Rum Champion

rum Surprise Surprise, but not just my rum. Even though I'm representing with Palm Republic here, I'm talking about somebody else who is incredibly passionate about rum. I've learned so much from this guy, Brian Inman, aka the Rum Champion on Instagram and other platforms. Brian has become a friend because of so much I've you know, I've learned about his rum passions. But he works with tons of brands, he works with a lot of people, and his soul drive is to spread rum love to the world. So

let's go ahead and bring Brian in. I can't wait to chat with him more about what got him to this point. Brian, I already did an intro letting everybody know who you are, but I just got to say you know, to me, it comes a rum. You're the man, the myth, and the legend. I mean, you eat, sleep, breathe rum. I'm so thankful that we were able to meet, and you know, I consider you a friend now on

this rum journey. But you have your own you know, this is a passion all on its own that you've built up and I can't wait to dive in more on what got you to this point. But everybody, I want to let you know. Like I said briefly, Brian is aka the Rum Champion. He has an incredible passion for rum. He even says, I drink rum and hang out for a living. I mean nothing sounds better than that. Look at that collection behind him, which is I know, I've been there, I've seen the collection. This is just

a piece of what he has built out in his bar. Brian, Welcome to the show.

You know, it's obviously you can't nurture every every product the same, but if you really believe in something, I've seen you get behind it with other brands and everything else. Am I am? I correct in saying that, Yeah.

tiaki cocktails. Always really enjoyed going to tiki bars. The escapism, the cool mugs, the fanfare when you art, when you order certain drinks, the bar reacts, and so it's an ambience that kind of sucks you. So I always enjoyed that. And then during COVID, I started deconstructing these cocktails so for our lovely listeners that may not know, tiki is really Caribbean inspired cocktails. And then there was a gentleman who basically invented tiki here in Hollywood named Ernest Raymond.

Beaumont Gant aka Don Beach. But he revolutionized mixology because he was split basing. So your base is your spirits. So rather than two ounces of whatever rum, he'd do an ounce of dark Jamaican rum and an ounce of gold Porto Rican rum. And so me reading these recipes and making them at home, I started asking myself, well, what's the difference for these Why are these two specific

RUMs called for in this? And then that got me really interested in trying more RUMs by themselves, and quickly realizing that everything I knew about rum was wrong, you know, assuming that it was spice RUMs and you know, lime flavored RUMs, et cetera. But that wasn't the case. And so then I went way down the rabbit hole and the rest is kind of history from there.

just different products with in a category. But people often equate rum as spiced, sweetened, flavored, you know, that whole thing. And when I was first exposed to it, it was a boocardios you know what I mean, in Puerto Rico, and it was with my you know now in laws for the first time and going, wow, I'm drinking I'm sipping this on the rocks. This is not how I've ever thought of this spirit. And I enjoyed it. I

really liked it. Really, this is a complex you know, it's a complex spirit like any of these other ones that are on the market. Now, what I also found fascinating and maybe even a little bit more unique, is there are many distilling methods with rum that can change the flavor and the notes and the profile of of

the spirit. Whereas agave spirits, you know, you're kind of locked into these same regions that do it, or the one region that does it, but the same distilleries that all make it, and they might have a little tweaks, so they might add little drops of X, Y and Z that they don't have to disclose to give it a little hint of flavor, but they're all made the same way, whereas with rum, you could be a pot still, a column still, and it really changes what you're sipping on.

And a lot of people call it the funkiness of a Jamaican rum or something like that. You know, the way the pots still almost like a cognac, the way it will go off the pro you know, the profile. And I think it's something that people should learn to know that. It's a lot of fun exploring RUMs on the market. It's not just a linear.

is doing. So there's infinite there's infinite components, not even distillation. It's how long are you fermenting? Is it short, fermentation, is it long? Where are you distilling? Are you up in the mountains, are you at sea level? How are you aging? Where are you aging? There's some distilleries in the Caribbean that are actually aging their barrels underwater. I think it's one of maybe Grand King or something like that.

So yeah, it's it's crazy. I've always kind of said if you're an adventurous spirits appreciator, and never have I said, oh, you need to stop drinking whiskey or agave or whatever. But if you're somebody that appreciates a good spirit and appreciates the true marriage of passion and science with distillation, then rum is absolutely something that you should stop sleeping on because it's the wild West and it's glory and

it's amazing. And all I could say is be careful because you might end up like me with seven hundred ish bottles of rum in your house. I don't recommend it at all, but it's a rabbit hole for sure that can take you down.

