Events

Thursday Drink Night - Live In Las Vegas!

Matt Robold — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:57:24 GMT

This coming Thursday (November 20), for one night and one night only, you can join Gabriel of CocktailNerd.com and me for a real treat as we join the Mixoloseum's Thursday Drink Night LIVE from Trader Vic's on the Las Vegas Strip starting at 6pm Pacific Time!

That's right, this week Gabe and I will be mixing things up with the bartenders at Vic's, courtesy of Leblon Cachaca - which works out perfectly since Leblon is this week's theme for TDN. So if you're joining us from home, be sure to pick up a bottle first, or if you happen to be in the neighborhood, be sure to come down to Trader Vic's for some mixological mayhem.

If you're unfamiliar with Thursday Drink Night, allow me to illuminate. Every Thursday the folks at Mixoloseum.com get together in "The Bar" and spend the entire evening making drinks. Not just any drinks mind you - only ORIGINAL drinks. All drinks are invented on-the-spot as people take turns trying to come up with the best libation of the evening. Afterwards the host for the evening (usually Rick from KaiserPenguin) chooses a winner and sends them a prize of some sort. Each week has a different theme around which everyone tries to build - from gin to Irish Whisk(e)y to fruit liqueurs. It's a great deal of fun, and you'll end up with a number of terrific original drink recipes in the end. So whether you're in Las Vegas this Thursday or sitting in front of your home bar in Asheville, North Carolina, join us - either physically or virtually - for another great night of mixing drinks and witty banter*.

*Disclaimer: Banter not guaranteed to be witty

Tags: mixoloseum, tdn, cocktails, leblon

UK RumFest 2008

Matt Robold — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:21:40 GMT

UK RumFest, a festival of all things rum, was hosted in the UK by the Rum Experience at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London last week. For its second year, the event billed as the world's premier rum festival brought rum producers, enthusiasts, and fanatics together in London to sample, discuss, and then sample some more rum. Ian Burrell, the driving force behind RumFest, probably explains it best:

This was my first year in attendance - and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I spent the night before out with many of the VIP's that would be giving presentations, manning booths, and demonstrating bartending techniques over the following two days. Somehow the "How does this show work?" never came up.

Like any trade show, RumFest has a show floor for exhibitor booths. In this case, the exhibitors are the rum producers, their importers, and their distributors (for the most part). Walking the floor is like walking through a cubicle-ized representation of the Caribbean. One passes by booths for Appleton Estate (Jamaica), El Dorado (Guyana), Havana Club (Cuba), St. Lucia Distillers (St. Lucia), and many others.

Walk up to any booth and be prepared to have all of your questions on that rum answered - including the "how does it taste?" question. Samples are handed out, both with the rum by itself or (at some booths) with mini-cocktails. Some booths even boast entire bars manned by some of the most respected bartenders in London. For the full cocktails, drink tickets are issued to attendees.

If you're interested in learning more about rum in general, there are seminars held upstairs to help to educate the attendees on everything from the vast history of rum, to the process of making it, to how communities like the Ministry of Rum operate and promote the spirit. I spent most of my time upstairs, either attending seminars hosted by the likes of Ian Williams, Richard Seale, and Paul McFadyen. I even spent a little time participating in the forums on the Ministry of Rum and Paul Artrip's presentation on American artisinal rums (never a bad session when you're getting more free samples).

There is a center stage as well, where one can catch presentations at various times through-out the day. These presentations cover brand-specific mixology, as well as general rum information and mixology. The presentations are great, and you hardly get distracted at all by the Brazillian dancers just to the right of the stage. Ehem.

One of the main events at RumFest, however, is the Tiki competition between the staff at Trailer Happiness and the folks at Mahiki. This is a two-day event that really steals the show at RumFest in terms of entertainment as the two bars square off in drink-mixing, creativity, and showmanship. Regrettably I missed most of the competition attending seminars, but I was there for the grand finale - during which Trailer Happiness ripped out a man's heart (not really) and Mahiki set the stage on fire (really). In the end, Trailer Happiness emerged victorious for the second straight year. No bartenders were harmed in the conducting of this contest.

All in all, RumFest was an incredible time. My time there was informative and the very definition of a good time. If you're someone that enjoys rum, or is a complete, frothing fanatic such as myself, this show is a "must attend" every year. I look forward to seeing some of you in London next year...cause I will definitely be there.

Tags: rum, rumfest, events, london

UK RumFest - Day 0

Matt Robold — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT

UK RumFest is billed as Europe's only festival to celebrate my favorite spirit. It's a collection of rum producers, marketers, sellers, distributors, and consumers, all coming together in London to sample products and cocktails, listen to seminars on everything from the history of the spirit to matching it with chocolate, watch cocktail competitions, and just simply enjoy the world's most varied spirit.

RumFest is the brainchild of Ian Burrell, a restaurateur, mixologist, recording artist, basketball player, and fierce rum advocate (you can understand why I like him). Ian is known by many as the Rum Ambassador, and along with the folks at IPBartenders, has traveled the globe to promote and educate about rum. In 2007, Ian put together the first ever RumFest for the United Kingdom and Europe. The event features many of the biggest names in rum - both in terms of companies and personalities.

On October 24, after an evening with no sleep and a 10 hour flight across the continental US and the Atlantic Ocean, I finally arrived in London for The Rum Experience's second RumFest. The festivities had not officially started yet, but I met with Tatu (aka Count Silvio) from Refined Vices, and we headed down to IPBartenders to meet with Paul McFadyen and a number of other rum luminaries, including Ed Hamilton, Paul Artrip, Ben Reed, Ian Williams, and others. The group spent the first part of the evening sampling the incredibly wide selection of rums and other liquors and liqueurs. Rum was poured, cocktails were mixed, pizza was ordered (although not until we had discovered that Ben Reed had forgotten to order the pizza the first time around).

Following the time spent at IPB, our large group meandered down the street to Trailer Happiness, one of the premier tiki bars in the UK. Our merry band was treated to a number of excellent tiki drinks and continued conversation, and was even joined by Chesterfield Brown from Mount Gay Rum. The highlight of the visit to Trailer Happiness had to be the volcano bowl. The darkly lit room combined with a unique approach to lighting the bowl on fire made for quite the spectacle. I'll apologize up front for the fact that the video starts off upside-down, as I was racing to pull my camera out and just hit the button as quickly as possible.

From tiki drinks to classic cocktails, we rounded the corner and headed to the Portobello Star. The drinks continued to flow, and the group continued to talk loudly and enjoy the evening. As time wore on, the group's size continuously dwindled until at last-call I looked around and realized that Tatu and I were the only ones left as the room lights were switched on. I had almost decided against going out at all because of the level of exhaustion I had felt earlier in the evening. I seriously considered staying in my hotel room, sleeping through the night. Somehow, however, I ended up turning the key to return to my hotel room at 2:30 in the morning.

As I changed from "Dood: Party-Goer Extraordinaire" back to "Matt: Exhausted Traveler", I couldn't help but consider the glut of hospitality and generosity that we had been shown by our British hosts, and wonder what could possibly lay ahead. My weekend was off to a dizzying start...and the conference didn't start for another 9 hours.