What You'll Learn: The common systems for categorizing rum are one of the biggest sources of confusion within the category. Whether categorizing by color, colonial history, or other qualities that convey little meaning, these kinds of designations have held rum back from greater acceptance in the world of distilled spirits.

In this presentation + Q&A, Matt Pietrek will explain why rum's most often used categories do more harm than good, while also exploring a handful of newer, more useful categorizations that promise clarity.

Matt Pietrek began his cocktail wonkery with a modest home bar that soon grew out of control, leading him to revive a long-dormant writing career – this time about cocktails and spirits rather than computers. In the decade since, he’s become one of the genre’s most respected writers.

Penning works for books, magazines, and his CocktailWonk.com site, Pietrek was named a finalist for Best Cocktail & Spirits Writer at the 2018 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, as well as Saveur magazine’s Best Drinks Blog. With his wife, Carrie, he recently published Minimalist Tiki: A Cocktail Wonk Look at Classic Libations and the Modern Tiki Vanguard, as well as a book about the history of British rum (title TBD).

Now based in New Orleans, he can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as @cocktailwonk, or maybe on the barstool next to you.

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Cocktail Wonk: Why Rum Categories Suck