What I Did Yesterday

Road trip and visit to Drum Circle Distillery, makers of Siesta Key Rum.

I learned a lot!

I did not know that molasses is a by-product of making sugar and that black-strap molasses is the dregs of the molasses making process.

I tried a small sample of the rum as it came out of the still.  Yuck.  When its that raw it smells like rubbing alcohol...  I don't have a basis of comparison for the flavor; it really just evaporated off the tongue.  A neat experience though.

I'm not even a rum drinker...

It was very interesting learning about different ways of making rum he'd tried and discarded and the recipes he's still using.

I am not sure why I was surprise, given the number of craft beers, that there's a craft liquor industry too.  Rums like Captain Morgan and Bacardi are the Budwiesers and Millers...  With all the same baggage associated with quality underlined by penny pinching and making a consistent product in great volume.

It's much easier to make a mediocre product cheaply, consistently and in great volume than an excellent one profitably in small volumes.  That's not really a slam on Bacardi and Budweiser but an observation that the goals are not the same between the giants and the crafters.

Troy's tour of his business is a brilliant piece of marketing, even if he doesn't know he's doing it.

Hand out samples in the tasting room... give the tour while the samples have a chance to take effect... get them back into the tasting room and next to the stuff for sale while they have nothing else to do while they wait to make sure they're completely sober to drive.

Brilliant!