UK Rumfest 2013

Hi all

The UK Rumfest is an event held annually in London. It is at the Excel Centre 12th & 13th October this year.

Website: http://rumfest.co.uk/

Pic:

I will be attending Saturday 12th. I have a 'Connoisseurs Cove' ticket so will be in & out of the main & VIP areas. I have a new shirt with palm trees on for the occasion :)

TC can a bit anonymous so it'd be good to say hi to people from TC if they are about.

I'll be with my girlfriend who is rum appreciative but not as fanatical. Most likely in the evening we'll hit up a few bars.

Anyone else going / fancy a meeting up to say hi?

Sorry probably not going to make it this year. Good call on getting the VIP tickets as it does get pretty busy.

Bump! The event is this weekend :)

Overall I'd rate Rumfest as... Ok.

There were a lot of stalls, no real surprising rums - some stalls were conspicuously absent (ie like them or not 'the big boys' - Bacardi, Havana Club, Appletons, Angostura, Sailor Jerrys) but there wasn't a vibe the show was to promote the smaller producers (ie Mount Gay, Kracken, Wray & Nephew were there). Some people were only showing part of their range (eg Plantation just providing samples of Bajan 5 year or dark) & selling cocktails.

Disappointingly only 1 agricole stand that I spotted - Saint Aubins sharing a stand with Green Island I think.

I sampled about 7/8 rums (some for the 2nd time to confirm if they were worthwhile future purchases & others as they were the next 'step up' in the portfolio eg Zacapa XO).

I met Andy Abrahams (a down to earth Scottish guy who reviews rums on YouTube). I spoke to Roberto Seralles (founding family member I think) of Don Q who was a gent & happy to take a little time to chat as I was interested.

I took master classes from Martin Cate (Smugglers Cove) & Appletons. It would have been handy to know the days the different masterclasses were on prior to booking tickets as I think I definitely got the better day.

The Martin Cate one was interesting & quite general - it attracted a range of customers some of who didn't know much about tiki. Martin was a stand up guy & answered the general questions (& my more specific / geeky ones).

The Appletons talk included a tasting of unaged column still, unaged pot still, aged column still, aged pot still, VX, Reserve, Extra & 21 year. Interesting but it got a bit rowdy (as some people polished off all the samples quickly). Got in some good questions, apparently they water down to 20% when doing blenders tasting. I actually helped the promotional guys set up the room as it was straight after Martin Cate's talk, I was kindly given a big pour of 21 year during the masterclass :)

Both classes ran late, maybe I should have only taken one master class to have a bit more time in the arena. But then I'd have missed out so I was happy with what I did.

The actual arena was a bit off putting IMO - a lot of people swamping the stalls & hollering. The connisuers cove was like an arena part 2, better brands but not much discussion about the quality of the rums or better service.

Plenty of free flyers, bar mats - low on stuff you'd actually want (if you know what I mean). Interesting Barbados tourist stall in the corner with a 'display only' cabinet containing every Barbados rum I've ever seen & more. Plantation were selling tiki mugs tho, I got one :)

Bottles of rum were for sale from Whisky Exchange in the hall & hats off to them, they didn't charge anything over their online prices (which I didn't expect) They had everything in the show, which I'll note for next year & splurge.

I'd go again & def buy the more expensive ticket (the connisuers cove was about half the arena) but I'd adjust my expectations after this years event.

Cheers all!

Pics of stuff:

Picked up most of that stuff before I decided to stop - I'm looking forward to comparing the Goslings vs my regular choice of ginger beer in a Dark & Stormy :)

The Plantation mug is already on display - I'm looking forward to having the Appletons 21 sometime! :)

Unfortunately, the reports are that the last 2 years have seen an increase in rowdiness and general rudeness by many of the punters. And I have no idea how they can avoid that apart from putting the prices up to a ridiculous level.

On 2013-10-18 05:05, Kon-Hemsby wrote:
Unfortunately, the reports are that the last 2 years have seen an increase in rowdiness and general rudeness by many of the punters. And I have no idea how they can avoid that apart from putting the prices up to a ridiculous level.

It surprised me!

If the prices went up, I'd think twice about going again. After the event I did a tot up of how much it cost - I pretty much could have brought full bottles of the rums which I tried & liked!

AdorAdam, thanks for sharing your experience and pics from the Rumfest. I had read about it before and wondered what it was like. I'm stateside, but there's things like this here and I've wondered about going.

I wish i had been in here and seen your first post AdOrAdam, then we could hooked up instead of both sitting at Martins seminar without knowing it! i`d have loved to say hello! oh well..

As you probably saw on my two posts about the Rumfest on my blog i havent written any of the less positive impressions i had from this years rumfest - but im gonna write down all my thoughts on it and mail to Ian to give him feedback.

It´s clear that it starts to become a bit "too big" with more rowdy ppl than it was the last time i was there in 2011.

I expected the Connaisseur´s Cove to be calm like the Boutique Rumfest was in 2011, filled with interesting rums you haven´t seen before. But instead it was almost as crowded as the main area and me for one didn´t get any chance to talk very much to the producers except for a very few.

Then also, i didn´t see much new...just a few like for example the Cubay rum.Luckily for me they were neighbours to us the day before the rumfest when we did set up the stand for st Nicholas Abbey Rum so then i got a chance to chat with them because when the event was on there was no time at all, they were swamped.

The Boutique Rumfest was really calm but my impression from there was that i wish it had been bigger, like it was in 2011 when Boutique Rumfest had it´s own day. This time there were much fewer rums in there to try.

Something i really missed was stations where you could sit and charge your iphone...i had to go out on the hunt in the "corridor" and eventually found a place to use one time.next time i`m gonna have a portable charger with me:-)

Also i missed seminars due to i had no idea when they were going to be before the Rumfest started.

Next time i hope to see more interesting rums, small batch rums and hard to find rums like the privatly bottled demeraras for example and also much more rhum agricoles! i also would like to see the Connaisseur´s Cove less crowded...and in general less overly drunk people who are there only to get drunk but that´s kinda hard to avoid when the event keeps getting bigger.

But i def had a blast, no doubt about that and London is a city full of very very good cocktail bars.

btw here are all my posts about the Rumfest:

http://www.amountainofcrushedice.com/?p=18393

http://www.amountainofcrushedice.com/?p=18303

http://www.amountainofcrushedice.com/?p=18312

http://www.amountainofcrushedice.com/?p=18286

A bit further from the event, I'm less sure if I'll go next year...

On 2013-10-24 10:33, Little fragrant Tiare wrote:
I wish i had been in here and seen your first post AdOrAdam, then we could hooked up instead of both sitting at Martins seminar without knowing it! i`d have loved to say hello! oh well..

As you probably saw on my two posts about the Rumfest on my blog i havent written any of the less positive impressions i had from this years rumfest - but im gonna write down all my thoughts on it and mail to Ian to give him feedback.

It´s clear that it starts to become a bit "too big" with more rowdy ppl than it was the last time i was there in 2011.

Next time i hope to see more interesting rums... I also would like to see the Connaisseur´s Cove less crowded...and in general less overly drunk people who are there only to get drunk but that´s kinda hard to avoid when the event keeps getting bigger

I agree with your sentiments. Its not good to publicly slate things, however it is ok to point out things about an event - I hope you give Ian constructive feedback ~ cheers!

Shame looks like its just turned into another drinking bingefest by a bunch of idiots like many events in the UK when it should be an appreciation of Rum,We last went about 4 years ago and by mid day it was rather rowdy(still we all had a good time and a last drink at Trader Vic's helped!