We wanted to bring out many of the amazing characteristics of different RUMs from different regions and put them into a bottle. It wasn't to you know, blend to cover anything up. It was like, let's let people explore the differences of these different uh regions, Marcus distillation processes and put them in one bottle and have someone go, Wow,

that's not what I expected. And I think, to your credit what you just said about all different RUMs, many bourbon and whiskey drinkers are shocked right now, at least in my experience, ones with Palm Republic, but even ones on other RUMs. It's like, whoa, this is actually a great alternative to branch out from my bourbon and my whiskey, and even our silver or other silvers are a great version of branch out from a tequila a block, you know,

it's they or or a vodka for that matter. It's got a much better taste profile than a And I love vodka on the rocks of the Lime. That was my jam forever, Gray Goose Rocks Lion, that was all I did, and having there is you know, the truth is, vodka doesn't have a lot of flavor to it.

is being very upfront and unapologetic about unadulteration. You know, there's a big debate going on in the rum world of oh, should rum be adulterated?

are unadulterated, meant to be enjoyed. And the key thing that you said, Eric, that I really like, which endeared me to you very quickly, was just let's try it neat, because my mission is really just to get people to sip things neat. And I'm not saying don't trink a cocktail. Doesn't enjoy cocktails. I do all the time, But it's really breaking the mold and the cycle and these perceptions that people have with rum of there's either the when I say, oh, I'm a Rum guy, it's the really

bad Jack Sparrow impersonation. Why is RUM gone? I'm like, yeah, I don't know why it's gone, but I've earned that one. Or it's I don't like Rum. What have you had? Oh I had too much Captain in Cocain College, Or

it's pina coladas. So Rum, as always, as you've said, too been associated with sweet and tiki drinks themselves, are very very sweet inherently so being able to bring to market a rum that flips fit on its head, and when you get people to try Palm Republic or other amazing RUMs, Chairman's Reserve, four Square, et cetera, you see kind of the lights of people's eyes kind of light

up and go, wait a minute. Everything that I thought I knew about Rum is just I need to reassess everything now because it's just always been sweet and we're breaking them all together. So I love it.

wasn't as good a tequila back then. There's a lot better tequilas now, So to some extent it could have been you know, a little bit of percent of the tequila quality. But also it was the amount of sugar in the way it was being consumed. But there's no such thing as a skinny margarita back then. It was just a slushy. It's like putting a slurpee in with alcohol. You're gonna feel the effects and have a hangover because

the sugar, the amount of sugar having in it. Any cocktail is going to affect you if it has too much sugar, the sugar is what's giving you the hangover, not the spirit necessarily. And I think with RUMs people often go, well, isn't that made from cane sugar? I mean, it's made from sugar, sugar cane, right, That's definitely a full sugar beverage. And you know, and correct me if I'm wrong, But agave is also a sweetener when you

take it. You have to take the agave like the heart of the plant, and then they chop it up and they boil. They get it all boiled and cooked, and they turn it into a starch, which again is a sugar. But the difference is when you distill it and you bring the alcohol in and you take the sugars out in the distilling process. And it's the same

with rum. Yes, it's coming from sugar cane, but when you're breaking it down, you're fermenting it and you're distilling it, a lot of that sugar is evaporating, going away and leaving you with this alcohol product. Yep. And when in the research I've done, funny enough, silver RUMs have about the same or less even chloric value than silver tequilas.

It's about the same, it's not any greater. And when you get into the age spirits, an age tequila, an aged rum, or a bourbon, they're gonna have a little higher sugar profile because of the barrel and the aging and the sherry cask and all that. So you're bringing it in the process for all spirits. It's not just one made from caine. If you go to bourbons and whiskeys, it's what wheat, it's graines corn also corn. Also what's corn syrup an alternative to sugar exactly, So bourbon all

that's coming from corn. So it still all bases itself out of like a sugary product, all of them. It's just when you go through the process, that goes away and you're left with an alcohol. So I want people to understand that because so many times people go rum sugar.

