Tonight, we are back at Please! Beverage Co. for their latest collaboration. They have partnered up with LA-based luxury rum, brand Bumbu to present “Beach, Please!” A celebration of tropics and summer sun centred around the world’s best selling rum.
The night started off with a masterclass of Bumbu, including a tasting of the three products in their line. This was followed by an open house party with Caribbean inspired small bites, and a collection of cocktails featuring our rum of the hour, and Please! Beverage Co’s all natural fruit forward spirits.
As guests trickled in, we were invited upstairs to the mezzanine to claim a seat in front of one of their tasting mats. Each lined with three pre-poured spirits, which we would get into a little later.
The space was given a tropical flare with colourful leis, flamingo drink cozies, plastic pineapple cups, and even a blow up pool floaty shaped like the Bumbu rum bottle.
Our presenter was Dina, the brand rep for Western Canada. This would be the spirit’s first Vancouver event, and we would begin by learning its backstory and Bumbu’s climb to success.
From its origins, the owners and CEO has sought to buck the trend and have their product stand out. And this is most evident in their sister sparkling wine line. This is where we would start our tasting, with an exclusive sample of Belair, which is not yet released in Canada. This is actually the second bottle in their line of sparklings, a classic brut done champagne style.
And honestly, it is one of the smoothest, easiest drinking sparkling wines I have ever had. The first sip threw me off. I was expecting some kick back from the alcohol, and was not expecting something this tasty in honey and apple. Whereas other sparkling brands have clear bottles to showcase the colour and bubbles of the sparkling, Belair has their bottle wrapped and covered.
Similarly, when launching this product line, they actually began with a sparkling rosé, wanting to focus on it and make it the best sparkling rosé in the category. Something not seen, as most other sparkling wine companies focus on the brut, then transition to rosé. And then to have the rosé in a black bottle, with its hue covered is not the norm. But sadly, we would not get a taste of this.
Instead, we moved on to Bumbu. And just as Belair is probably the smoothest sparkling wine I have ever tried, Bumbu is the smoothest rum I have never had.
Bumbu originates from Barbado, and has hit mainstream North American attention having celerities like Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, and Post Malone represent them.
The name comes from a story based on a Caribbean legend. Sailors would blend their grog with molasses and Caribbean fruit and the result was a sweeter spirit that they called “ Bumbu”. Today Bumbu uses 8 different sugar canes and utilizes the natural resources of Barbados. A country with the most island volcanos, coral, and lime stone. All of which contributes to the water source and therefore the quality of the water that goes into making the rum.
The bottle is heavy glass meant to mimic a luxury perfume bottle. And the “X” at the centre, a homage to the sailors who invented the drink as “X marks the spot”.
Even attention is paid to the cork, an elongated piece to preserve the freshness. The result is Bumbu is hailed as the number one in the America’s premium run category.
We started our tasting with Bumbu The Original. This is their flagship rum with natural flavours, inspired by a legendary, centuries-old Caribbean recipe. It is rich and complex with aromas of Madagascar vanilla, soft caramel, and toasted oak. On the palate is notes of cinnamon, banana, and allspice. It reminded me of oatmeal and banana foster. Sweet caramel desserts that coat the tongue well. So easy that it drinks like a syrup.
Bumbu XO is their step above, their connoisseur’s rum, made to be sipped and savoured. It is matured in ex-bourbon barrels and selectively finished in Oloroso sherry casks. This Bumbu is distilled and aged in Panama. It has aromas of toffee, oak and vanilla with orange zest, peppery spice and a hint of coffee on the palate. Described as a whisky drinker’s rum, but I did not taste a large difference between the two. It did have a more smokey and thicker viscosity with tobacco notes, and warming liquorice spice.
And on a completely different tangent they have Bumbu Crème, which is a blend of Bumbu rum, select spices, and real dairy cream. A great one to mix into coffee with more complex aromas of chai, coconut, and cinnamon. This is their newest release and created to challenge pre-existing categories. Rich, but not heavy. The entire class thought that it tasted better than Baileys and dreamt about pouring it over ice cream and into egg nog.
After being able to taste our Bumbu neat, it was now time to experience it as a mixer. As a group we travelled down the stairs to take a seat in the Please! Tasting Room.
There were three drinks available and between our group we tried all three. The Barbados Breeze was Bumbu rum, coconut pandan vodka, acidified coconut water and lime leaf. It had an interesting salty preserved plum quality to it.
The Panama Pearl featured Bumbu XO rum, strawberry vodka, tonka bean, sugared lime, and a vegan foamer. A higher acidity tropical number, tempered by the foam.
The Bumboozled Highball was your choice of either Bumbu original or Bumbu XO with Dickie’s Ginger Beer. I enjoy Bumbu best as is, so this minimalistic approach was ideal for me.
And to pair with our drinks we had snacks from Please!’s new food menu. The thick breaded crispy chicken wings were a classic and a crowd pleaser.
The burrata was a lighter option with melty creamy cheese over a fresh spring salad mix.
The coconut prawns were crispy breading coating juicy shrimp. I liked the uncommon honey mustard dip that went with it.
And the mushroom flatbread had an earthy bold mushroom flavour over lush cream.
In conclusion it is always a great time at Please! Beverage Co. and I love how they are branching out and doing more collaborations and pop ups as of late. Cannot wait for the next one.
Please! Beverage Co.
222 W 5th ave, Vancouver, BC, V5Y 1J4
604-428-7005
enjoyplease.ca
