][1]The Edinburgh Fringe is hurtling towards its final weekend and, if you haven’t been yet, then you might want to take a gander at a show called the Thinking Drinker’s Guide to Alcohol which is on at the Assembly Rooms at 5.15pm each day.
Performed by drinks writers Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham, it’s a light hearted look at the history of the world seen through various drinks bottles. From Belvedere grapefruit vodka to Bishop’s Finger beer (do your own gags for that one), six different drinks samples are passed out to the audience as Ben and Tom explain the significance of each to the evolution of society.
Explaining the Impressionists through the medium of Pernod absinthe or trying to showcase the German character via Jaegermeister may not be scientific but the lads do make it savagely funny.
One of the drinks passed around the audience is Angostura 1919 rum – a very approachable sipping rum from Trinidad and Tobago.
The blog met up with Angostura’s brand ambassador, Sean Duprey, last night, and he talked the blog through their rum range and their ongoing promo program in Glasgow’s sleeker bars and restaurants.
Essentially, there are five rums in Angostura’s UK range. Their Reserva is a white rum which is ideal for mixing. Their five year old is slightly darker and still a great mixer – try it with ginger beer, apple juice and mint to make a twist on the Mojito. By the time, we get to the seven year old, it could be mixed but would also pay back any time spent sipping it and enjoying the hints of molasses.
The 1919 is the flagship of the range and probably the most popular of the five. Light with a subtle sweetness, it’s popular with spiced rum drinkers although it’s not a spiced rum.
With around just 5000 cases produced a year, the 1824 is aimed at the rum connoisseurs who want to savour its aged characteristics. The youngest rum in the 1824 blend is twelve years old – fairly standard for a malt whisky but, in the hot Caribbean climate, rum ages much faster than whisky does in our rather chillier climes. The result is that a twelve year old rum could well take on its cask characteristics and be as mellowed as twenty year old whisky.
What they all have in common is a sweet aromatic quality. They are light in comparison to many rums. Duprey compares the rums from the different islands as being as different as wine from different French regions and the Angostura rums, all distilled in Trinidad, are fairly light.
If you want to taste the Angostura rums, then there are plenty of 5pm bars and restaurants in Glasgow that stock them. Bar Soba on Mitchell Lane and on Byres Road use Angostura to make daiquiris and the smooth Treacle – seven year old Angostura mixed with maple syrup.
Other stockists include Metropolitan in the Merchant City; Barca Tapas in Princes Square; the Hillhead Book Club in the West End and the Tiki Bar and Kitsch Inn on Bath Street which uses Angostura rum in their frozen daiquiri dispenser.
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