desire, or if I could even pinpoint their goal at all.
Following a quick lunch, the judges all filed back in to the room and took their seats in front of a collection of 12 aged and premium rums (followed by a separate rating with a single rhum agricole), and the process was played out in a similar fashion.  The rums ranged from well-known and common in the US to rums that are currently not on the market.  There were a few surprised looks at the reveal.  Blind tasting is very different from what I typically do, and many judges were discussing that in a blind tasting you’ll often find that you score your usual favorite rums as the worst and your least favorite rums as the best.  Some of that has to do with how your palate changes from hour to hour based on things like what you’ve eaten or how you feel, and some of it is just the universe making fun of you.
This entire process was played out twice more on Wednesday.  In the morning a selection of 18 gold rums was placed in front of the noses and palates of the judges.  The reveal followed, and in the afternoon a segmented session first of 7 white/silver/platinum rums, followed by 4 cachacas, and then a single overproof.
After 2 days of drinking rum from 11 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon, the judges and their exhausted palates turned in their final scoring sheets and made their way back to the Hotel Monteleone.  After dropping off bags and other sundry items, several judges went with Ed Hamilton to Margaritaville (of all places) for ti’ punch.  Ed makes a fantastic ti’ punch, and the people behind the bar had no problem letting him work in front of the bar to make the drinks.
Finally, on Saturday, July 19, The Minsitry of Rum posted the results of the 2008 Ministry of Rum Tasting Competition.  Congratulations to all of the medal-winners!

10:27am – Finally got my wireless working so I won’t be using my blazing fast cellphone for this.  I don’t think there were this many island shirts and straw hats at Jeff Berry’s tiki-themed Spirited Dinner.  Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, Wayne Curtis, Martin Cate, and Stephen Remsberg.  Behind the bar toils the entirety of what we’ve been calling the “Tiki Track” – Rick Stutz (Kaiser Penguin), Craig Herman (Tiki Drinks & Indigo Firmaments), Blair Reynolds (Trader Tiki), and Mrs. Beachbum – while Heather (Tiki Mama) breaks up  materials for Martin.

10:35am – I tried to help Heather break up the stuff, and now I’m bleeding and need to see the nurse and call my mommy.

10:36am – Jeff stands up and introduces the rest of the panel and the bartenders, which I’ve already done, so no need to recap that.  On to the slideshow!  Jeff breaks out his “laser pointer”, which is a fishing spear!  I need one of those!

10:38am – Jeff begins to detail the pirate’s life in the Caribbean as it related to drinking.  Circa 1673, punches had become all the rage, originally from the SubContinent, and invaded the Gulf, where ingredients were eventually replaced with rum and any citrus (instead of only lemon).

10:42am – Jeff reviews the recipe for Meeting House Punch.

• 4 Barrels of beer (approx. 120 gallons)
• 24 gallons West Indies Rum
• 35 New England rum
• 35 pounds loaf sugar
• 25 pounds muscavado sugar
• 465 lemons

10:44am – Apparently, drinking rum from the barrel used to be called “sucking the monkey”.  Jeff’s illustrations are…um…suggestive.  This phrase came about because naturalists traveling with sailors would occasionally store samples of taxidermied monkeys in the barrels of spirit on the way home, and you would drink the spirits out with a straw.  Similar story for “tapping the admiral.”

10:47am – Flash-forward to the 1920’s and Don The Beachcomber as we move in to his numerous punches – which had a slight kick to them (he was a fan of 151 rum).  His famous Zombie cocktail (actually most of his cocktails) were essentially souped up Planters Punches.

10:50am – Catch up to Prohibition.  Time to discuss the famous Sloppy Joe’s bar in Havana.  The inside of this bar was perhaps the only part of Cuba that any Americans ever saw when they visited.  The bar was ridiculously long, and well-stocked.  While locals never visited the bar, tourists practically lived there.

Apparently, the Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West is not quite up to snuff.  It was opened by a friend of Hemmingway’s who was named Joe, and actually decided to plagerize the name of the bar at Earnest’s request.

10:55am – Speaking of Hemmingway, here come our La Florida Cocktails:

• 1 oz Rhum Clement VSOP
• 1/8 oz Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb
• 1/2 oz Martini & Rossi Rosso Vermouth
• 1/4 oz BOLS White Creme de Cacao
• 1/8 oz Grenadine
• 1 oz Fresh Lime Juice

10:58am – From Hemmingway to Trader Vick and his tiki creations.  He took inspiration from the drinks like the La Florida and tinkered with the concept until he finally came up with our well-known and loved tiki drinks: the mai tai, fogcutter, and scorpion.

