100: The 100th Episode! A Toast to Rum’s Recent Past, Present, and Possible Future with 12 Rumcast Veterans

Without further delay, we're super excited to share our 100th episode of The Rumcast with you! As we've hinted, this episode is special to us, and was really a labor of love. Rather than going with the typical format, we invited a dozen past guests to return for individual interviews where we looked back at how rum has evolved since 2019 (when we started working on the show), and where they think rum is headed over the next 5 years or so. You'll hear from: Kate Perry of La Maison and Velier Zan Kong of Worthy Park Eric Kaye of Holmes Cay Ian Burrell, the global rum ambassador and Equiano co-founder Margaret Monplaisir of St. Lucia Distillers and the new WIRSPA chairperson Lance Surujbally of TheLoneCaner.com Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, the legendary author and owner of Latitude 29 Craig Nicholson of Worthy Park Ed Hamilton of Hamilton rum Carsten Vlierboom of E&A Scheer Steve Magarry of the new Sydney Rum Distillery (formerly of Beenleigh) Maggie Campbell of Mount Gay We assembled highlights from those individual interviews into an episode that takes us through the major themes that came up, such as: The emergence of "new" rum regions around the world (and which ones we'll be seeing more of) The long-term prospects of all these emerging distilleries The good and bad sides of premiumization, and whether rum can avoid the latter New GIs we're likely to see in the future The future of bulk rum sales and independent bottlings What the acquisition of E&A Scheer means And so much more that it would be impossible to list it all!  We'd love to know what you think of the episode and what your takeaways and thoughts are — so please shoot us an email at [email protected] and let us know. And seriously — a huge THANK YOU to everyone for listening! P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out. This episode is sponsored by Wonk Press — Get 10% off Modern Caribbean Rum by Matt Pietrek and Carrie Smith now through February 11 with promo code RUMCAST at WonkPress.com. Plus, Matt and Carrie will sign your book at no additional cost! Music Credits for this Episode: “On the Delta” by John Patitucci “W. A. Mozart, Symphony No.38 in D major” by A Far Cry “Cover Charge” by TrackTribe “Djansa” by The Mini Vandals featuring Mamadou Koita and Lasso “Momo Do” by The Mini Vandals featuring Mamadou Koita and Lasso “Ratatouille’s Kitchen” by Carmen Maria and Edu Espinal “Sleepy West” by JHS Pedals