They're out of Guyana. We could talk all about their amazing wooden stills from the seventeen thirties in a different point in time, but Eldorado is a classic example of for the longest time they had and brought to market RUMs with very sweet syrupy profiles where you know carmel. I'm assuming there was some sort of sugar or something, but very surpy when you taste it. So we tried the first one from an old blend of bottle that I found collecting dust on a shelf. It's like ten

years sitting there. Still good. Alcohol doesn't go bad. The first one everybody tasted, everyone was like, yeah, this is pretty surpy, this is pretty pretty smooth, pretty light. Then we went to a different year, an eight year aged expression of theirs with no sugar added, and then everybody could tell the night and day difference. Then we went to an older blend of a fifteen year that they did that was finished in dry madeira wine casks, madeira which is very sweet. Also with the old process of

how Eldorado used to do things. So we went very sweet, very smooth, no alcoholic burn to the alcoholic burn because of the lack of sugar. And then we went back and then we finished at fifty eight percent and we basically yo yod. But the whole point is, I think as well for the market for the longest time, you know, Ronza kop Out of Guatemala really reintroduced this whole premiumization of rum. And I'm doing the air quots. I'm not

saying it's a bad rum. I mean a lot of purists out there don't like it because of the sugar content, et cetera. But Zakappa was the.

after too less. It's under it's under two percent.

like unadulterated. They like higher proof. Where I've ended up for myself is it's like burger king, have it your way, No, you want to basically just you want to enjoy it. And Richard Ceo from the four quart of Siler and Barbados has always said, and I really like this, Drink what you like, but know what you're drinking. And so for the undiscerning palettes, where I tell anybody to start with rum, because the whiskey comparison I'll make is when

you're trying Scotch, you start with monkey shoulder. You don't start with lagavulin. And the same thing with rum. So if you've only ever had Captain Morgan and you're expecting something sweet, diplomatico is a great place to start because those were a little sweeter. And then you can jump over to something like if we're going to focus on the quote unquote Latin style aka column still lighter styles,

dounku a Puerto Rico is amazing. I love them Florida Kanye as well, because Florida Kanye doun Q they're not adding any sugar or anything, so those are drier. So that's the entry point. Then you can go to Palm Republic Dark anybody, or the Palm Republic Silver and Barbados, Saint Lucia. There's a number of different places. So where I'm focused is really helping people on in their journey because you do need those stepping stones. You can't just

say cool, yeah, you've only ever had Captain Morgan. Well, here's this sixty two percent rum from Barbados that you should drink. Because all the events I do and I try to have people drink cask strength rum or barrel proof rum. People always go they wins, and they go, oh god, am I supposed to like this? Well eventually, but if you never end up getting there, that's fine. Like rum is a journey, alcohol is a journey, but

so the spirits. I guess in my adhd rant consumers and their profiles have certainly changed, and people are demanding at least transparency, and you have discerning consumers that I like to think, I know you and myself and so many others are really drinking to appreciate again, the passion and the science that are married together by the people who love what they do. It's not about taking shots. It's not about you know, going super hard every day.

We couldn't you know in this alcohol business. And so I think that people becoming more aware of appreciating what they're tasting and demanding transparency in those discerning palettes is helping shift the market. Hasn't stopped a lot of brands from continuing to add, And I think that's because people still like sweet.

anything in here? Or you know, I have an old fashion Wow, this is sweeter than it is, you know anything else. I don't. I don't feel like I'm getting the bang for the buck. When do you think this movement started? Because I know it's a bit of a movement in the bourbon and whiskey space. I think in tequila's well, and obviously in the rum space is overproofing, right,

which something we did with our age as well. But when do you think that starter has that but just been going on for a long time that people are overproofing. It's just to the average consumer, it takes time to get to that spot.

twenty six, and so that helped shift the market. Now, if we zoom in just on the island of Jamaica, Jamaicans drink white rum, and their white rum is sixty three percent. So it's stuff like Ray and Nephew rum,

fire money, muscle, overproof, et cetera. So in certain pockets my Trinny friends down in Trinidad, they drink something called punchon, which no disrespect to punching, but it's an absolute abomination because it's it's as neutral of a white rum as you can get, so it's almost tastes like vodka, but imagine a one to fifty one vodka. Now they're not

drinking that meat. I mean, some of them are, because there's they're a pretty big party culture in trinid they call them FETs and they have carnival and all that kind of stuff. But those are minor pockets, but the vast majority if you go down to Central South America, you know, in Nicaragua they drink it thirty five percent, in Mexico it's thirty five percent. So it really just depends on where people are in the world. But I would say that there's always been higher proof options, but