11:00am – This just in: Jeffrey Morgenthaler is STILL at the pool.  And from there we go to the “Castle Special” from the Castle Harbor Hotel (also known by everyone else in the world as the Mai Tai).  Then to the “Lime Tree Cutter” from the Limetree Hotel (fogcutter ripoff), etc.  During the boom in tourism in the Caribbean in the ’50’s, the Hilton resorts essentially ripped off these famous drinks – and then eventually just hired Trader Vick.  Of course, the Trader’s stint at the Havana Hilton was short-lived, as one Fidel Castro took power in Cuba roughly 5 months later.

11:07am – Wayne Curtis has taken over to talk to us about the various bars in Havana.  Wayne, being a real journalist (unlike say….me), was able to go to Cuba for research purposes.  He’s sharing pictures and stories of his visits to the hotels and clubs that were once the center of the drinking culture in the Western Hemisphere.  Apparently things have gone a bit downhill.  “I don’t care what your political leanings are, [these drinks] are not a good argument for Socialism.”

11:10am – Havana reviewed, on to our Rum Pots:

• 1.5 oz El Dorado 12-year Rum
• 1/4 oz Fee Brother French Vanilla Syrup
• 1/2 oz Funkin Passion Fruit Puree
• 3/4 oz Orange Juice
• 3/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Shake well with ice cubes and pour unstrained into a glass.

11:14am – And now we discuss the bane of the tropical drink…the scourge we all know as the Pina Colada – brought to you by Hilton!  Of course, the Pina Colada cannot be considered ALL bad.  Not that it’s good, but it did eventually lead to the Pain Killer.  And speaking of good drinks, that brings us to Martin Cate!

11:18am – Martin takes us on a tour of the islands and their various important spices and flavors.  He gives us an overview on how the spices and flavors are mixed in to rum punches based on a very simple formula.  Everyone say it with us now:

One of Sour
Two of Sweet
Three of Strong
Four of Weak

Congratulations, you can no make your rum punches!  Go forth and imbibe!

11:23am – Martin’s buried cocktail joke (for pimento dram) had everyone in stitches.  I’d try to recount it, but there aren’t words.  I’m going to beg for a copy of the preso and see if I can post it…or if I’m even luckier someone will have it on video and it’ll end up on YouTube.

11:26am – Stephen takes over as the Jasper’s Jamaican Cocktail is handed out:

• 1.25 oz Cruzan Estate Dark Rum
• 1/2 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
• 1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice
• 1/2 Tsp Fee Brother Rock Candy Syrup

Shake well with ice and strin into a glass.  Dust with nutmeg.

11:33am – Stephen’s a bit hard to hear, so I’ve slowed down my updates (which probably makes all of you happy).  Jasper’s theme in his cocktails was largely that one should be able to taste the rum in their drinks.  Not to the point that the rum was overpowering, but at least such that you knew you were drinking rum…as rum drinks should be!

11:37am – Jeff wraps things up with the requisite jab at the drive-thru daiquiri and accepts thunderous applause.  More applause now that they’re handing out Hubig’s New Orleans Style Pies to everyone.  Great session.  Greatly entertaining and wonderfully informative.  If you went to something else, you really missed out.

Cheers!!

Yes, I’m completely stealing this format from Rick at KP.  He can sue me*.

2:39pm – We get started with Simon Ford remarking that it’s very different doing a seminar in the afternoon rather than the mornings because no one looks like they’re near death.   Simon is joined by Wayne Collins, Jason Crawley, Phil Ward, and “Special Guest”.  Phil, of course will make it 4 amigos instead of 3, but then again this is about 3 drinks, not the people on the panel.  Synergy be damned.

2:46pm – Wayne has designated Simon as “Sweet”, himself as “Sour”, and Jason as “Bitter” for the 3 amigos of flavor.  I’m guessing that means that each of them is going to focus on that particular flavor profile within the cocktail universe.  This eventually leads into “The Magnificent Seven”, the seven families of the drink mafia (punch, milk punch, sling, cocktail, sour, cobbler, highball).  Of course we’re going to narrow this down even further to just the punch, the sling, and the cocktail (The Three Amigos!).

2:55pm – I had been liveblogging this in WordPress, but it decided I wasn’t going to be doing that anymore and I’ve switched to a word processor.  Wayne is running us through the entire history of the punch, followed by the milk punch.  Someone’s cell phone rings up and Jason offers a bottle of sherry to the person with the most interesting ringtone.  I don’t know if “irreverent” really covers this group.  I don’t think it does them justice.

