Sailor Jerry
 After a bright start to the year, Rum Club participation dropped right off. April saw us out of the country, May's meeting was off because of Rum Renaissance and June didn't feature because of the two Bank Holiday events. So with a fair bit of excitement Pauline and I were looking forward to the July meeting. We have found out that Sailor Jerry was the theme for the night quite a while ago and whilst there wasn't a formal presentation, there was a great deal to see and talk about.
There was a good showing of people when we arrived and within a few moments I had my first drink - a Sailor Jerry ice cream float (fantastic) shortly after I was speaking to Jill Matthews, the event organiser. Jill wasted no time in telling us all about it and showing us the artwork that was presented about the bar. I've alluded to the story behind Sailor Jerry (a real person) - if your interested, see my 'Night Alone With a Sailor' piece. I'm pleased to say I can now confirm the history with a little more clarity. The Sailor Jerry brand already had merchandise and wanted to bring rum on board. Norman Collins (the proper name for Sailor Jerry) died in 1973 and so wasn't involved. The William Grant website (the company who produce Sailor Jerry) state that they feel 'he would have been proud to put his name to it'. At this point I'm hoping to find out more about the creation of the rum, especially as it has such amazing flavour. The more you learn about the man, the more you realise he was a proper character and I'm sure he would have loved to have a rum named after him.
I digress a little - the tour of the artwork is interesting and I'm kicking myself for not taking my camera - such a school boy error! Fortunately I have a few reminders on my mobile of what we were shown. If you get a chance ask about the story behind the purple dragon - it says a lot about the man.
 When we arrived we saw Rikki being tattooed (in a non-permanent fashion) - more about that later. We also saw that there were a couple of ladies in sailor costume handing out the drinks. I've mentioned the ice cream float already, but there was also Sailor Jerry with coke and Sailor Jerry with ginger beer option to try. The drinks came around frequently and once again I'm kicking myself that it's a school night - I really could have let my hair down. It seemed a tray of drinks was being proffered pretty regularly and I guess my powers of resolve were firmly in place as more often than not I had to refuse. Pauline was driving us home, but even so - I had to be sensible.
Jill is doing a top job and it's not long before we find ourselves talking to James Stocker of First Drinks. James has recently taken over the promotion of the rum brands on the First Drinks portfolio - it was great to see that they have Mount Gay and we waste no time telling him about our love for it. First Drinks also look after OVD and Woods 100. We chat for a long time about all sorts of things - the Caribbean and rum amongst them. I'm pleased to say that cricket has come up as well - the Ashes are due to start two days later and the excitement is evident. Fortunately we get to chat about Sailor Jerry as well. I'm told that The Big Chill festival will feature a Sailor Jerry tent and that the recently 'gone live', Sailor Jerry UK website has details of a competition related to this.
I've just mentioned that the UK now has its own website - worth checking this out as there is more about the main man and his work online. Jill continues to be an excellent host and introduces us to Rob Curteis, the global brand manager. We find out Sailor Jerry is currently marketed in the USA, Canada and the UK. Because of the popularity of the brand, the possibilities are being explored in Japan, Australia and the Scandinavian quarter. Always keen to seek the places where the party people can be found. The Sailor Jerry merchandise is present in twenty markets worldwide (not yet the UK strangely). Even though it's such a great image, the market has to be right I guess.
We are told that the on-trade leads the way for Sailor Jerry. It's presently in Sainsbury's and Waitrose and it's the supermarkets that came to the Sailor wanting to sell it to a keen public. I had to re-read the 'Night Alone with a Sailor' before writing this one and I stand by my piece, but I thought that there was a dedicated drive on - as it turns out, it's just people doing their job. Seeing the product being used in places like Trailer Happiness, Mahiki and Quo Vadis leads to people seeking it out elsewhere. It's still a great success story.
 Some quality YouTube time will need to be put aside in the future. I was told to look out for 'Hori Smoku' (the Japanese nickname 'Holy Smoke' for Sailor Jerry himself) - you can find all sorts of clips of a soon to be released 70min presentation on the life and times of Mr Collins himself. The full version will follow soon and this is likely to be available via the official website.
Checking out the William Grant website, you can see for yourself that an out and out whiskey company has embraced Sailor Jerry as the fifth big brand. It's a brand that's going to be seen in more places due to the pricing. Whilst its more expensive than it's 'Spiced' rival from Captain Morgan - the extra pound or two can easily be justified and I've subsequently proved its credentials by making a point of serving it to our Shanghai based friends, recently returned for their summer vacation. I'm rapidly becoming a proper fan.
It is becoming apparent that my plans for a careful separation between the rum club and a dedicated follow up for the product have failed miserably. Sorry Rob, Jill and James - it's going to be one piece instead of two. So with this in mind, I best scoot onto the other events of the night. A familiar face, Richard Hunt can't resist and gets behind the bar in a wave of inspiration. He wants to work with the dry finish of the rum and creates what he calls the Purple Dragon Manhattan. It's good too. We chat with Richard for a bit and he kindly jot's his creation down in my notebook. It's worth visiting his website (listed below), to say it's under construction would do it a disservice - but it's certainly worth checking back over the coming months to see how it develops. It could be an extremely good point of reference.
We chat to Roger Barnes and Keegan Menezes, both familiar faces now at these sort of rum events. I'm sure I'll be seeing them at the next Rum Club - July part 2 which will be featuring the release of Abuelo Rum.
Before I leave I have to make a dash for the first free seat I've seen in front of Olivia Skalkos all evening. Olivia is a freelance illustrator and has spent the evening recreating tattoos from the Sailor Jerry artwork book on to a long queue of willing participants. I go for something simple as it's nearing the end of Olivia's stint. It doesn't last beyond the following morning's bath - but looked good while I had it. Some people this evening had had quite complicated artwork applied to various parts of their body.
In a moment of common sense, we decide that it's probably a good time to leave and bid farewell to all. Next week should be more of a presentation and will nicely compliment this one.
Couldn't leave without a momento - sorry Jill - just couldn't resist a licence plate...
http://www.firstdrinks.co.uk/rum.html
http://www.firstdrinks.co.uk/rum_sailorjerry.html
http://www.sailorjerry.co.uk/
http://www.williamgrant.com/default.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHjebTottiw - Trailer for Hori Smoku
http://www.richdrinks.com/ - Richard's website
http://thisbedistoosmall.deviantart.com/gallery/ - The website for Olivia Skalkos
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