The Rum Diaries

Mar 11, 2019Beverages, Categories

There’s no bad Barbados rum, there’s just good and better.”

Josh Miller, The Other Room

Photo: Catherine Viox

A local Cincinnati favorite cocktail bar called Longfellow introduced a new bar, the Other Room, with over 100 different types of rum. Offering no beers on tap, a plethora of sipping rums and upscale rum cocktails, this is the new go-to for rum fanatics. As soon as I heard about it, I knew this is a place I needed to visit ASAP, and I could not imagine a better place to do some rum “research.”

Upon checking out the menu, it was clear they were not afraid to push the flavor limits by incorporating traditionally culinary ingredients in their cocktails. Take soy sauce for instance; The Dr. Jones features Jamaican rum, orgeat, soy sauce, and pineapple, then shaken to perfection. Our bartender emphasized why this culinary pairing just made so much sense. Rum is used so often in sauces, like a jerk chicken glaze or a fish marinade, so why not bring these flavors to a cocktail. This natural transition makes so much sense when you really think it through. Perhaps questionable upon first glance, this cocktail sips like nothing you’ve experienced before. It has such a unique complexity, full of body and mouthfeel typically not found in tiki cocktails, that leaves you wanting more.

Photo: Catherine Viox

Stopping in on a slow Wednesday night allowed us to get a peek behind the scenes from the normally swamped mixologists. We wanted to see what their consumers are typically ordering, cocktails or sipping rums, and with over 100+ rums options were limitless. Josh Miller, mixologist, said it was an even split between cocktails requests and sipping rums. Typically, first-timers come in to order a cocktail that is more approachable, but after coming back and building trust they start to experiment with sipping rums. Bourbon bars and Whiskey saloons, make way for The Other Room – sipping rums are making their debut.

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