One the one hand we have online ressources like blogs and RumX, on the other hand good old paper never goes out of fashion. Competent books on rum are rare, so here is my list.
Rum by Dave Broom
A coffee table classic from the early 2000s when rum was mainly an issue for boozeheads and a visionary geek from Genua. It is a beautiful book including a lot of nice pictures. Production and rum producing countries are described on a level interesting for the beginner. Tasting notes are also included but most of the bottles are completely outdated. Anyway, this chapter is an interesting glimpse in the rum world of the year 2000.
At the end it is a beautiful book.
The Curious Bartenderâs Rum Revolution by Tristan Stephenson
Similar as the book of Dave Broom it shows structured information on history, production, rum producing countries and decent information on major distilleries as well. The last chapter displays classic rum cocktails. Forget about the tasting notes. Anyway, the book has a lot of nice pictures, but many of them are small and the layout is tightly packed. The later aiming for low production costs.
At the end an informative book also for the becoming rumnerd. It includes a lot of pictures and is cheap (approx. 16âŹ). So, this is the rum book to buy.
Rum â Rhum â Ron by Pacal KĂ€hlin and Sina BĂŒhler
This small compendium displays many beautiful black & white pictures. Level on information is low, it is mainly short tasting notes covering the 2015 menu of a ZĂŒrich based bar and and the text of Lord Invaders legendary calypso âRum and Coca-Colaâ.
I also saw some other compendiums but none of those stimulated my inner bibliomaniac.
I have Smugglers Cove, which helped me find my bearings in the Rum World
It it more about Tiki and Cocktails, but has a nice category overview about what types of Rum exist. I also love the recipes.
I really donât like books full of tasting notes, as this tends to force me to look for the experience described myself, which I often fail.
Smugglerâs Cove:
Gave me a good Idea about Tiki Culture and the cocktail-side of Rum in general.
And A Bottle of Rum (Curtis Wayne):
Really nice historic overview about the rise of popularity of Rum throughout the history since colonization. But I do enjoy historic Books, so its probably not everybodys taste. But nonetheless the most informative Book i have read so far about spirits and their origin/history.
And one more âgeneralâ book on Spirits, but I only read it in german language (original is in english though, so there will be a english version aswell):
Stewartâs Botanisches Barbuch (Amy Stewart ):
Really nice overview over any fruit you can distill and make spirits of. So basically a listing of different spirits around the world and their botanical counterpart. Mixed up with really nice cocktail recipes and little sidestorys. I do like the scientific, biological touch of the book as it doesnt come from the classic âbarkeeperâ-authorâŠ
I have the book by Pascal KĂ€hlin, too, and the Rum book by Dave Broom âthe manualâ (which I understand is somewhat different from the larger coffee table book). I have to admit that neither is fully to my liking. They are either more about mixing (which rum fits best for which cocktail), or provide only basic overviews about distilleries. To this end, I am really looking forward to seeing the Caroni book by âStefano Caroniâ. Hopefully it will be finalised this year (or at least next year ).
I guess most of you know this already, but I truly enjoyed reading the essay by the lone caner on his blog about the rise of the rum connoisseur culture. He very precisely describes the main contributors to todayâs more sophisticated rum scene (the ministry of rum, the El Doradoâs longer aged standard range, the initial unsuccessful trials by Luca Gargano, the quantum leap that came with the Damoiseau 1980âŠ).
It seems like it is close to printing and from what Iâve heard two weeks ago it will be available from may on.
Speaking about Tiki books, there is no way around Minimalist Tiki by the one and only Cocktail Wonk. The rum component is really strong since half of the book is theory of ingredients and a large chapter on different styles of rum (as expected when you hear Cocktail Wonk). The recipies are contributed by tiki bars all around the world and the focus is on keeping the drinks as original as possible which is why most of the ingredients are named with the brand and release name used in the bar so you can recreate it as intended.
I have a question regarding the Caroni book. Do you know if it will be easily available via normal book ordering chanels? Or will it be self published and you need a private network to source it?
So basically, will it be released like a Caroni, where you need back channels, win a ballot, or buy from shady people in dark alleys⊠or will it be released like a book? In a store. Maybe even Amazon?
I guess the fact that it has Caroni in itâs name is already fostering a certain expectation of (bad) availability
@Oliver da der Buchdruck ja scheinbar gut voranschreitet, gibt es schon Details zur Vorbestellung? So wie ich das verstehe, wird das ein ziemlich stattliches table book, im zweiteiligen Schuber
#Minimalist Tiki:
Kennt vielleicht jemand von euch (gar inlÀndische) Bezugsquellen (abseits von US/DÀnemark)?
Ich glaube, vor ein, zwei Jahren (?) gab es einmal in irgendeinem Forum eine Sammelbestellung. Leider hatte ich die âverpasstââŠ
Ich habe meine Ausgabe bei https://www.zeewijck.nl bestellt. Gerade haben die aber keine Exemplare da. Hab das da zweimal gesehen. Einmal erste Auflage, einmal zweite Auflage. War aber trotzdem absurd teuer, weil 45⏠zzgl. Versand aus NL. Hat sich aber gelohnt, ist ein super Buch.
Durch die Partnerschaft mit Steffen (u.a. ist bei jeder AbfĂŒllung ein QR-Code abgebildet, der euch direkt zur entsprechenden Detail-Seite in der RumX-App fĂŒhren wird) werden wir die Subskription des Buchs durchfĂŒhren. Ende April werdet ihr euch dann exklusiv ĂŒber die App ein Exemplar dieser epischen Caroni-Bibel vorab zum reduzierten Vorbestellerpreis sichern können, bevor das Buch offiziell in den Handel kommt. Details folgen dann in den nĂ€chsten Wochen.
Soviel kann ich schon verraten: Das Buch wird der HAMMER!
).