3:01pm – We dive in to our first punch – the Fish House Punch, and then Wayne goes in to a demonstration of how to make it.  Lemons are zested, sliced, and juiced.  Wayne adds the dash of sugar, and progresses into a discussion of the right way to make a sweet & sour mix.  His pouring technique while adding the cognac and rum is the kind of stuff that you want to see in movies.  Showmanship is not an issue with this group.

3:10pm – Microphone is handed over to Simon to talk about the sour (Sling).  Drinks are handed out to us whilst Simon ribs Wayne about a recent article printed in the Times Picayune.  Are all coctails slings?  Simon explains that, technically, the cocktail is a bittered sling.  Simon then begins to explain the Singapore Sling whilst Wayne actually mixes the drink.

3:16pm – I just learned that the Raffles Hotel in Singapore serves almost 2500 Singapore Slings per day.  That seems like an aweful lot.  The sling is mixed, shaken, and poured – topped off with the Fever Tree ginger ale, although the samples the rest of use are drinking are topped with an ginger beer from another producer (no one seems to remember which).

3:20pm – Hand off to Jason for the cocktail, who launches into a complaint about American dry-cleaning, pressing of his trousers, and is then corrected by Phil Ward from Death & Co. that they are actually “pants” here.  Jason then produces the bar bill for an early cocktail party for the Jeffersonian party in the early 19th Century, which is staggering.  To sum up, several THOUSAND drinks were served.

3:26pm – Jason begins mixing an Old Chestnut while (sorry about the “whilsts” earlier…I don’t know where those came from) Wayne spins a yarn regarding the reason that an olive is placed in a martini.  If you believe Wayne (questionable decision there), the olive was originally added in California during the gold rush as a token of good luck for the 49ers (the miners, not the football team).  The Chestnut is done, and it’s fantastic.

3:30pm – Back to Wayne to discuss the “Art of the Bartender”.  Wayne is recounting some horror stories regarding conceited bartenders.  He discusses bad bartenders and customers and the problems they both present before going back to Jason for some of his stories.

3:36pm – Jason is discussing an episode with the Danish royal family, and I just have to say, these drinks (the punch, the sling, and the cocktail) are fantastic.  All of them.  And Jason’s story ends with one of his colleagues grabbing the prince of Denmark by the throat during a party.  Classic.  Simon starts to explain why Phil is on the panel (he hasn’t spoken thus far).

3:39pm – Phil begins to explain which drinks he thought were the most important (cocktails specifically).  He cites the Manhattan as the drink that kept the cocktail alive during the 1980’s, as well as the margarita, which kept people tippling during the latter half of the 20th Century.  Thirdly, he thinks the two-ingredient highball is as important because it keeps people drinking, but at the same time the bartenders today seem (by in-large) have become lazy because they don’t ever have to make anything other than a 2-ingredient highball.  Quote of the day, “Flavored spirits are so stupid.”  Something tells me that Phil would frown upon my infusions.

3:42pm – A fistfight just broke out between Wayne and Phil.  It’s getting ugly.  There’s hair-pulling and biting…  Ok not really.  But there is a disagreement about where the Manhattan fits in to the Magnificent Seven.  Phil insists that it’s its own category, while Wayne and Jason insist that it’s a cocktail.   Chief Justice Ford abstains.

3:45pm – This session has gotten a bit strange.  Phil and Wayne are having what would normally be a great argument at a bar, but in front of everyone.  They haven’t reached the shouting level, but it’s very stream-of-conciousness.  Phil is making us a Silver Monk, which is an adaptation based on the margarita (sort of).  Something important if you’re ever in Death & Co. in New York, DO NOT order this as “a margarita”.  It’s delicious, with a strong cucumber and sour flavor, as well as sweet.

3:48pm – Time for questions.  A Jaegerbomb would apparently be categorized as a Sling.  A Rusty Nail is a bit more fuzzy.  Pink Gin (gin and bitters), is even harder.  It’s not a punch (no lemon, sugar, or water).  It’s not a sling (no sugar or water).  A cocktail also requireswater and sugar, and Pink Gin is just gin and bitters.  Wayne basically just classifies the drink as a cocktail.

3:53pm – The classic “What’s your favorite drink?” question – Phil answers “Blueberry Stoli and Red Bull” which gets the crowd roaring laughing.  Simon makes a great point about having only one drink or favorite drink makes your life boring.  Drink a variety.

*Rick, it was a joke, please do not sue me.  Trust me, there’s nothing left for you to take.

As day one of Tales of the Cocktail drew to a close, the festivities fought back, refusing to go gently into that good night.  For Wednesday night the order of business was parties.

