View allAll Photos Tagged involves
After many years of waiting, I finally got the opportunity to do something involving food and drink from a vantage point high up in The Shard - official reigning champion for the 'most Mordor looking building in London awardâ (disclaimer: this competition does not exist). The event was another part of Rum Experience Week, organised by the rum ambassador Ian Burrell (thatâs him looking dapper in the hat), and was held at Campariâs headquarters on the 27th floor. Unfortunately, as it was night, and the lighting in the building was turned up something fierce, you couldnât really see out into the city too well (way too much in the way of reflections - turn the lights off pls thx). So no amazing cityscape views - just amazing rumâ¦views. Views of rum. Which is OK.
Anyway, I say this tasting was held in The Shard, but in reality, as a 'twitter tastingâ, the event was more or less held wherever people were 'listening inâ (is that the right term for following a hashtag?). Appleton Estate had been giving away in the month or so leading up to the event, and so people as far away as Sweden were getting involved as Appleton Estateâs senior blender, David Morrison, took listeners through four of Appletonâs main range (thatâs him in the black jumper near Ian / often holding the mic). In order, this range was The Appleton Signature Blend, The Appleton Rare Blend (12 year), and The Appleton 21. My personal preference? The 12. And at £25ish a bottle, by my whisky-calibrated price standards, that seems pretty resonable.
As you can also see in the pictures, some of the UKâs most promising bartenders showed up for a little competition involving cocktails made out of Appleton Estate. I canât remember who won but I do remember that the level of audience appreciation/enthusiasm was⦠worthy of the talent on display behind the bar. It was also great to hear the story of each cocktail. The Welsh guyâs cocktail was supposedly inspired by being mugged he once experienced?!...
More about the folks involved. David had flown all the way over from the Nassau Valley, Jamaica, to endure dark, grey English weather in the exchange for the chance to presumably educate English people about the joys of extremely strong rum - and share out some of Appletonâs 50 year Jamaica Independence bottling (of which I got to try a glass, fuuuuuuuuck me son). I am still a rum padawan, and likely will be for some time - but some mind expanding, palette expanding, waistline expanding discoveries have been made, and Iâll be sure to pay more attention to Appleton Estate and all the nice things that they seem to get up to on that bloody great sugarcane farm of theirs. Well done, guys!
A sudden argument/display/scuffle involving some of the males just out-of-picture over to the right, set all the females fleeing to safety. Shabani is now adding his display to the general furore. Because if you a male, you just have to add your bit to the action, show the other males how good you are. However, he's not going to go after the other males. No siree. He's going after the soft target of Lisa, who is fleeing with Liwali.
Fumo has bunkered down under the log.