Description: Bottle of añejo rum with accoutrements
Background: I discovered añejo rum for mixing drinks only five years ago. For years, I only kept and used white rum, usually Bacardi. My introduction to rum happened many years ago. The first attempt was sophomore year in college, which didn’t turn out well. My girlfriend decided to try cocktails–the kind mixed from powder. We mixed according to the instructions, and after a lot of grimacing, poured out the results. After that experience, the joys of rum escaped me for another three years or so.
My next attempts came a few years later when I decided to try mixing rum with lemonade. I started with a lemonade drink mix (Wyler’s???), which turned out pretty well. I experimented with this for a few years until I got the recipe down. There is something special about ice-cold lemonade and white rum.
My knowledge of mixed drinks was limited to my lemonade concoction because, even by my mid-20s, I had never been to a bar that I can recall. I’m fairly sure that at that age, I had never heard of most classic cocktails. My introduction to mixology proper happened by way of Cuisine magazine. I had a new apartment, and a new girlfriend (now my wife), and cooking became an necessity. Soon after, we discovered Cuisine magazine, which had just published an issue focused on mixed drinks. That issue taught me enough to begin making mixed drinks, and soon daiquiris and piña coladas became a thing.
Piña coladas quickly rose to prominence because my future wife surprised me with a Piña Colada kit consisting of a brightly colored briefcase-sized box with everything needed to make the perfect drink except fresh pineapple. That kit was replenished many times over the years, and my coladas became well-known among my classmates.
Bacardi añejo entered the picture by accident. I was preparing to watch the finale of Leverage, and as an homage to the team’s final season (it was set in a bar), I decided to have a salute to rum. Wandering the local liquor store’s aisles, I came across a Bacardi display and, wanting to try something new, grabbed a bottle. I haven’t bought white rum since.
Technical: Minolta Maxxum 70, Minolta Maxxum 100mm f2.8 Macro, Ilford XP2, window light, aperture priority, commercially developed and scanned
Frame Works?: Yes! This was my third roll of film, and this shot was the first taken with my 100mm f2.8 macro lens. I like how the bottle stands out from the blurred foreground and background. The sunlight coming through the windows adds just the right amount of light to highlight the bottle without blowing out the scene. That I chose this bottle out of the many available is likely explained by the many good times I’ve had over a good rum drink (and my fond memories of Leverage). By the way, the last time I checked, I still had that very beat-up copy of Cuisine from 1980.
