Exclusive Interview with Mr. Wayne Curtis

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Exclusive Interview with Mr. Wayne Curtis

The rum industry is very fortunate to have a professional journalist like Wayne Curtis  among its most elegant and dedicated followers.  To say that Wayne simply writes about rum is to tell only half the story: he does not write about anything that he is not passionate and educated about, and this is why Luis and I have enjoyed knowing him and working with him so much.

Margaret Ayala, Publisher

What is your full name, title and location?

Wayne Curtis, Freelance Journalist, New Orleans.

I understand that you used to live in Maine and decided to move to New Orleans. Why the move to New Orleans?

I visited New Orleans twice in 2005 while researching my rum book – in January for the first opening of the Museum of the American Cocktail, and again in August 2005 for Tales of the Cocktail. That was pretty much all it took – I felt instantly at home in this city — the architecture, the music, the been in Maine for years, and were thinking of a (warmer) alternative, and New Orleans instantly moved high up the list. When at Tales, I spent an afternoon looking at houses to see if we could afford the move.

Then Katrina struck the week after Tales of the Cocktail that year. I waited six months and flew back to the city. It was still very much as work in process, with some 80,000 houses flooded, but I felt pretty good about the city’s prospects, and we decided to buy a house (unflooded) and moved here in the summer of 2006.

In 2006 you published a book called “And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails.” What led you to pursue researching and writing a book about rum? Can you give us a brief description of what your book covers?

I arrived at rum though a back door – I wasn’t especially interested in spirits or  cocktails, but was interested in American history. I’d been researching a fair amount of early American history for magazine pieces and for my own personal interests, and kept coming across references to rum – in piracy, the slave trade, the American Revolution. I started wondering, what ’s this all about? Little had been writ ten on the role of rum in American history. So I did some research, found it intriguing, and decided to write up a book proposal. Happily, I found a publisher who also thought it odd that no one had writ ten a book on the topic.

The book research began with the assumption that it would be like many micro histories, all of which basically have the same subtitle, whether visible or not: “The [insert topic here] that changed the world.” I found that rum did change the world, or at least the New World, for about a century early on. But then it sort of faded after the American Revolution. So my research approach got f lipped, and I started thinking of it as “how the world changed rum.” The working premise was that various technological, economic, political, and cultural shifts changed rum, and that from time to time, these would all converge to produce a defining rum drink. It didn’t take much work to come up with 10 rum drinks that seemed to define various eras in rum’s history.

I wanted to bring rum’s history to the present day, so at some point had to start learning about rum and the cocktail culture of the late 19th and 20th century. Which meant doing a lot of tasting. I was a wine and beer guy mostly when I started, but quickly learned that I preferred spirits when I knew something about them. I really liked that small variations in cocktails could yield big differences in taste.

Your specialty in the spirits world is cocktails. You wrote a column for six years for “The Atlantic” magazine. Can you tell us a little more about this column? As for rum-based cocktails, is there a certain trend you are seeing? 

I wrote a column about spirits and cocktails for The Atlantic from 2008 to 2014, which was an  amazing time to be writing, since so much was happening then in the liquor world. And I was given wide latitude by my editors – I wrote about everything from Fernet Branca to the use of tuning forks to mix cocktails, along with quite a bit about the rise of craft spirits and the problems of defining same. History remained my anchor — I wrote about gunpowder and the spirits test, which meant blowing things up, and about the traditional colonial nutmeg garnish, which meant exploring the psychoactive proper ties of nutmeg.

Is rum’s image being defined by its role in mixology? Should it?

Rum has long been defined as the mixing spirit behind good times, beach par ties, tiny umbrellas, that sort of as rappers have discovered, and the Captain goes with everything, as ever y college student learns.

Like many other spirits, rum has become more sophisticated in recent years (the business

buzzphrase is “premiumization”) and so is developing another, independent market, populated by those who appreciate it as a quality product worthy of sipping straight. It’s almost as if rum has discovered a more aristocratic side of the family, and brought it into the spotlight. Some of those fine rums are finding their way into classic cocktails — I love the rum old-fashioned — and reminding people that tiki drinks were once made with quality rums and were outstanding, and sans little umbrella. 

