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#28 Matt Pietrek, author of "Modern Caribbean Rum" Tales Spirited Awards "Best New Book On Spirits"
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The champ is here!
It was a delight chatting to Matt Pietrek, the Rumwonk himself; Matt's responsible for some of the deepest and most illuminating dives into rum history in recent years on what is now his Substack (link below).
His magnum opus, "Modern Caribbean Rum", which he wrote, photographed and self-published together with his wife Carrie Smith, just won "Best New Book On Spirits" at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, despite being only available at www.wonkpress.com and costing $100 plus shipping.
(It's worth far, far more, by the way - 833 pages long and weighing in at around 9lbs!)
Rum in hand (I was drinking Copalli blanco with a dash of Angostura Aromatic bitters, salty seadog that I am), we got into Matt's journey from being a tech dude living in Seattle to a hairy rum wonk living in New Orleans, his first book Minimalist Tiki, the history and legacies of both rum and tiki drinks & bars, why he gravitated towards rum, 19th century aristocrats as the first influencers, his work as Community Envoy for the West Indies Rum and Spirits Producers Association (WIRSPA), why and how he began self-publishing, why the US government is giving the Captain Morgan brand alone a whopping $2.7bn, how US taxes on non-US rum and US subsidies to US rum firms means non-US rums selling in the US are forced to subsidise their US competitors via the taxes they pay to the US, the third rail of the rum world that is spiced rum, and how a Modern Caribbean Rum audiobook might be awesome to fall asleep to.
Matt's main website Rumwonk: https://www.rumwonk.com
Other website Cocktailwonk: https://cocktailwonk.com
Wonk Press, to order his books: https://www.wonkpress.com/
Matt on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cocktailwonk and https://www.instagram.com/rumwonk
Matt on X/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/cocktailwonk and https://www.twitter.com/rumwonk
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Chapters
1. Becoming a Cocktail Wonk (00:00:00)
2. The Complexities of Tiki and Rum (00:14:03)
3. West Indies Rum (00:28:30)
4. Role of Rum Producers & Enthusiasts (00:37:41)
5. The Changing Landscape of Rum Production (00:52:48)
6. Exploring Rum Categorizations and Challenges (01:05:37)
7. Expanding Book Publishing and Profitability (01:18:31)
8. Congratulations for Contributing to Education (01:23:59)
88 episodes
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