The 2017 Holiday Rum Shopping Guide
by Paul Senft
Buying gifts for our friends who are spirit enthusiasts can become challenging. Given enough time you have no idea what is in their bars or collections and it is better to look for other more interesting avenues to surprise them during the Holiday season. 2017 has provided us with an interesting solution to this dilemma by providing us several new books to entice, educate, and provide new cocktail recipes for the Spirit lover on your gift list.
One of the things that was unique about 2017 is that they were multiple books that came out about rum. We had three books that functioned as Primers- Rum: The Manual by Dave Broom and The Curious Bartender’s Rum Revolution by Tristan Stephenson are both by U.K. writers who put their own unique spin on the spirit and its history. The third book Rum Curious was written by U.S. author Fred Minnick of Bourbon fame, who presents a take no prisoner’s time capsule of the modern rum industry. After reading all three books I felt that Minnick’s Rum Curious and Stephenson’s Rum Revolution paired well as 101 and 102 introductions to the world of rum, the products, and the regions of the world producing the spirit.
Collection of Books for Rum SHopping Guide
For those interested in rum’s history, Marco Pierini’s American Rum: A Short History of Rum in Early America is a deep dive into the controversial origins of the spirit. Pulling no punches, he covers the material that a lot of other writer’s mention, but glosses over due to not wanting to focus too much on the dark and terrible time in history that was the foundation of Rum’s history. Using plenty of original source material this is an excellent exploration into Rum’s challenging history.
Shifting gears from the foundation of rum, its history and production I have three suggestions of Cocktail books that provide the recipes your gift recipient needs to take their exploration of rum and other spirits to entirely new levels. First up, a new cocktail book by author Amanda Schuster, New York Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of over 100 recipes inspired by the Big Apple. This gorgeously illustrated book provides a who’s who of the New York Cities cocktail culture. This book takes the reader on a tour of New York and some of the establishments that make the city the epicenter of the world cocktail scene.
I was personally delighted with the selection of cocktails and the way Amanda Schuster guides us through all the different ways to explore cocktails in her city.
The second cocktail book is Road Soda by Kara Newman is a quirky and fun book about drinking on the road and dealing with the limitations often experienced when trying to create cocktails while traveling. For rum lovers the Ultimate Airplane Daiquiri to the Dressed Cider recipes demonstrate fun ways to improvise cocktails with a good imagination and improvisation skills. This book makes an excellent gift for the road warriors in our lives.
My final recommendation is a book the Tiki cocktail community has been waiting for with great anticipation. Tentatively slated for a December release, Cocktail Kingdom is publishing Jeff “Beachbum” Berry 10th anniversary edition of Sippin’ Safari. This new hardback edition will include 14 new cocktails and substantial new material using all new photos and graphics to entice the reader’s palates and imaginations. If all goes well, this will be arriving just in time to surprise the Tiki cocktail lover in your life during the 2017 gift giving season.
Sipping Safari
I hope this guide helps inspire you find something for the hard to surprise spirit enthusiast in your life.
Happy Holidays!
Paul Senft
