Booty Distribution International, headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida is just beginning to import what has been touted to be, by a diverse range of rum aficionados, the finest rum ever. And in this writer's opinion, they are right. Blackbeard's Booty Rums are fine Costa Rican, Naturally Aged Rums. These rums are aged for a minimum of 7 years and are great sipping rums. The Blackbeard's Booty Rum has an Oaky, Smokey smooth taste. However, the Cat's Meow are their two coffee flavored rums, Blackbeard's Booty Rum Liqueur and Blackbeard's Booty Java Reserve. These Blackbeard's Booty rums are the finest I've ever tasted. The Blackbeard's Booty Rum Liqueur has a very smooth flavor with a very nice coffee finish. Drink them neat, you will not be disappointed. None of the Blackbeard's Labels can be mistaken. They are designed by Disney artist Michael Noles and they are superb. Rumor also has it that an exact replica of an early 1700's Onion bottle which was pulled from Blackbeard's ship “Queen Anne's Revenge” during a treasure hunt will soon be the bottle used for the line. This will truly be a collectors dream as this bottle could have very well had the lips of Blackbeard himself upon it. Arrrrgh!

 

Ed Hamilton has a rough job, but somebody's gotta do it. The Florida-born chemical engineer cruises the Caribbean on his 44-ft. cutter in search of the world's best rums. He's not looking for the pale stuff you guzzle with Coca-Cola; he's out for the darker, lesser-known aged rums you sip from a snifter. That's right--rum in a snifter. Hamilton's website fans know him as the Minister of Rum, and he's issued a new decree: rum after dinner instead of the traditional brandy or single-malt scotch. "We all remember getting sick on mixed rum drinks in college," says Hamilton, 52, who imports and writes about exotic brands like Bielle Rhum Vieux (from the tiny island of Marie-Galante), Matusalem (Dominican Republic) and Ron Zacapa Centenario (Guatemala). "But when people taste an aged rum, when the tropical flavors mix with an oaky, smoky finish, it's like trying rum again for the first time."