Ideally, rum should be drunk neat with no water or with just an ice ball that will melt slowly, cooling the rum, opening it up and releasing its flavors. For those new to the spirit, Caripelago Trading's Shane Stuart recommends a blend of equal parts rum and water to allow the alcohol to dissipate and let various scents and flavors develop gradually.

Enjoying the scent and flavors of rum is very much like trying perfume where there are different levels of notes which change with time.

"It is difficult for the uninitiated to pick up all the flavor profiles if they smell the alcohol first. The water and ice allow alcohol to evaporate," Stuart says. It would not be uncommon to detect traces of vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, citrus and tropical fruits including coconut and even smoke at various intervals from a single shot of premium rum.

Caripelago introduces restaurateurs, bartenders and gourmet trendsetters with the joys of rum through informal bar tastings and through word-of-mouth.

There are two other effective vehicles Caripelago relies on for individual, in-depth education where their rums come up trumps. The first is cigar pairings, which they do with Pacific cigars in Hong Kong, and the second is with eating and dining clubs, such as Asia Circle and the Stockton in Hong Kong.

For cigar pairings, they match taste profiles of cigars with their rums. For whiskey lovers, there are 10-, 15- or 25-year-olds from St. Nicholas Abbey, which has operated in Barbados for about 350 years.

The 10-year-old St. Nicholas Abbey is the only rum from a British colony that is a single cask (not blended) and behaves like a rum agricole, which whiskey lovers appreciate.

The 10-year-old English Harbour from a 100-year-old distillery in Antigua is their introduction to rum appreciation because of its smoothness and lower price point at about HK$1,000 ($129). "It surprises people and they always say 'I didn't know this was rum!'" Caripelago's Andre Carey says. The 25-year-old English Harbour is so rare (about HK$3,000) that the company only gets an allocation of one case a year.

With eating clubs, the rums are brought out at the end of the meal, usually after dessert (to be sipped and enjoyed like whiskey or cognac) although some premium rums are so smooth they can go with cheese or dessert much like a sweet wine.

"Pairing a distilled spirit with food is very difficult because they are heavier than wine. You'll have to have a menu where people don't get smashed by the second course," Stuart says. "By the time you reach the main course, your tongue will be burning! Spirit tasting has to be done in small chunks."

Premium rums make great mixers and greatly enhance the taste of a cocktail. They recommend Blackwell's, a dark rum from one of Jamaica's oldest distilleries and the 5-year-old English Harbor, which is also good for sipping.

Aged white rum is growing in popularity as a niche product because, since it has no color, it makes a great mixer aesthetically but its flavor profile makes it just as good for sipping. Carey recommends any aged white from St. Nicholas Abbey.

Rum has one of the most esters (flavor profiles) among spirits yet experiencing and enjoying it has been slow to come.

"We have to get people to understand that at the top level, these spirits are very versatile and very easy to like," Stuart says. "You don't need an acquired taste like whiskey or cognac to enjoy rum."

(China Daily 03/23/2014 page8)