So this time it’s for real, I’m pulling the plug on this pleasant project, this hopeful hobby. The costs are hard to justify and I really don’t write enough. So here’s one last post, which will also have to be a Merry Christmas card since Canada Post is still on strike until Tuesday. Also, I think it has been a weird year all around, and by weird I mean not that great, so I wanted to reach out with an e-hug for all of you. Here it is.
Buckle up compadres, it’s been a while so this might be a long and bumpy one.
I came extremely close this autumn to putting the key in the door of this blog/mini vanity project and throwing the (biodegradable) key into an unnamed abyss. After all, there are costs and no matter how much I enjoy writing (you should give it a go, it’s really fun) in the context of my days it started to feel a little bit frivolous. maybe even wasteful. Plus I see most of you on a regular basis, so it’s not like you need my long winded prose to stay in touch.
Way back in time, well before wifi and full body airport scans, I bought my first bottle of “premium” bourbon. It was Blanton’s, touted by the company as the world’s first single barrel bourbon, and it was daaaaaaamn good. In those heady crazy days, bourbon was undergoing something of a renaissance, it was available, affordable (screw you scotch!), and several distillers offered fancy versions of their products. These days are long gone. Today, in Québec at least, you will no longer be able to enjoy the enticing promises of Rare Breed, or Booker’s, and I won’t even mention Pappy, because, well, if you know bourbon you know what I mean. It’s not about cost (though they are now on par with scotch), they are simply not to be found. Even “regular” offerings like Elijah Craig and Knob Creek have deserted the shelves years ago. On a bad day Makers Mark can be hard to find. So imagine how excited I was when I heard rumors (read in a newsletter to be exact and less mysterious) that Blanton’s was making a comeback (of sorts). School girls at a Corey Hart concert had nothing on me.
This is not a rum review but a rum rant, the difference is that I don’t pretend to have the qualifications to “review” a spirit. However, in the purest tradition of freedom, and I’m only half-joking here, why should I let that stop me? I’m just up front about the fact that I’m simply a guy that drinks a lot of rum and likes to talk about it. So pull up a chair, pour yourself a glass of something you enjoy, and let’s see what’s what.
It’s a weird feeling to sit down to write a somewhat negative review. I know several bloggers and vloggers who won’t do it. If a product is bad, or falls beneath a certain threshold, they won’t review it. I can respect that. Especially when it comes to restaurants and such, a bad review can really damage a reputation, and if it is based on only one visit, maybe it’s not even representative. I distinctly remember a very lackluster evening at one of Montreal’s perennial best restaurants. It might have been unfair to judge them on that one off night, though the argument could be made that when you demand a certain (very hefty) price from your customers, you really can’t afford off nights, but I digress. So yeah, speaking ill isn’t chill and all that, plus it feels like trashing somebody else’s dream. That being said, it would not be doing you a favour (all eight of you), to pretend the Snowbird doesn’t have substantial woes to work out, or in corporate-speak “significant opportunity for improvement”. This is all according to my own tastes, of course, most people seem to love the place and it currently rates a 4.6 out of 5 on google. Kids these days…