Mai Tai Madness: The Winners!

Last month I had a crazy idea.

What if I held a contest to get people to write about their best rum experiences and then picked the best one and had someone send them a bunch of booze?

That dream has become a reality.  After a few weeks of collecting entries, we finally have a winner in RumDood.com’s Mai Tai Madness.

At stake for each of the entrants was a chance at an entire kit of rum, liqueur and syrup for making their own Mai Tais.  The kit for the winner includes:

All the winner has to do for a fantastic party is find some limes and they can Mai Tai the day away all through Memorial Day weekend!

All told, eight blogs submitted their rummiest stories.  They ranged from stories about amazing rum cocktails they encountered at special events to tales of woe at parties hosted by supposed rum experts to stories relating the bloggers’ journeys from simple drinkers of Bacardi Silver and Coke to rum-crazed lunatics, bent on owning and trying every rum in existence (the CDC suggests that it’s a disease that appears to be communicable through this site).

After reading through all of the stories and writing down more than a few drink recipes to visit at RumDood Central, my editor and I picked what we thought was the best of what was a great collection of submissions.

Keith, over at the Speakista, blogs about cocktails, spirits and bars in New York City.  It’s a great blog that I heartily recommend to anyone interested in reading some writing by an up-and-coming cocktail blogger.

Keith started off with rum as most of us did: poorly.  It was a spirit to be consumed in mass quantities and only paired with either Coca Cola or thermonuclear waste materials infused with sugar and as many artificial coloring agents as possible.  Rum was cheap and easy to find and guzzle with reckless abandon, just so long as you didn’t really think about what you were drinking.

As Keith’s interest in cocktails expanded, he picked up some good rums along the way, found a recommendation on how to make a daiquiri that wasn’t served from a slushy machine, and fell before the greatness that is rum’s classic drinks.

Keith’s travels didn’t stop there though.  He eventually discovered, as we all do, that a love-affair with rum leads to experimentation on a near collegiate level as we are all led down the path that inevitably leads to all things Tiki.  From the sound of things, the love affair and it’s sordid experimentations aren’t going to end any time soon.  I’m guessing that a few more bottles of rum and syrup are only going to help for a romantic summer weekend with those bottles.

Keith’s not the only one walking away a winner though.  The three runners up are all getting something as well (that’s a 50% prize ratio!).

Each of the three people above will be receiving a copy of Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s newest book, Beachbum Berry Remixed!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this contest!

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Matt Browner Hamlin

    May 24, 2010, 13:45

    Woohoo!

    Great choice. I thought I had written an interesting post, but when Keith dropped his in the comments I knew who the winner would be. Great stuff and congrats to Keith!

  • gourmetpigs

    May 24, 2010, 14:10

    From the sound of it, Obsello was probably all ready for me to sue them too. They probably already had an offer ready. Maybe I should’ve sued you both 😛

  • ila

    May 24, 2010, 14:29

    hahaha. Yay for nobody getting sued!

  • KeithP

    May 25, 2010, 15:36

    Thank you again Matt for hosting this event – I’ll be sure to do a write up of Mai Tai Madness. Also, thank you Matt Browner Hamlin for the kind words.

    In honor of our host I’m sipping a the Machado Cocktail he posted in his write up of Appleton 12 year … it is nice!!

  • KeithP

    July 11, 2010, 12:55

    A quick little write up on our most recent trip into “Mai Tai Madness.”

    http://www.thespeakista.com/2010/07/06/mai-tai-madness-%E2%80%A6-yahoooooooo/

    Rest assured, this drink holds a special place in my mixology heart and much more madness is on the way.

    Thanks again Matt.

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