Rum Time!

How do you make a good rum? Luckily, that's not among my jobs, actually producing spirits, but I do get to tell people what I think about what they make, what it's good for and how it may best be served.

Tomorrow I get another chance at the Polished Palate Rum Festival here in Ybor City, where 60-some rums, rhums, flavored rums and rum liqueurs will be gathered a fer the judgin'. There's a crew of rum know-it-alls (check the web page for all the info), and I expect once again, as noted re: the recently concluded San Francisco Spirits Competition, to be surprised at what I like and distrubed about what I don't. But that's why they actually play the game; at these blind judgings, reputations add zero to a score. And products change; that's why everyone involved in selling ot working with spirits should taste and retaste what they've got. You never know when a brand will dramatically and silently change its formula. And you all know who I'm talking about.