LCW Hub @ Seven Dials

I signed up for the Zacapa Rum multi sensory experience – a 45 minute tasting experience – I had seen loads of happy customers coming out of this saying how good it was so I had to try it out. But whilst I was waiting I popped into some of the #LCW14 pop ups around Seven Dials:

First up was the Cowbell bar.

This pop up, just off the Dial is a result of Cowbell winning the Monkey Shoulder cocktail competition – running this bar all week was their prize and guess what?! All the cocktails are made with Monkey Shoulder Whiskey. Now I’m not a huge fan of whiskey in any form – but the bartender managed to find a cocktail that I liked!

Ta da! The Curdled Colada! 

The clarified coconut and pineapple mixer comes in bottles pre made

A wide variety of cocktails to suit all tastes 

I also got to try BuckFest – a herbal concoction that’s actually quite pleasant 

Lots of whiskey and cowbells as decoration!

If you love whiskey or even if you’re not keen, I would recommend going down to the Cowbell – friendly staff, great drinks and they have different events in each day, including DJs and eclectic bingo on Sunday afternoon!

Next I wandered up the road to the Cheeky Tiki pop up in Atomica Gallery. The collaboration here was immediately evident with the gallery selling Tiki related artworks.

The Tiki bar set up was elaborate!

They serve up all manner of Tiki drinks from the Mai Tai’s referenced on the wall to the above Painkiller – not sure that it killed any pain, but it helped me to forget being caught in the rain!

And finally it was time for the Zacapa experience!

We were taken downstairs and blind folded for the multi sensory experience. They guided you to sit at a bench with a table in front of you and put on the headphones on there.

The room was perfumed with a sweet smell so you can see how all the senses were engaged! They then told us the history if Zacapa before we could take our blindfolds off.

This is what we saw with our blindfolds off – through the mist of the Guatemala jungle! – the two pots are molasses and first press cane juice ‘honey’. Zacapa is different to the majority of rums in that it’s made from the first press of the sugar cane, rather than the molasses that are the by product of the sugar process. This manifests itself in the flavour or the rum – more complex but also very smooth, also a product of the solera ago process using different whisky and sherry barrels to add depth.

We tried the rum neat and the the master blender Lorena Vasquez came in to answer any questions we had about the rum making process, including how she best liked to drink it 🙂 ….

Our challenge was to make an Old Fashioned with Zacapa – Lorena’s favourite drink!

The finished product – a double measure of rum with 2 spoonfuls of 1:1 sugar syrup and 3 dashes of bitters plus orange peel & oils – delish!

Even better – Zacapa pairs really well with food, especially chocolate so the macaroon went down well 🙂 I always like the combination of orange and chocolate which was brought out here. The most unusual suggestion they had for pairing was with cheese!

This is a premium rum that needs to be respected – no rum and coke with this one – either simply made into an Old Fashioned or Mahattan or on the rocks is best.

I would definitely recommend the tasting experience – you even get to take away a miniature of the rum and another macaroon! Only 2 days of London Cocktail Week left so get in quick!