At 7pm Beefeater hosted a welcome reception for special guests at the Palace Cafe on Canal Street.  The party occupied the second floor of the restaurant, with costumed beefeaters guarding the staircase, a photo booth with a collection of costume hats (guess which ones) for silly pictures, an assortment of food, and – of course – a few bars featuring complimentary cocktails made with Beefeater Gin.  Guests could have a simple Martini, G&T, or Tom Collins, or move up into the Gin-Gin Mule, Jasmine, or Punch A La Burroughs.

The drinks and food served as excellent lubricant for the mob of people occupying the second floor while they discussed what they had seen during the day, as well as what they were expecting to see over the next few days.  Industry big-wigs, notable bartenders, famous authors, and well-known bloggers rubbed elbows and enjoyed libations and tidbits of food.

At 9:30, if your need for sponsored, invitation-only events had not been sated (and you had an invitation handy), the place to be was Arnaud’s French 75, where Clement hosted Save The Daiquiri.  A veritable crush of people descended on Arnaud’s for daiquiris and other cocktails made with the various Clement and J.M. Rhums.  The bar was (again) full from wall to wall with a current of people getting to the bar to get their drink, and then flowing to the back of the line to cycle through again.

With your thirst for rum slaked (or maybe because the party just came to a close), you could then return to the Hotel Monteleone for the “Bartenders of the World Suite”.  This – the last of the formal invitation-only parties for the evening – was billed as ” a relaxed environment where Tales of the Cocktail guests can enjoy a bespoke cocktail prepared by a select group of bartenders from specific regions of the world”.  If this made you think of a quiet hotel suite with a few VIP’s on either side of the bar, you were in for a surprise.  As each party closed, the crowd of cocktail revelers migrated from one to the other, and well over 100 people moved through the suite to be served drinks by some of the world’s finest bartenders, serving drinks made with St. Germain or Delice de Sureau.

Of course, once the formal parties ended, the informal, impromptu parties began…

Tales of the Cocktail is rapidly approaching us, and it can’t come soon enough. This year will mark my first venture out to the show, and I couldn’t be more excited. In addition to giving me an excuse to visit New Orleans and providing me with the opportunity to hobnob with the creme-de-la-creme of the cocktail blogosphere, the sessions on tap all seem too good to possibly pass up. Sessions will be covering everything from New Orleans history to bartending techniques to molecular mixology – and the idea of missing any of them pains me greatly.

One session I will not be missing unless I’m somehow restrained by large men with guns, is “Rum, Ron, Rhum” on Sunday morning — the last day of the event.

The Triple-R session is being hosted by Wayne Curtis (freelance writer, author of …and a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails, and all-around-nice-guy), Angus Winchester (rum expert, founder of Alconomics, and mixologist extraordinaire), Ben Jones (of Rhum Clement), and Chesterfield Browne (award-winning bartender for Mount Gay Distilleries). In a mere 90 minutes, these men will lead you down the long and winding path that is the past, present, and future of rum.

“Rum, Ron, & Rhum” will cover a lot of bases, everything from the history of rum from the Elizabethan Age through the modern era to the differences in styles between the numerous rum-producing nations and distilleries that dot the Caribbean and other tropical locales of the world to the current trends in today’s market. It’s a lot of ground to cover in a scant hour and a half.

I caught up with Wayne via email as he and I likely passed each other in the air, criss-crossing the US (admittedly, his criss-crossing was probably much more interesting and fun than mine). I asked him how he could possibly go about fitting over 300 years of rum history into a presentation that lasts only 90 minutes, especially considering that they won’t only be discussing rum’s history.

“It took me about two years to do the research and writing,” Wayne responded, “and there’s no way to compress that two years of the underlying three centuries into 90 minutes. So we’ll be skimming across the top, and looking at some of the highlights of history and the chief variations of style.”

Styles are something of which rum has no shortage. From Jamaican to Barbadian to Cuban to Demerara and on and on and on; the breadth of the spirit’s offerings can be dizzying and even somewhat intimidating to the uninitiated. I asked Wayne what his favorite of the myriad styles is.

“In general, I tend to be a fan of the heavier, Demerara-style rums — they just seem to concentrate and intensify the flavors of the rum, like a good gelato. But my preferences shift by season and day – sometimes toward something a little lighter (like Ron Barillito or Mount Gay Extra Old), and often I find myself just wanting a robust rhum agricole white with a bit of lime and sugar.”

So what does it all mean? What will people take away from this concentration of rum expertise?

“I hope people come away knowing the main difference between the flavor profiles of the sugar cane and molasses based rums, how different rum styles emerged from different islands, and which are best in different types of cocktails.”

“Rum, Ron, Rhum” takes place 11:00 am – 12:30 pm on Sunday, July 20, at the Hotel Monteleone. Tickets may be purchased here.