Rum is the whiskey of the sea. What’s more, rum and offshore fishing are kindred spirits that share a long and intimate relationship.
Consider:
- Both rum and blue marlin are subtropical. Each is broadly and internationally distributed.
- Were you to superimpose the map of the places where sugarcane (the necessary precursor for rum) grows with the places from which you can catch blue marlin, there’s quite bit of overlap.
- If you’re blue marlin fishing in the New World, there’s a better chance than not that you’re in a place that distills rum.
In spite of how much rum offshore fishermen drink, relatively little is known about the spirit. Really… think about it.
People know all kinds of stuff about wine—regions, varietals, vintages. Hippsters have turned beer into some kind of science experiment. People are entirely too happy to tell you more about beer than you could ever care to know.
But rum? What do you really know about rum? I bet not too much. I didn’t.
This was the foundation of the Traveling Fisherman’s Guide to Rum. Fishermen drink lots of it. I really like it. I couldn’t find a resource that gave rum the justice it deserves. So I decided to write one and put it in The Book on Travel Fishing.
But where do you start? For me, the answer was simple. It was the same answer to most all questions about good food, interesting beverages and adventurous fishing trips that take place off the beaten path. Call Chef Cosmo Goss.
How Do You Go About Learning About Rum?
“Cosmo, I’ve got a good one for you,” I said as he picked up the phone. Cosmo has heard this opening on more than a few occasions. One of my favorite things about him is that he’s never thrown by it.
“All fishermen love rum, but nobody knows anything about it. I want to write something for the book. Do you know any rum experts?” I asked.
Without missing a beat, Cosmo replied. “Yes, I know a guy. He’s great. He knows everything there is to know about rum. Let me put you in touch with him.”
Cosmo was fired up about the idea. The more we talked about it, the more excited he got.
He started finishing my sentences. The whole overlay of the sugarcane map on top of the blue marlin map was Cosmo’s idea. When Cosmo gets excited about something, good things always happen.
Introducing Dave Cagle: Rum Expert
The person he put me in touch with is Dave Cagle. Dave is an awesome guy, and he knows a shitload about rum.
In addition to being a thoughtful, compassionate, good human being, Dave is the Beverage Manager of the Winsor House at Island Creek in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The restaurant is owned by the same people who are behind Island Creek Oysters. In fact, it sits across the street from the oyster farm.
The menu is super legit (Dave and his wonderful wife Jess hosted me on one of the best meals of my life). Cosmo is a consulting chef. But that article is for another time…
The Winsor House has something like 70 varieties of rum. Dave knows them all. His passion and enthusiasm about rum is perfectly suited to the interesting backstory of the spirit.
Before meeting Dave in person and eating dozens of oysters, caviar, bluefin crudo, and lobster rolls (all washed down by a continent-hopping rum tasting), Cosmo introduced us over text and I gave him a call.
What I imagined would be a 15-minute introductory call turned into an hour of rum talk. When you get the chance to speak with someone who really enjoys and really knows something well, good things happen.
It’s been my experience, that if you aim to write something worth reading, you ought to talk to the expert first and do your internet research about the subject second. Otherwise, what you write will likely turn out like all the stupid shit you’ve just read.
Dave told me all about rum. I asked questions and we covered the world.
How is rum made? What are the types of rum? How to mix the stuff?
What constitutes good rum and how do you find it? What are the best rums by region and by country?
After our first call, I did some online research and typed a bunch of stuff. We had a follow-up. I typed some more stuff.
I sent Dave the chapter and asked him to read it skeptically. It’s been my experience that you’re much better off to be called a moron for writing something inaccurately from a friendly audience than from the public generally.
He liked it and asked if he could send to a friend who knows more about rum than anyone he knows. That friend came through with not only some super great suggestions (and a few red lines) but an invitation to tour a distillery in Barbados if I’m ever in the neighborhood. It’s good to have friends.
The Traveling Fisherman’s Guide to Rum
The result of this journey is the Travelling Fisherman’s Guide to Rum. It is 29 pages long. It functions in many capacities.
- You’ll learn lots about rum and how to expand your rum horizons.
- You’ll learn lots about a history that includes pirates, mercantilism, rebellions around the world, and a time when rum was on par with gold as a medium of international exchange.
- You’ll learn where to find good rum—internationally on your travels and through interaction with local bartenders and liquor stores.
- You’ll learn some basics of mixing the stuff (the venerable daiquiri (recipe included) is an iconic drink, perhaps one of the most influential in history—we’ll give you the recipe (it doesn’t include strawberries)).
The Traveling Fisherman’s Guide to Rum is part story, part how-to, part academic text. It will expedite your rum journey, teach you quite a bit, and make you a more dangerous and accomplished storyteller, too.
