Haunting Flavors: Unveiling the Occult Rum in My Vicinity

As I was walking past the dark alleyways of my neighborhood, I couldn't help but notice a peculiar buzz in the air. It was as if whispers of a hidden world were floating around, tempting me to explore. Curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to investigate further. The rumors that had reached my ears were captivating – a hidden occult rum distillery. It seemed impossible, but the excitement of such a clandestine establishment existing in my own vicinity was too tempting to resist. I cautiously ventured deeper into the dimly lit alleyways, my heart pounding with both fear and anticipation.

Rum is a spirit made from sugar cane juice or fermented molasses that comes in both white and dark varieties. It’s commonly used in cocktails and mixed drinks. Like all spirits, rum has a high alcohol content. Legally, any rum sold in the UK must be at least 37.5% alcohol by volume (ABV). 1 That means 37.5 percent of the drink is pure alcohol - and if the ABV is higher, the percentage of alcohol is higher too. To keep health risks from alcohol low, if you choose to drink, it’s important to stick to the UK Chief Medical Officers' low risk drinking guidelines. That means no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days, with several drink-free days - and no bingeing. Regularly drinking more than the low risk drinking guidelines increases your risk of serious health conditions including heart problems, high blood pressure and poor mental health. Drinking alcohol also causes at least seven types of cancer, including breast, bowel, mouth and throat cancers. 2 The risk of developing these types of cancer starts to increase even at low levels of drinking - so the less you drink, the more you reduce your risk. Worried you’re drinking too much? Take a confidential self-assessment

Appleton s ancient-looking pot stills, some of which have been in service since 1749, are shaped like large kettles with long, angled spouts; the sleek, modern column stills are tall, stainless-steel tanks. There are eight categories of rum in Jamaica, classified according to the amount of esters natural chemical compounds produced during distillation that they contain.

I cautiously ventured deeper into the dimly lit alleyways, my heart pounding with both fear and anticipation. The sounds of the city grew distant as I stepped closer to the unknown. Suddenly, a faint smell of spices and oak permeated the air, leading me to the source of the whispers.

Navigating Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki, by Martin and Rebecca Cate

A recent trend in the cocktail world is for high-end, world class “destination” bars and celebrity bartenders to further extend their brand and cement their reputation via authoring a book. Some hotly anticipated tomes of note recently include The PDT Cocktail Book (PDT, NYC), Speakeasy (Employees Only, NYC), Death & Co. (Death & Co., NYC), and The Bar Book (Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Portland, OR). All have been eagerly anticipated and well received.

In that light, the only surprise is that Martin and Rebecca Cate’s new book, Smuggler’s Cove – Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki, took so long to appear on the cocktail book scene. In fairness, they’ve been a little busy with other things, like oh…opening Whitechapel, a shrine to gin akin to what San Francisco’s Smuggler’s Cove is to rum.

Even among the cocktail enthusiast population, the Tiki crowd is particularly passionate and eager for fresh material. I’ve witnessed firsthand the insane demand and interest for the Smuggler’s Cove book, scheduled to be generally available in early June 2016. As the fortunate recipient of one of the first books off the press, I’ve taken on the task of reading the entire opus–which clocks in at a solid 350 pages from cover to cover.

As a teaser before jumping into my thoughts about the volume overall, here are ten of my favorite factoids from within:

• Donn Beach, the man who invented Tiki, is buried at the Punch Bowl Cemetery on Honolulu, HI. (If only I’d have known that when I was there a few years ago!)
• Steve Crane, the man behind the The Luau and the Kon Tiki chain of restaurants (the book refers to him as Tiki’s “Third Man,” behind Donn Beach and Trader Vic) was a Hollywood actor and was married to the famous actress Lana Turner.
• Tiki mugs made before 1970 may not be food safe because of potentially high levels of lead. (Though to be fair to your mug collection, lots of vintage dishware made prior to U.S. lead laws carries the same warning.)
• Although Martinique today makes nearly all of its rhum today from sugar cane juice (rhum “agricole”), it once made a substantial amount of molasses-based rhum–until a volcano explosion in 1902 wiped out many of the larger molasses-based distilleries.
• Although Martin himself owns one of the last remaining bottles of the incredibly expensive Wray & Nephew 17 (the original Mai Tai rum), he’s never actually tasted it.
• The amount of Angostura bitters in a “dash” is varies widely between the “normal” 4 oz. bottle and the large 16 oz. bottle used at Smuggler’s Cove. (Editorial aside: Really, why would you buy only a 4 oz. bottle? But point taken.)
• Many craft Tiki bars and Tiki enthusiasts pride themselves on using custom recipes to make their own falernum (a sweet syrup of ginger, lime, cloves and other spices), rather than using one that’s commercially available. However, Smuggler’s Cove bucks that trend and uses John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum, which is lighter and less intense than most house-made falernum.
• When juicing limes and lemons by hand, go easy on them. If you squeeze too hard to get the last few drops out, you’ll get a lot more bitterness from the skin oil and pith, which tastes bad in a drink.
• Although many bars include fire as part of their Tiki drink experience, most of them simply light overproof rum on fire, which yields only a small, blue flame. A much better fuel source is a bread crouton soaked in high-proof lemon extract. At around 160 proof with lots of burnable oil, a lemon-extract fueled flame is much larger and more visible. Somewhat of a “Tiki insiders” secret for years, the book puts the technique squarely into mainstream awareness. (Have a fire extinguisher at the ready, if you venture into home testing.)
• In addition to Smuggler’s Cove, Martin is also the co-owner of Hale Pele in Portland, OR, as well as a partner in Chicago’s Lost Lake and San Diego’s False Idol. (Not an entirely new factoid for me. I learned it firsthand from Martin while spending days with him on a bus travelling to Jamaican distilleries as part of an ACR/WIRSPA sponsored tour.)

