On October 17, 2022, we held our last Rum Reader event of the year, returning to our old stomping grounds of Chicago with a new team, a new venue, and a new mission: to meditate on the Mojito. At the essential California Clipper, an astute crowd was…

On May 16, 2022, we were finally able to achieve something we’d planned for almost three years: conducting the Daiquiri Dossier to Boston’s famed Shore Leave, the only tropical bar excavated as part of the Big Dig. As is our well-honed strategy, we…

For the return of the Daiquiri Dossier in 2022, we found ourselves once more in Chicago—where a glorious session had once been conducted at Three Dots and a Dash in 2019—because there was more to say. As always, we sought out some of the city’s top…

A Discussion at Jungle Bird The Planter’s Punch is a foundational drink, a gateway connecting the punch bowl of the seventeenth century with the tropical cocktails of the twentieth century. Many tropical drinks have a combination of rum, lime, and…

On March 11, 2020, we gathered a panel of experts at New York’s Jungle Bird for an evening of Mai Tai marvel. Then, on March 22, the state’s pandemic stay-at-home order came into effect. These events were not related, but it made this evening perhaps…

Don’t worry, we’re not done with the Daiquiri. But there is another classic rum cocktail that merits a turn, that midcentury masterpiece—the Mai Tai.(And we talked about Daiquiris a little, too.)On March 11, 2020, we gathered a panel of experts at…

Dale DeGroff’s centrality to the revival of cocktails in the United States is undisputed. His tenure as bar manager at the Rainbow Room, under the authority of hospitality legend Joe Baum, was the first time in generations that certain classic…

Though it was founded in 1753, Jamaica’s Hampden Estate distillery only this year issued the first aged rum under its own brand name. Now is certainly a good time to bring a Jamaican pot still blend to market, as interest in this family of styles is…

As cocktail revivalists have sought to rebuild their temples to temptation, they’ve necessarily delved into records of when the cocktail was king. Many celebrated drinks manuals preserved recipes for posterity, but these were only lists of parts. To…

“There’s definitely a kind of magic about Jamaica,” Chris Blackwell told me as we sat in the front room of his Manhattan aerie in the gray autumn light. With rainswept taxis in the street below, we were far from Jamaica in every way, but the feeling…

The launch of the Rum Reader as a new voice for rum is an ambitious project, and we’re gratified for all the support we’ve received from the community. To formalize the roles of certain key individuals in our rum family, today we’re announcing the…

Chasing new flavors and better ingredients has always been Tom Richter’s style. In the late 1980s, he tended bar at San Francisco’s landmark Zuni Café, with its a pioneering bar program featuring fresh juice. From there, he came to embrace the New…

When I was no more than four, I accompanied my mother to the Farmers’ Exchange in our semi-rural town of Bloomfield, Connecticut. This farm and garden co-op was situated for the convenience of its deliveries on the freight rail line which still ran…

Haiti has spent most of its history left out of the industrial advances experienced elsewhere. But as the developed world now increasingly seeks authenticity and tradition in its food and drink experiences, the old-fashioned agriculture of Haiti …

We are in the midst of a boom in spirits writing, with increasing attention lavished on the pursuit of piling words on top of booze. Much of this writing is insightful, surprising, and well-researched, and much of it is haphazardly thrown together in…

In recent years, Barbados-based Foursquare and its outspoken leader Richard Seale have sprung to to the forefront of both the discussion of rum’s identity and, even more importantly, beautiful execution of the juice itself. The chief agents of this…

If there’s such a thing as Pirate Tiki, then we have bartender Brian Miller to thank for it. A Tiki renaissance is sweeping the globe, but so far, New York City has stayed above the rising tide. Nonetheless, Miller placed his bet. “I think this is …

Twenty years ago, I made regular use of the hospitality of a certain bar on 81 East Seventh Street in Manhattan, known for convenience as “Bar 81,” though more solemnly dubbed “Verchovyna.” The moniker was Ukrainian for “highland place,” despite the …

Forget the Boston Tea Party. The American Revolution was really about rum. Need proof? How about the fact that the father of our nation had a lifelong fixation with the famed Caribbean elixir? George Washington’s obsession may have been left out of …

There is much myth making in the booze business. Spirits are not just products you hold in your hand but imaginary ideals built from ancient recipes pulled from Grandpappy’s notebook, a clear stream cutting across a backcountry hill, and trusty old …