I saw a little competition that I knew I should enter. Yes, it is unlikely that a wine snob would be entering an event that is not wine related but 2018 was named the year for exploring. Exploring new tastes includes all that South Africa has to offer which until 2018, I never knew was Rum too. Anyways, I won 2 tickets and took my new partner in crime to experience it with me.

We arrived at what looked like an open field in the middle of nowhere. After we navigated our way through the cars, we see to gazebos with the Schwepps logo… We had arrived!

After getting our drinking tokens and tasting glass, we went immediately to the first place that served rum which landed up being the best way to start off our day!

The Booze:

So it may look like the capital of craft Rum in South Africa is KZN. 3 of the distilleries we encountered were from there and the reason behind this is sugar cane is primarily grown in KZN and key ingredients in rum are sugar or a by-product of the sugar making process, molasses.

The rums I had the lucky privilege to taste were:

• Distillery 031 “D’Urban Dry”
• Whistler Rum
• New Grove Rum
• Don Papa Rum
• Tapanga Rum
• Tipo Tinto R&R
• Brick Makers Rum

Gees. That does sound like a lot now that I wrote everything down! But the more we tasted, the more excited we got to see what else the world has to offer.

The Food:

It’s not a Vera blog without me talking about the food. So in order for us to taste all the food stalls, my partner in crime and I decided to share one meal from each. I kinda wished that the food truck industry was bigger in South Africa because the quality of food here was beyond most of the fast food joints I frequently visit. The creativity, flavour and absolute eye catching presentation makes me crave the food more even more while I relive the memory of 2 June.

We tasted fried chicken wings topped with spicy sauce and Parmesan cheese. Then had bacon burgers with top quality toppings. But what takes the cake is the pork belly sandwich that had this coriander sauce on it. Boy, am I craving more and more of it now.

Best Rum of the day:

A Mauritian rum company stole our heart. They had infused their rum with honey, vanilla etc. It was the first rum we tasted and had set the tone for the day.

All in all, it was 100% worth going to. As my first festival in a while, it really set the tone for the rest of my festival visits. Next up, is the Food truck Festival. Yes, Food truck Festival on 30 June. See you there: https://www.ticketrush.co.za/event/jozi-food-truck-fest-vol2