This article first appeared in the Drinks International Rum Supplement which can be read in full here It takes a lot to make a cocktail worth travelling for. After all, flights aren’t cheap and the fleeting pleasures of flavour can only be so enticing. But that tune starts to change when the bar in which a cocktail is served has greater historical or pop culture significance that…

The most intimate way to learn about any culture or place is to tenaciously eat the local cuisine and drink the local beverages – particularly those that are fermented and/or distilled. It’s this unwavering conviction that inevitably influences my week-long itinerary in the Seychelles, a 115-island African archipelago in the western Indian Ocean that’s rapidly becoming known for its local rum brand: Takamaka. At La…

Microbial magic.” It’s the phrase that lived rent-free in my overstimulated brain as I toured the unruly, hallowed grounds of Hampden Estate distillery – the spiritual home of high hogo, or ‘funky’ Jamaican rums located in the country’s north western Trelawny parish. For Jamaican rum aficionados, a visit to Hampden, where rum production methods are as natural as they come, is an essential pilgrimage. “When…