Rum Flies When You Are Having Fun
“I was hungry and went out for a bite, ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and we wound up drinking all night.”
Jimmy Buffet
One of the fun and virtually free Island experiences you can have in Kauai is Rum tasting at the Koloa Rum Company. For a mere $5 you will have the opportunity to taste some of the best Rum in the world while also learning a bit about how it is made. The hardest part of this experience is trying to figure out how to get all of that scrumptious rum home. Thanks to my friend Traci who is an expert in traveling with alcohol I learned that for just a few $ you can purchase plastic flasks with funnels, that can be used to transport your alcoholic beverages safely packed inside your checked luggage. This eliminates the weight of the bottle itself, allowing for more liquid by volume to be carried… the only issue then is, what clothes, shoes and hygiene products do you omit in order to make the weight limit for the checked luggage? For me the answer was simple; pay for another bag! Given that the Koloa Rum can be purchased at Costco in Kauai for $10 cheaper than in California, I was able to reason that an extra bag was worth the cost based on the extra Rum I could bring home without sacrificing additional clothing. I also reasoned that I might possibly have more room for other island souvenirs. Lucky for my friends, I had some unused weight and they were able to move a few things into my extra bag, so they did not have to pay the $100 overweight baggage charge. It all worked out.
So, in my previous post I talked about Mai Tai’s and friendships. It is worth noting here that Rum is the key ingredient in a good Mai Tai. During our tasting we were taught the art of the slow pour for the dark rum float that is indicative of all great Mai Tai’s and that gives them the appearance of an inverted sunset in a glass. We also learned that the Kola Dark Rum, Coffee Rum with a splash of the coconut lime Rum, espresso make for an incredible espresso martini…who knew?
For that and many other rum recipes check out Koloa Rum Co. and Rum drink recipes or follow them on Instagram.
Tom, Diane & Renee Rum Tasting at Koloa Rum Co. Kauai
