The Rum Reader

Culture
The Birth (and Rebirth) of Rum Brands
By Ben Schaffer on May 15, 2019
The Birth (and Rebirth) of Rum Brands
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... Read More
Profiles
Caribbean Cuisine Claims Its Fine Dining Voice
By Maggie Hennessy on Jan 15, 2019
Caribbean Cuisine Claims Its Fine Dining Voice
Dinner at Compère Lapin, Nina Compton’s heartfelt restaurant that weaves together the cooking of her native Saint Lucia and her adopted New Orleans home, starts out very Southern indeed: with...
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Profiles
Chris Blackwell: An Oracabessa of the Mind
By Ben Schaffer on Dec 11, 2018
Chris Blackwell: An Oracabessa of the Mind
“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...
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Culture
Sugar: A Practical Guide
By Gina Haase on Oct 30, 2018
Sugar: A Practical Guide
Sugar and spirits have enjoyed a cheerful partnership in our cups since the fifteenth century. Expensive and relatively rare, sugar was treated as a mood-lifting drug, making frequent appearances in...
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Culture
The Daiquiri Dossier: Pegu Perspective
By Audrey Saunders on Sep 24, 2018
The Daiquiri Dossier: Pegu Perspective
As the Daiquiri is the preeminent rum cocktail, we knew we had to investigate it for the inauguration of the Rum Reader. Accordingly, we invited a who’s who of New...
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