Sugarcane Sunday - Sydney Rum Club Showcase

Right, so it's not whisky, but (quality) rum makes a pretty bloody good sipping beverage. We've long been fans of quality sipping rums (in fact the same can be said for most quality brown spirits), so when we heard there was a rum show on in Sydney, we had to check it out.

Sugarcane Sunday is the first annual rum expo put on by the Sydney Rum Club, held at Sydney's The Standard this Sunday just past. With over 20 brands on offer, and brand ambassadors on hand to answer any questions, it was sure to be a good event.

...and a good event it was! You know those events that are "yeah, it was fun", and those events that completely blow away your expectations about how much fun you can have on an average Sunday afternoon? Sugarcane Sunday fell well and truly into the latter camp.

Brands represented ranged from the familiar (Bacardi, Havana Club, Appleton Estate) to the less well-known (Matusalem, English Harbour) right through to the as-yet-unseen-brand-new-in-Australia (Ron Abuelo). Most brands had most (if not all) of their expressions on offer, such as Cubaney (who had 9+ expressions for tasting).

While we ended up staying way too long and drinking far too much excellent rum, the highlights included:

• A walk-through (and tasting) of Bacardi at it's 8 different stages of production
• Ron Abuelo - A new rum from Panama which stood out as one of the best we tasted all day, amongst some very stiff competition (the 12yo and Centuria were particularly good, but the 7yo was excellent too)
• Appleton Estate's Planters Punch speed-bartending competition
• The Think Spirits Tiki Bar (with Kraken, Matusalem, English Harbour and Goslings on offer). This wasn't so much about the rum, but what was going on behind the bar. Hilarious staff made the event that much more enjoyable.
• The free hats and sunglasses on offer from Bacardi (and others) - pretty sure everyone was wearing them by the end!

After working our way through (most of) the stands, it was time for a break at Johnny Wong's Dumpling Bar. Then back into it for a few more fortifying rums before the trip home. We also ran into Gourmantic!

Cheers, 

 - Martin & Steph.