Category: Rum

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Rum Club Launches at Boo Loo Lounge

Orinda’s small but well-received tiki bar Boo Loo Lounge  is launching a rum club called the Restless Spirits Club. Similar to other venues, the club allows you to taste spirits and accumulate credit for those purchases on a checklist. The club is inspired by Boo Loo’s location inside the Orinda Theater complex, so it is a nice touch that your punch card looks like a movie ticket.

The process at Boo Loo is pretty simple and more open than some other spirit or rum clubs in that you can pick any rum on Boo Loo’s list and then they punch your ticket that stays at the bar. A list of rums will be generated periodically and you can take that home with you to track your progress or plan your next tasting. The reward system is still completing development but you’ll get coupons for discounts after 25 rums and there are plans for a wall of fame as well.

The rum list for October 2025 shows a nice variety of brands and styles, all of which are value priced lower than another local tiki bar that has a publicly available price list.

It is really nice to see this development at Boo Loo Lounge, and I am a fan of choose-your-own rum lists so I can avoid rums/style I don’t like or already tasted (or owned), allowing me to focus on things I do like or something I’ve never tried before. While nobody will confuse this with the elaborate rum clubs at Smuggler’s Cove or Forbidden Island, this does provide focus on Boo Loo’s pretty nice selection of rums and should be a gateway opportunity for casual visitors that make up a large portion of Boo Loo’s clientele.

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Pirates Dinner Adventure Swashbuckling Fun

Our Buena Park weekend continued at the Pirates Dinner Adventure, a swashbuckling counterpart to Medieval Times down the street. The show includes a detailed plot, two romantic subplots, acrobatic performances, songs, fight scenes, and plenty of elements to involve the crowd. Dinner includes soft drinks plus soup or salad and a chicken main course – plus utensils to eat with that aren’t provided at the other place. This was a fun time with our large group, some of which dressed up for the event.

After entering the venue, there’s a bar to order alcoholic drinks, plus a large gift shop if you want to outfit yourself for the event and to get into the pirate spirit. The drinks here are definitely not craft, though if slushy drinks are your thing there are a couple options and lots of beer/wine selections.

I looked at the “Caribbean Mai Tai” and saw that it contains three kinds of flavored rums with Captain Morgan Coconut Rum, Captain Morgan Pineapple Rum, Cruzan Guava Rum, plus Orange and Cranberry Juice; I decided to pass but was pleased to see that Sam took the plunge. Meanwhile, I kept in the spirit of the event by building my own “Pirate Boilermaker” by pairing an Octoberfest beer with a shot of Captain Morgan Spiced rum, yum.

Pirates Boilermaker

The crowd certainly seemed to enjoy the show, including a couple who were celebrating their 10th anniversary – being married inside the Pirates Dinner Adventure! There were several opportunities for the audience to participate in some of the show elements, such as hoisting a flag, and of course lots of cheering for the pirate who matched the color of your section.

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Tequila + Rum Recipe: So Long Summer

I ran across this recipe from Deb Parks, wife of famed bartender Doc Parks, celebrating the end of summer. The recipe uses tequila and cane juice rum, a combo I hadn’t tried, so I thought I’d give this a shot and see if any of Doc’s mixology skills have rubbed off on his better half.

So Long Summer by Deb Parks
¾ oz Fresh Lime juice
¾ oz Fresh Grapefruit juice
½ oz Cinnamon Syrup
½ oz Passionfruit Vanilla Syrup
l oz Fortaleza Tequila Blanco
l oz Kō Hana Kea Rum
Shake with ice and dirty dump. I subbed El Jimador Blanco for the tequila.

This is a pretty good cocktail, especially if you like things that lean just a little dryer than you sometimes find in tropical cocktails. The combination of tequila and the lightly grassy Hawaiian cane rum really works great together and aren’t quite as assertive as something like Mezcal or Rhum Agricole might be. The grapefruit is fab in here, too – and as we know from Don the Beachcomber grapefruit and cinnamon pair very well. Save this refresher of a recipe for when you want to relive the summer.

Autumn is now here, but we’ll always have this cocktail to remember the summer of 2025. Cheers.

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Dr. Funk Rum Asylum September Meeting

We had a nice treat Sunday afternoon at the latest quarterly meeting of Dr. Funk’s rum club, the Rum Asylum. These meetings are open to anyone, including a bunch of folks who joined during Sunday’s session. The Rum Asylum is a self-guided journey through rum, where your purchased rum pours are tracked on a checklist.

The focus this time was on Barbados rums from the Foursquare Distillery, including the Probitas blended white rum, the aged R.L. Seale’s finest Barbados rum, and the flagship Foursquare 2011 Exceptional Cask Series. Chris from Altamar walked us through details of the distillery and production methods, and then provided guided tasting notes to compare and contrast. The session completed with a raffle of some bottles for those in attendance, including the 2011 ECS release.

There was also a speciality cocktail using these rums called Aster and Primrose, said to be “a rum lovers cocktail” and priced at just $11. I stuck with the poured rums since I was driving.

