Tired of gin, want a shake-up from craft beer? Then good news: the first ever Hong Kong Rum Week is spreading the gospel of the sugarcane-based spirit from September 2 to 8.
Curated by Hong Kong Rum Fest, the week-long boatless booze cruise is stacked with activities and events. Those run the gamut from meet-and-greets with movers and shakers in the industry to masterclasses offering free rum samples to the ‘Rum Run’, a bar crawl complete with stamps you can collect to be eligible for prizes.
The list of bars participating in Rum Week is a veritable who’s who, including Employee’s Only, Honi Honi, Potato Head, Stockton, The Sea, The Wise King and Whisky & Words, which is evidently going off-brand for the occasion. A bunch of visiting bartenders are doing guest shifts, and global ambassadors will also bring rare and exclusive rums from all over the world to the city – from Nicaragua’s Flor de Caña to Bermuda’s Gosling Black Seal and the Philippines’ Don Papa.
Drop by the opening party at Honi Honi, starting at 6pm on September 2, to try Hong Kong’s first rum. Honi Honi produced the rum in collaboration with New Grove Mauritian Rum, a distillery that boasts over 150 years in the industry. The Honi Honi rum was distilled in French oak barrels from a 2015 vintage and then aged one-and-a-half months for its first batch, four months for its second and six months for its third. These should make for a fine addition to Honi Honi’s current collection of more than 230 rums.