Earlier this week I caught up with Hamish Goonetilleke, owner of The Rum Diary Bar in Fitzroy to discuss his house made spiced rum. Hamish and his business partner Suze are in the middle of a Pozible crowd funding campaign to try and help fund the expansion and distribution of this fantastic product. Upon meeting Hamish one thing I can say for certain is he is genuinely passionate about their spiced rum which you will see in your our interview below.
What was your inspiration behind creating The Rum Diary Spiced Rum?
When I started The Rum Diary I wanted to create the best rum bar in Australia. I wanted to focus our efforts into delving into one thing properly to be specialists and call ourselves experts in rum. This inspired us to start creating rum from the beginning of the bar, constantly altering the recipe to make it better.
Following a trip to the Caribbean in February the recipe continued to evolve into what it is today. I think for us, going to the home of rum was such an eye opener. It really pushed us to start sourcing our ingredients from Trinidad and Tobago, so we could impart the essence of the Caribbean in our rum.
Where and how is the Rum made?
Our rum is made locally in Fitzroy in a commercial kitchen nearby. It is made in 4 phases – wet infusion, dry infusion, charring the spices and then making tinctures with the more volatile spices such as star anise. These flavours are then infused into the rum. We have used a 5 year aged sipping quality base rum which is infused with 15 different spices to create a complex flavour. This means the rum will work well on its own or in an old fashion or a mixed drink. Because of the flavours it stands up to any mix, which means it’s great for tiki drinks like the Jungle Bird and Mai Tai as it has a burst of flavour which adds to the overall richness of a drink.
Where is the rum available for sale?
Currently it is available from the bar or on our website however we are in discussions with a few distributors. This is one of the reasons we are crowd funding, so we can get our stock levels to where we it to be. If I went to a distributor and said can you distribute my product a case is not going to be anywhere near enough stock. It is only with money that we will be able to get to that stage.
How can people find out about the crowd funding?
We have been posting on social media constantly. It’s on Instagram, Facebook, there are also sheets throughout the bar directing people to the Pozible campaign.
We are just about to launch a competition to name the cocktail on the side of the rum bottle. The cocktail is made with cold pressed apple juice, spiced rum, lemon juice, sugar and 3 drops of Angostura Bitters. It’s a drink that anyone can make at home. The prize is a $350.00 bar tab at The Rum Diary and the winner’s name will be printed on the first run of labels. All you have to do is like Rum Diary Spiced Rum on Facebook and write the cocktail’s name with the hashtag #rumdiaryspiced.
Is there anything else you would like to let people know?
I think it is a real David v Goliath type thing here. This is a small start up entrepreneurial business and I want people to get behind a locally made product. This is the only small batch hand crafted premium spiced rum in Australia. For us it’s all about authenticity and having a little bit of The Rum Diary no matter where you are. It’s a great product and we would really love the support to kick start this small local business. Without the help it may not get there.
To chip in with the crowd-sourcing campaign for the The Rum Diary Bar’s spiced rum, check out the Pozible campaign here.