Although entitled Smuggler’s Cove and featuring recipes and techniques from the storied bar, the book is really a loving ode to the history, technique, and culture of Tiki drinks and the Tiki lifestyle. Prior books by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry have covered Tiki’s history (and pre-history) in extensive, exhaustive detail. Here, Martin and Rebecca don’t attempt to outdo Jeff in his quest to cover every angle and the life story of early Tiki bartenders. Instead, they provide a well-written, “Reader’s Digest” version of the major players and critical events in the evolution of Tiki – think five pages on Donn Beach, rather than fifty. The focus is naturally on the founding fathers–Donn Beach, Victor Bergeron (Trader Vic), and Steve Crane–with critical insights into what each of them stylistically contributed to the birth and subsequent “golden age” of Tiki.

While the book’s take on Tiki’s distant past is a welcome addition to the existing literature, what’s particularly interesting to me is an account of the Tiki revival moment, which started circa the late 1990s and continues to this day. In the book you’ll find good overviews of key figures: Jeff Berry (of course), as well as Sven Kirsten (The Book of Tiki), and Otto von Stoheim (Tiki Oasis). And no book on the Tiki revival would be complete without the origin story of how Smuggler’s Cove came to pass. Starting with an innocent comment by Rebecca after a home Tiki party, the book details Martin’s journey through the San Francisco Trader Vic’s, to opening Forbidden Island in Alameda, and finally to creating Smuggler’s Cove in 2009, which is now consistently heralded as one of the world’s best bars.

From a high vantage point, Smuggler’s Cove is divided into five sections:

• An Invitation to Escape – Tiki history
• Smuggler’s Cove: The Modern Tiki Bar – All about the Smuggler’s Cove experience
• The Spirit of Rum – Rum history and styles of rum
• Exotic Cocktails: Mystery and Technique – Tiki ingredients and technique, plus detailed background on eight essential classic Tiki libations
• Creating Paradise – Creating your own Tiki-focused space and throwing Tiki-themed parties

Each part is divided into smaller sections, with a batch of thematically appropriate recipes (as made at Smuggler’s Cove) capping each one. Following the main sections are paeans to two of the last remaining bars from the golden age: Tiki Ti (Los Angeles) and the Mai Kai (Fort Lauderdale). The book’s final few pages feature recipes for Smuggler’s Cove ingredients (orgeat, cinnamon syrup, etc.) as well as resources – books, web sites, where to buy Tiki paraphernalia and ingredients, and some of Martin and Rebecca’s favorite Tiki and rum bars in the U.S.

Arriving at a nondescript door, I hesitated before giving it a gentle knock. To my surprise, the door swung open, revealing a hidden world that seemed to defy space and time. The dimly lit room was adorned with dusty bottles, mysterious symbols etched onto their labels. As I stepped into the room, a stranger emerged from the shadows. Dressed in elaborate robes, his eyes held a spark of ancient knowledge. Without a word, he beckoned me to follow him as he led me through a labyrinth of corridors and secret passages. We arrived at another door, this one adorned with ornate carvings and mystical symbols. The stranger pushed it open, revealing a hidden chamber filled with shining copper stills, bubbling potions, and rows of aging barrels. I gasped in awe at the sight before me. The stranger began to explain the mystical process of distillation, blending the finest ingredients with ancient incantations to create the most potent and sought-after rum. Each batch held a touch of magic, a secret recipe guarded with the utmost care. As we walked among the enchanted apparatus, the stranger shared tales of the elixirs created within these walls – rum that had the power to unlock hidden desires, bridge the gap between worlds, and even grant glimpses into the future. My mind swirled with the possibilities, the untapped potential that lay within each bottle. Time seemed to blur as I became lost in the whispers of the occult rum distillery. Hours turned into days, as I delved deeper into the hidden world. Before I knew it, I was no longer an outsider, but an apprentice, learning the ancient craft of distillation and blending. The experience opened my eyes to the hidden realms that exist all around us, just beyond the surface of our mundane lives. It showed me that there is so much more to discover, to explore, and to create. The occult rum distillery became not just a place, but a symbol of the hidden treasures waiting to be uncovered in the most unexpected of places. Now, when I walk past those dark alleyways, I no longer feel fear or hesitation. Instead, I am filled with a sense of wonder and curiosity, knowing that magic may be just around the corner, waiting to be discovered..

Reviews for "Occult Rum Chronicles: Charting the Supernatural in My Local Surroundings"

1. Jane - 1 star

This book was an absolute disaster. The writing was confusing and the plot made no sense whatsoever. I really tried to give it a chance, but it was just a jumbled mess from start to finish. The characters were poorly developed and lacked any depth or likability. I couldn't connect with any of them. Overall, "Occult Rum in my Vicinity" was a complete waste of my time and I would not recommend it to anyone.

2. Mike - 2 stars

I had high hopes for this book, but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The premise sounded intriguing, but the execution was lacking. The pacing was slow, and I found myself losing interest quickly. The supernatural elements felt forced and didn't add any depth to the story. The writing style was also underwhelming, with a lack of descriptive language and vivid imagery. I wanted to like "Occult Rum in my Vicinity," but ultimately, it failed to captivate me.

3. Sarah - 2.5 stars

While "Occult Rum in my Vicinity" had some interesting ideas, it failed to deliver a coherent and engaging story. The plot felt disjointed, with too many subplots that were never fully explored or resolved. The writing style was average at best, and I found myself skimming through sections because they were dull and uneventful. Additionally, the characters lacked depth, making it hard to care about their fates. Overall, this book was a disappointment and not worth the time investment.

Conjuring the Spirits: The Allure of Occult Rum in My Area