‘The Kraken’
courtesy of ‘wrgenec’
Welcome to the Friday Happy Hour, your single drink primer for the weekend.
I admit freely that when it comes to liquor, I can easily be seduced by bottle imagery. Shallow, I know, but when beautiful imagery is actually matched by flavor, well, that’s it. Done.
The first night Tom Brown showed me a bottle of The Kraken black spiced rum, it was Christmas Eve at The Passenger, and I was in a magical mood. The vintage image of the beast from the deep hit all my old Mystic Seaport memories from being a kid peeping at exotic (and often erotic) scrimshaw. The color, dark as the night sea, was also pretty evocative. But let’s be honest, it could’ve tasted like bilgewater.
Only it didn’t.
Distilled in Trinidad & Tabago, The Kraken’s got a rich taste redolent of molasses, and with some 13 secret spices at about 94 proof this is definitely a rum to sip slowly and enjoy. Lately, I just can’t get enough of the stuff and was back this week to ask for more. It just makes me happy. Luckily The Passenger is open through this weekend’s storm – like an old sailor that won’t be kept down – so stomp the snow off your boots and ask for a taste of my favorite winter rum.
As one of the founding editors of We Love DC, Jenn’s passions are theater and cocktails. After two decades in the city, she’s loved every quirky, mundane, elegant, rude minute of her DC life. A proud advocate for DC’s talented drinks scene, she’s judged the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s ARTINI contest, the DC Rickey Month contest, the Jefferson Hotel’s Quill Cocktail competition, and is a founding member of LUPEC DC. A graduate of Catholic University’s drama program, she toured the country as a member of National Players, and has been both an actor and a costume designer before jumping the aisle to theater criticism. Writing for We Love DC restored her happiness after a life-threatening illness, and she’s grateful to you, dear readers. Send your suggestions to jenn (at) welovedc (dot) com and follow her on Twitter.
