Two middle aged women at the bar last night. Old friends who last saw each other six years ago. The first wanted tequila, the second, well, very undecided. The conversation went much like this.

“This one, the Not Too Sweet, is it good?”

“It’s ok if you like to drink vodka.”

“I have no idea what I want, what should I have?”

“Rum.”

“Rum?”

“Yeah, rum.”

“Why rum?”

“It’s the best.”

“I don’t think I’ve had rum in a very long while.”

“No better time to start then.”

“Is it trending or something?”

“Trending?”

“You know, like how vegetables trend. Broccoli, kale, even cauliflower had its heyday.”

“Rum has always been the underdog.”

“Why is that?”

“People think it’s too sweet.”

“But isn’t that true?”

“No.”

It went on and on. She had trouble deciding what she wanted, so I made her a deal.

“I’ll make you something, if you don’t like it, I’ll make you something else.”

The latest obsession, a fresh cherimoya coconut cream syrup that tastes almost exactly like condensed milk. This, rum, a few drops of saline, a thing we call “bananum”, lots of fresh lime juice, a touch of agricole for hogo and then, once it’s strained into a rocks glass, Angostura “darts.”

I handed it over, waiting, waiting. She took her first sip and her face changed.

“This is delicious.”

After the first round, she had full confidence in me.

“You know,” she said. “You seem like the type that is fully confident in what he serves to people. The type that doesn’t really care what others think.”

“I just like rum.”

I went out on a limb next. Gave her a Hummingbird. Ultra dark and dank demerara rum, lots of blackstrap rum, grapefruit juice, the prerequisite lime, cara cara orange sherbet for sweetness and oil, and a bit of Brovo’s American aperitivo to help round out the rough edges of the blackstrap. A great quaffer, but strong in flavor. Maybe not for the uninitiated. For a moment I did think she would send this one back but it ended well, she loved it. Even the friend joined in and wanted something with rum.

I made the friend a Be Somebody. Quite possibly the best cocktail we’ve ever created. Fermented koji rice/macadamia orgeat combined with guava, quince rum punch, White ‘Stache rum, lime and interestingly enough, lemon, and then a dash of shio koji for salt. Sort of like a mai tai, if a mai tai smoked crack for a long time, became homeless, then found its way out of the gutter somehow and became a successful MMA champion.

For the third round they asked for rum again. Third time’s a charm. The hat trick. The point of this rather lame blog post is, I hope, that wherever these two end up in the future, they perhaps think of rum differently and order a daiquiri. I’ve done my job. I’ve provided rum. If I could stretch my tired ass out on this Sunday morning and examine the whole scenario a little more I’d have to point out that universally, we stick to our guns on a lot of matters, not just in our spirit selections and maybe every so often we should do something unexpected, surprise the shit out of ourselves. Maybe the next time I go out I will order that (ulp!) quesy looking vodka cocktail and end up actually enjoying it.