BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - DEMERARA DISTILLERS LIMITED, producer of El Dorado Rum out of Guyana, has currently embarked upon a Caribbean tour to market and educate bartenders and rum drinkers about its product.
Yesterday (May 12), a course was held at the Royal St. Kitts Hotel and Casino on the various brands of El Dorado Rum, how they should be served and to what type of consumers. The course was conducted by British mixologist Stefanie Holt and was attended by a number of bartenders from various bars and hotels in St. Kitts.
Holt is the UK Brand Ambassador for El Dorado Rum and has been working in the bar industry for almost 10 years, winning a number of competitions.
According to Sheldon Carew, Sales Manager of El Dorado Rum for the Caribbean region, what makes their product unique is that they have the only distillery in the world that presently uses wooden pot stills and wooden continuous stills, which give each brand of rum a unique characteristic.
The El Dorado Rum has been on the market since 1992 and is currently being distributed in 75 territories. It has won several awards with the greatest one being named the “Best Rum in the World” at the International Wine and Spirits Awards.
The distributor for the rum in the Federation is Hidden Wine and Spirit, located at Frigate Bay. Interested persons can contact Andre ‘Magic Man’ Phipps, who is responsible for marketing the product in the Federation.
Phipps told SKNVibes that his job is to market the product and not only make sure it sells, but to educate bartenders about the El Dorado brand so that they would know what they are selling.
Sunil Dora of Hidden Wine and Spirit said that since his company is the only distributor on the island, it is their job to promote El Dorado as well as educate bartenders on the different rums in the Caribbean, and to get them to understand the basics of bartending and why this particular rum is superior to all others in the Caribbean.
The bartenders received training and samples of the El Dorado premium-range aged rums 21, 15, 12 as well as the eight, five and three-year-old cask aged rums. They also sampled the El Dorado Superior White Rum, El Dorado Superior Gold Rum and the Eldorado Superior Dark Rum.
Carew said the bartenders seem to love the rum but “so far it has been a close race between the El Dorado aged 12 and 15 rums.
