Rum is a mystery

This evening a friend and I went to Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge on the island of Alameda. I’ve never seen to many fruity tiny umbrella-festooned beverages in one place before. The Zombie my friend ordered was tasty (and powerful) but it couldn’t hold a candle to my beverage.

Forbidden Island has something I’ve never seen before: an entire menu just for rums. There must have been almost thirty different kinds of rum on this list. In this age of single malt scotches and artisinal tequilas it was refreshing to see something else on the menu. I ordered a Murray McDavid 10yr Nicaraguan rum finished in Chenin Blanc barrels{.broken_link}. Sure, it cost me $13. Sure, it didn’t affect me like my friend’s zombie affected him (I had to drive us to dinner), but it was a sublime little piece of heaven.

If all you know about rum is Bacardi then you don’t know diddly. And, after drinking this beverage and looking it up online, I realize that I don’t know diddly either. The waitress handed me that menu and I had no clue what I was looking at. What are the merits of a Dominican rum versus one from Guatemala? “C.L.D.N.? What the heck is that?” In the end I based my judgment upon price (“$13? That must be good, right?”) and got lucky.

In my copious free time I might start doing some casual research into rum, just to see what there is to see. As beverages go it’s probably every bit as complex and varied as a single malt but much less appreciated.