they were always pretty minuscule. And then over the past handful of years, you've seen independent bottlers like Velluer or homes Key really take RUMs from around the world and say, this is a rum from Guyana bottle at fifty five percent or sixty something percent, and where of the nearly fifteen hundred that I've had, I can still appreciate things

down at eighty. Sometimes they have a lot of flavor, like the Palm Republic silver, But where I typically like things is if it's forty three, forty five percent somewhere in that range. That's something I really enjoy sipping. I used to to be on the spectrum of the glasses down in the nose and the're going, well, you know, if it's not cask strength, I don't want it. It's not worth my time.

so think of them as a third party. The barrel brokers are in Amsterdam, they're in Liverpool, and so third part already. Independent bottlers go to these giant warehouses and say I want this barrel or I'm going to take this, and then they brand it and bottle it under their own label. Just like Palm Republic is a blender, they're not a distiller, so they're blending components from I'd imagine Eana Shear and others to be able to blend things together and then put their own label on it. So

the rum world is a bit unique like that. I'm assuming in the whiskey world that there's independent bottlers as well, but Rum Deluxe it was. It was a eighty five point two percent basically still prove rum from the Hampton Estate for any of our listeners. Hampton Estate. If you've ever heard Jamaican funk, Hampton invented Jamaican funk. It's called high ester rum and the Hampton they have eight different

marks that they can create. A mark is a recipe, and so I had their dok mark, which is the highest ester count or the most funk that you can pack into a rum legally before it turns into perfume. So it was called the White Tiger, and it was eighty five point two percent, and I was smelling colors a little bit. I had to take the tiniest little of SIPs. And with Jamaican funk, it is designed in a way and when you first hear about it, it

sounds extremely disgusting and off putting. But there's things like there's gasoline in there. There is over ripe fruits that turn rotten in your mouth. So the best I can explain it is for our lovely Marvel fans out there with Doctor Strange watching him compose and then decompose the apple. That's kind of what was going on in my mouth. So that was the most intense one. And then that's a very specialty thing. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,

they actually have something. The brand is called Sunset, and I love the name. It's very strong rum and it's still proof. So what I mean by stillproof is whatever it comes off the still at whatever proof, whatever percentage, that's what they bottle it at. So this was eighty four point five percent.

when you prove yourself, it's not as cool. And as the years go on, the luster of oh I said what yesterday? I did what? Oh man, I had how many shots? Oh? That's hilarious. As you get older, you're like, I'm good. I want to be able to do things the next day and enjoy being out with people and remembering what's going on. So I cannot stress enough where I'm hoping and hopeful to see a movement because a lot of people are moving towards NA components and I

am all for non alcoholic cocktails. A number of bartender friends that have stopped drinking, I'm all for it. I think that there is a cultural thing in the US wherehere it's still let's drink to get drunk, and that this is your life. You do whatever you want. But I think that perspective has turned off a lot of people to drinking, whether you've done it yourself or you've seen people do all the different things that they do.

And I hope I'm not getting preachy here, but I can't emphasize enough that drinking rum and hanging out for me is really appreciating everything so Eric, you've been over most of my bottles, there's maybe like less than ten percent empty because I want to taste and enjoy and so cannot stress enough to our listeners. If you are going down this rabbit hole, just takes some time to really appreciate, and then when you learn the stories of the people that are doing it, it just gets even better.

is fun. Even when you're at home. You might have a glass maybe two of wine, but you're it's a social experience. It's an appreciation of what you're sipping. People are very snobby about their wine. I think in that regard, you can be the same way about a spirit. Whatever you're drinking doesn't have to be wrong. But whatever you're drinking,

you can enjoy the complexities of the spirit. If it's neat, if it's on the rocks, by the way, even if it's in a cocktail, like a lot of them we promote on our website, which is just like two ingredients, three ingredients. You can still appreciate a lot of the spirit. If you get into a very sweetened there's nothing wrong with it. If you want to go full tiki full whatever they can and a lot of different mixes, you can do that too and have a great time with

is the cocktail. But it's about appreciating the drink and the spirit and not just getting hammered for the sake of drinking. And that's a big difference. I think that shift. You're right, there is a big movement for an an alcoholic beverages, mocktails, all that, and I'm all for it too, because I'm not a person that's ever drink. I mean, when I was younger, too much volume. Now I'm much

more about let me have a drink. Maybe it's night, maybe it's a couple times a week, or with my friends, let me go out, let me have a cocktail, let's talk. I'll hang out and let me enjoy this spirit. That's a message I think that a lot of people should try to embrace, to really get to try different cocktails, drinks, whatever it is.