Several Rum Asylum members reached their next levels. Greg completed Level I’s 20 rums and had to pledge an oath to get the Level II list and a pin. Meanwhile, Nik finished Level III and received a pin and pith helmet along with the Level III list.

The next Rum Asylum meeting is December 21st at 3 pm. There’s additional info about the Rum Asylum on Dr. Funk’s website.

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Jamaican Overproof Rum Blind Shootout

Today we’re looking at one of the most iconic rum styles, the overproof white rum from Jamaica. This style has emerged in the past couple decades in cocktail circles as a seminal rum for mixing, wildly different to how it is consumed by Jamaicans who typically use it as a mixer with water or Ting grapefruit soda. These unaged rums are issued at 63% ABV, and thanks to long fermentation they feature bold flavors and a fragrance that’ll fill a room.

The contenders:

  • Wray & Nephew Overproof – the iconic market leader
  • Rum Fire – Hampden Estate’s funky pot still cult favorite
  • Rum Bar Overproof – Worthy Park’s previous U.S. expression
  • Worthy Park Overproof – the current entry that includes some sugar cane juice distillate
  • Charley’s J.B. Overproof Rum Trelawny Blend – a Wray & Nephew product exclusive to Jamaica

Neat Comparison

It was easy to pick Rum Fire out of this lineup simply on the nose, but I liked the tomato notes from Rum Bar’s nose even more. There’s a pronounced nail polish aroma and flavor that I found pleasant from J.B. and it seems to be heavier in body than Wray & Nephew.

I chose the winner because I found it to be the most balanced and had a great mouthfeel.

Winner: Rum Bar Overproof
2nd: Charley’s J.B.
3rd: Rum Fire

Grapefruit Soda Comparison

The differences between these rums, aside from Rum Fire, were more muted when I did a 4:1 mix with Squirt grapefruit soda.

Rum Fire was the most flavorful here but introduced harsher notes that weren’t my favorite. I was pleased that Worthy Park Overproof played better in this format and disappointed that Wray and J.B. didn’t hold up as well to the soda. My favorite struck a balance of bold flavors and was a perfect complement to the soda.

Winner: Rum Bar Overproof
2nd: Worthy Park Overproof
3rd: Rum Fire

Rum Bar Overproof Wins Both Blind Tests!

This is pretty shocking, and a bit of a bummer since this expression isn’t available outside of Jamaica now. I’ve always felt that Rum Bar Overproof was a great middle ground between the market leaders; it has a heavier body than Wray but more approachable flavors than Rum Fire. All of these rums are delicious but in these blind tests Rum Bar Overproof was the clear winner.

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San Francisco Rum Congress 2025 Recap

The education-oriented Rum Congress returned this year as an add-on to the San Francisco Rum Festival, offering deep dives into everyone’s favorite spirit. As with Saturday’s Festival event, Rum Congress was at Trader Vic’s Emeryville with the Lanyu room hosting 40 attendees.

Most of the sessions were hosted by a rum brand, with flowing samples provided – the best of which was Kate Perry representing LM&V and doing a deep dive into Hampden Estate from Jamaica with rum pours across their line. Many bottles were killed… Planteray’s Alexandre Gabriel discussed Navy Rum including the first U.S. tasting of the new blend of Mister Fogg’s Sail No. 2, including samples from each of the rums in the blend. I found No. 2 to be better than last year’s expression.

The Rum Lab founder Fede Hernández discussed historical details of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, once known for rum production. There was even a session that was a deep dive into Sherry styles, increasingly important considering how many rums are either aged or matured in different Sherry casks.

with Mitch Wilson from Black Tot Rum

I was paired with Mitch Wilson for the last session of the day, discussing Essential Rums for Tiki Cocktails. I provided the premise for 10 key rum styles most common in historical and modern recipes including some brand recommendations. Mitch then led a more open discussion of additional considerations, such as how today’s expressions may not fully represent what Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber were using back in their heyday. Mitch also brought some Black Tot rum expressions, including a very interesting Solera expression and also some fabulous Master Blender’s Reserve that I think tastes a lot like vintage Navy Rum.

We ended the day with toast:
There are tall ships,
And there are small ships,
And there are ships that sail the sea,
But the best ships, are friendships,
So here’s to you and me!

Thank you to all the attendees, especially those who stayed engaged all the way to the very end of a long weekend. You are the true champions of rum.

Kate Perry
Sherry Deep Dive
Alexandre Gabriel
Fede Hernández
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San Francisco Rum Congress Seminar Slides

This session featured my take on essential rums for tiki cocktails with additional perspectives by Mitch Wilson of Black Tot Rum.

Essential Rums for Tiki Cocktails

Brief: Just starting as a home bartender and looking to make tiki cocktails? It seems like you’d need to invest thousands of dollars in acquiring dozens of different rums, but most recipes can be made with just a few. We’ll discuss the essential rum styles and provide an approach for starting or expanding your collection.

View the Slides