Lesson Learned At The International Cane Spirit Festival

            I have been a judge at numerous tasting competitions, and I'm always impressed at how unwittingly biased we are by product packaging. It's the "don't judge a book by its cover" thing. I think the underlying logic behind our bias--if indeed there can be any logic to prejudging something--is that if a producer devotes inordinate attention to a package aesthetics, then surely they must have paid equal attention to making a great product. Hmm, I can think of scores of examples, however, where that is absolutely false, where the package looks far better than the product inside.

            Okay, I get it, caveat emptor and all. But what about the opposite situation? What about products packaged in clear bottles with plain looking labels? Doesn't the lack of any perceptible design elements suggest the contents will be equally unimpressive?

            At the rum competition I again was forced to deal with my own prejudices. For example, the spirit judged in the competition as the "Best Dark Rum" was One Barrel from Belize. This sumptuous spirit couldn't look plainer on the shelf. In fact, I'm embarrassed to say, that when a sample of One Barrel first arrived in our offices more than a year ago, I dismissed it as something uninteresting and low budget. I didn't review it, or mention the brand in subsequent rum-related articles. What even happened to the sample I have no idea. Bad Robert!

            Another brand I disregarded as unworthy of professional scrutiny or coverage in the trade magazines also walked away with two top honors. The brand is Tortuga Gold Rum from the the British West Indies. Again, when I first laid hands on the brand I couldn't have been less impressed. It had the look of a generic product. If they didn't care about how the rum would be perceived, then why should I?

            Well, my mistake. The Tortuga 5-Year-Old was deemed the "Best Aged Rum (up to 8 Years)"and the Tortuga 12-Year-Old was awarded the title of "Best Aged Rum (9 to 8 Years)." In each case I was so wowed that I nearly sold my soul to find out what they were immediately after the judging. Man, oh man, they're tremendous. Again, bad Robert for being so prejudicial.

            So what to do? This is America where looks count. As long as most of the world's spirit producers have embraced the notion that a great looking package is essential, we will continue to load our back bars and retail shelves with fabulously attractive products. Is there room then for stellar products wrapped in unattractive, pedestrian looking bottles?

            Heck yeah! Spirits aficionados thrive on the process of discovery. When you turn someone on to a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable spirit and it happens to come in undistinguished package, you will appear all that much more savvy for having discovered the brand yourself.

            So tear into those lesser-known brands in those innocuous looking bottles. There are some serious winners out there waiting to be discovered. They'll make you proud.

            And to the good folks at Tortuga Rum and One Barrel, um, sorry about that.