drawn an inspiration from multiple people. So there's that. So if you ever find yourself going, well, how am I supposed to smell? How am I supposed to taste?

by the fruit juices and the syrup. So but for me now where I'm at, if I'm not just enjoying a nice little dram as they call it in the US, I like to call them sippy poos because I'm a child and I like fun things. So if I'm having a sippy poo with some friends or at home or whatever, I'm doing that. And if I'm not doing that. It's things like Negroni's or paper planes or excuse me, the puddle jumper with palm republic rum. Old fashions are always

classic as well. So I actually just ordered a bar book from the eighteen sixties, not the original, obviously a replica, but I'm going back to see how they used to make cocktails back in the day, because it was very very simplistic, well as bitters. In some cases they were putting if it was a fancy drink, not the old fashioned way, which is a great story on its own. There was a little bit of cuistyle, which they spelled it differently back then bitters, and they used gum syrup,

not actual simple syrup. So that's how it used to be. And then obviously with the progression of time and different the cures and flavorings and all that kind of stuff, things have really come to it. But in order to really taste it, I always advise whatever spirit you drink it neat, you can swirl it around in your mouth

so that mitigates the burn. It'll still burn in your mouth, but it won't kill you in your throat, your chest to your stomach, and then have it in a spirit forward cocktail to see how it plays with just regular simple syrup, or if you use a couple of different kinds of bitters, so you know, Angastora is always a classic. Fee Brothers for anybody that wants to make mocktails. Those

are non alcoholic bitters. Their black walnut butters are fantastic, but you want to just see how those play together. And if there's any aspiring mixologists out there. The Flavor Bible is a phenomenal book. It's more so for cooking, but you can go to whatever ingredients cinnamon and it'll list out just in a list of what works with cinnamon and things that you may never expect or even like coffee. For example, lemon and lime juice actually work

with coffee. It's something I never would have thought of without just going to this. But again, when you're making things at home too. When I started in this whole tiki thing, I was like, I'm going to make ten cocktail or ten ingredient cocktails, because that's what it is, and that's what's cool to be a bartender at home. And now that's all fine and dan, if you've done it for yourself. I invited a bunch of people over for the first ever official Rum party that I had.

I had a nineteen thirty four zombie on the menu, which has fourteen ingredients thirteen fourteen ingredients, and I didn't batch any of the ingredients together. So when I had six people order at once, I was like, Okay, it took me like forty minutes to make all six of

them because I didn't know what I was doing. So now you know, five ingredients are less, even four is better, and just the simpler is the better, right, And when you get the basics down, then you can start layering in acid adjusted pineapple juice and you know, homemade gum syrup and blah blah blah and all that.

twelve strangers. It was really weird to try and get people to come to my house, but like, hey, do you guys want to drink rum? Like, here's weird. And so now we've actually expanded. We're hosted as Rum specific Curious Club events where we highlight one brand at six bars throughout California. I host as the Rum Champion a number of in person events. You can find all of those events on the rumcuriousclub dot com. And now also over the second largest rum club relative to Facebook groups.

We have nineteen hundred members and we're only behind the Florida Rum Society, who Eric knows very well as well. So the last piece actually is Eric is going to be on my podcast to the Rum this coming Monday. So you got Instagram, you got YouTube, I do some things on TikTok. I still don't understand that platform at all because I'm too old, I think you know, and at thirty six, I'm like, god, well, this is payback for me giving my parents. What do you mean you

don't know how to use aim? What do you mean you how text messages work? Give me that? Let me show you. So, Yeah to the Rum. You can find all these links on my Instagram page to all the places the website for the events. You can join the Facebook group there. You can listen to any and all podcast episodes that I've done, and it'll take you right to YouTube as well if you want to see so my link tree is in my bio on Instagram at the Rum Champion, and I.

thank you for listening. If you have something you want to talk about when Rosland's back as well, send it to our dms that he said aado or email us at Ericinross at aheartradio dot com. And until next time, bye, Thanks for listening. Don't forget to write us a review and tell us what you think.