Welcome to my conventional year-end introspective for CocktailWonk.com, my free-form writing outlet.
Considered solely by frequency of tales, 2021 was my slowest since beginning in 2013. However by totaling up my output throughout all my tasks (not simply Cocktail Wonk), 2021 was a gangbuster yr. Cocktail Wonk took a backseat function for my time allocation, however the payoff shall be value it. Keep tuned.
Whereas tales right here appeared much less ceaselessly, they continued taking the street much less traveled within the service of:
- Revealing beforehand uncovered subjects and surprises
- Telling the actual historical past of rum by way of authentic sources, even when differing from a model’s model
- Setting the file straight on widespread misperceptions
Tasting notes, side-by-side comparisons, and pontifications on the newest hotness are not my jam.
What follows are two Prime Ten Lists:
- Tales written in 2021 offering deep content material that can (hopefully) stand the check of time
- Prime-ranked tales by web page view depend
Prime Ten Tales – Deep Content material
Unbiased of pages views, these are the tales I’d level new readers to as examples of what Cocktail Wonk is about. They’re roughly so as of significance, based mostly solely by myself opinion.
#1 – Tiki’s Lacking Ingredient: “Martinique Rum” of Yore
This story combines my affection for rum schooling, historical past, and tiki right into a story of “We’ve been doing it incorrect.” All these people making traditional Tiki recipes of the golden period with rhum agricole might want to learn and rethink.
#2 – Navy Rum Energy isn’t 57%
There’s an aphorism – Repeat a lie typically sufficient, and it turns into the “reality.” Relating to “navy energy” rums, it’s an uphill battle in opposition to manufacturers that both don’t know or don’t care that they’re misrepresenting historical past.
#3 – Six Issues Concerning the French Rum Trade
The French rum market is filled with buried surprises. Do you know that French departments resembling Martinique collectively make much more molasses-based rum than agricole? Or that one little-known firm dominates Frances’s rum manufacturing? Or that just about all French rum makers function beneath quotas? This one is for the super-wonks.
#4 – Gatekeeping the Mai Tai
The tiki group is ceaselessly roiled when somebody calls out a recipe as inauthentic. Are they only jerks or Defenders of the Religion? Drawing on the Mai Tai’s historical past and the inception of the tiki revival, I attain a shocking conclusion.
#5 – Demerara Rum GI Achieves EU Recognition
Every extra rum GI (geographical indication) is one other physique blow to the “Rum has no guidelines” ridiculousness. An unique first have a look at what Guyana selected as the necessities to be known as Demerara Rum.
#6 – Demerara Distillers Heritage Stills: A Deep Q&A with Shaun Caleb
The esoteric particulars of Demerara Distillers’ heritage stills are of intense curiosity to the rum Illuminati. Right here I collected and posed an uber-geeky set of inquiries to DDL’s grasp distiller, Shaun Caleb.
#7 – Martinique’s Different Rum Regulation: The Grand Arôme (Le Galion) PGI
Whereas Martinique’s AOC laws are extensively recognized, far fewer individuals learn about Grand arôme; Martinique’s model of “excessive ester” rum. Or that it has its personal GI.
#8 – Rethinking “White Rum”
Rum is like cheese – the colour conveys nothing significant about it. On this article, I suggest extra widespread sense classes to exchange “white rum,” e.g., “multi-country mix,” “unaged Jamaican overproof,” and “Aged and filtered.” The story additionally has a reference information mapping many standard “white rums” to those classes,
#9 – Barbados Rum: Ten Issues to Know
Prompted by a lot curiosity in Barbadian rum from new fanatics, I painted an summary of Barbados rum in bite-size chunks, together with some essential but neglected views. I’d not written on this format earlier than and was pleasantly stunned by the response.
#10 – Ten Issues to Know About Jamaican Rum
Given the success of the Barbados Prime Ten, Jamaica was an apparent successor. As earlier than, the listing has its share of typically surprises and historic tidbits.
Prime Ten by Web page Views
In contrast to the prior listing, this listing consists of all content material on CocktailWonk.com, no matter when written.
No enormous surprises right here. Individuals favored tiki content material, then rum deep dives. The one story written in 2021 was the Barbados Rum Cheat Sheet. I intentionally didn’t deep dive on that subject, and people appeared to answer bite-size nuggets of data.
That’s it for 2021! It’s my fervent hope to push out extra tales in 2022, as I’ve heaps to share!