The nice thing about rum is that it doesn’t need to be mixed to be appreciated, but it ’s congenial and agreeable enough that it’s not offended by mixing it, either.

Other than “The Atlantic,” where else can people read about you and your opinions on alcoholic beverages (do you have a blog, facebook, etc.)?

For the last few years, I’ve been writing a column for Imbibe magazine, mostly about historic bars and the roles they’ve played in American society. I’ve also compiled an annual roundup of the best books about cocktails and spirits for the Wall Street Journal. And then various other magazines ask me to write about spirits- related topics from time to time, including Sunset, Yankee, American Scholar, enRoute (the Air Canada magazine), and Private Clubs. Links to many of the stories I’ve writ ten over the years are on the “archive” page of my website at www.waynecurtis.com.

You have done many presentations, such as, at Tales of the Cocktail, American Distilling Institute, Manhattan Cocktail Classic, Atlanta Food and Wine Festival ( just to name a few), but you have also participated in rum tasting as well. Overall, what is your impression of the craft rums you have tried? Luis and I have been big advocates to protecting what the definition is of rum and how it is produced/ marketed. Do you think these craft distillers are on the right path, holding true to rum production? Do you think rum in the USA will ever outsell Bourbon?

To star t with the last question: No, rum will never outsell bourbon. American whiskey has been an ingrained (so to speak) part of the American psyche since early in the 19th century. With the increasing emphasis on locally crafted products, whiskey made of American grain from the heartland will have an edge on rum made from imported molasses, or even molasses from Louisiana or Florida.

That said, I’m very encouraged about the new wave of craft rums. I’ve judged three spirit competitions in the past year, and I’m very bullish on rum. I’ve tasted a half-dozen or more craft rums made by young distilleries in the U.S. that are as good or better as products being released by old- line distilleries on the islands. In this respect, I think rum is far outpacing craft whiskey, much of which is being released too early, and has a green and grainy taste. Whiskey will eventually catch up, I assume, but for now rum is leading the way.

And, yes, I feel that these craft rums I admire are really classic rums, and uphold the traditions and expected taste profiles. They don’t stray far off the reservation — as some upstart rums do, and not to good effect.

Just last month you were very busy celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans. How was this year’s event? In the cocktail world, did you come across any new and/or intriguing rum-based cocktails? What was your impression of people’s responses to rum-based cocktails?

For those living in New Orleans, the two-plus weeks of Mardi Gras is an experience based around houses, not bars — you invite people in your home, and you visit the homes of others. Above all, you leave Bourbon Street to the amateurs.

The one thing I’ve been constantly reminded of at Mardi Gras is the beauty and utility of punch. We have an open house before one evening parade and probably have 60-80 people stop by. Five gallons of punch made in advance and stashed in an Igloo cooler near the door means I can enjoy my own party.

The rest of the year we have a chance to try out the city’s bars at a more measured pace. Cane & Table, Latitude 29 and Tiki Tolteca are doing great things with rum, and there’s the new Black Duck Bar, upstairs at the Palace Cafe, which is specializing in rums. It’s owned by local restaurateur Dickie Brennan, who also launched a rum society with monthly get-togethers to sample different rums and cocktails, and hear from speakers in the industry.

I always like swapping out rum for whiskey in a classic cocktail to serve to guests — it ’s a great way to surprise those who associate rum with a bad college experience involving a late night and the neighbor ’s shrubberies. And it ’s a great way to open a door for those always think “rum’s too sweet ” — a well -made rum old-fashioned or Manhat tan can turn a lot of heads.

If people want to contact you, how may they reach you?

The most direct way to reach me is through the contact form on my web page, www.waynecur tis.com.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

I want to encourage everyone to try the new crop of craft rums from America. Reward those you like by purchasing more bottles. And those you don’t like…. well, there’s always punch!

Margaret: Once again, Wayne, thank you for taking the time out of your very busy schedule for this interview. I wish you all the best and look forward to reading future stories of yours.

Cheers!

Margaret Ayala, Publisher