SHOUTOUTS
If you want a shout out for you or someone else you love on the show, email us at info@runeatdrink.net or call us and leave a message at 941-677-2733
Run? I thought you said, “Rum, Eat, and Drink” with Siesta Key Rum’s Customer Experience Manager, Kevin Moroney
Back in Episode 305 we talked about Siesta Key Rum Distillery.
Over the summer in the past we have celebrated rum during National Mojito Day (July 11), National Rum Day (August 16), and National Mai Tai Day (August 30). We are preparing you now for the two upcoming days that celebrate the spirit itself and one of our favorite ways to enjoy it. How? By highlighting some of our favorites from Siesta Key Rum.
Kevin Moroney, a part of the family behind Siesta Key Rum, and the Customer Experience Manager there took time to sit down on a Sunday morning and talk with us about how this popular and award-winning distillery got started and some great ways to enjoy this spirit with food and beverage.
Find out more and book your tour at siestakeyrum.com.
THAT’S A WRAP!
Thank you for listening! Because of your support, we are in our ninth year of the podcast! Don’t forget to follow us and tell us where to find you next on our website, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Also, check out our store on the website and get some swag, thanks to Pure Creative Apparel. Thanks to www.PodcastMusic.com for providing the music for this episode, too!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Kevin Maroney , customer Experience Manager
for Siesta Key Rum, and you arelistening to the Run Eat Drink
podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Run Eat Drink podcast.
We feature destination racesfrom across the country and,
after the race, we take you on atour of the best local food and
beverage to celebrate.
So, whether you are an eliterunner or a back-of-the-packer
like us, after the race, we takeyou on a tour of the best local
food and beverage to celebrate.
So, whether you are an eliterunner or a back-of-the-packer
like us, you'll know the bestplaces to accomplish, explore
(00:37):
and indulge on your nextruncation.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
On today's show, dana , we welcome customer experience
manager kevin maroney fromsiesta key rum.
This is a place that we fell inlove with, or at least I did
with what you brought back fromwhen you went and did the 39th
annual run for the turtles 5kthere on siesta key beach I did
that and then I went to the tour.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So I did the running and then the eating and the
drinking in the correct order.
The running drink podcast.
So I did it not before the run.
Aren't you proud?
Aren't you proud Kevin.
Welcome to our show.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
It is great to be on the show today.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Welcome.
Welcome, we're so happy.
We love your rum and I lovedyour tour.
I'm going to take him up toSarasota and Siesta Key.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I'm excited she brought home a bunch of things
to sample from Siesta Key rumand I did.
I enjoyed him very much.
I got to enjoy all that withoutdoing the running.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
You're injured, he's injured, he says he's injured,
and so I guess the rum helps theinjury.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
The more you drink, the less you care.
I brought home medicine.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I brought home the best medicine in the world.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
There you go Medicinal value.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And it was so good we wanted you to come on and share
with our Runcation Nationthat's what we call our
community for our podcast,because it's June, july and
August.
It's the summer, and in thesummer we have national days.
We have important nationalholidays that we have to speak
with you about, which areNational Mojito Day, that's our
(02:15):
anniversary, and then there'sNational Rum Day and National
Mai Tai Day.
In August it's National Mai TaiDay.
At the end of August, I got it.
So we think that your rum wouldproduce the best cocktails to
celebrate, it would be the bestrum to sip on, and we want to
(02:36):
talk all about it with you.
Before we get started, can youtell us a little bit about the
history behind Siesta Key Rumand how it came to be?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Siesta Key Rum is actually Florida's oldest
established craft distillery.
We were established in 2007 byTroy Roberts, our owner and
founder.
And, really funny story, beforeall of this he was in the
software industry.
He had developed a couple ofdifferent websites for avid
(03:05):
sports car enthusiasts.
So like different sports carforums, especially like Corvette
Forum was his biggest one.
When he was in his 40s.
He was actually bought out.
And I know you're thinking poorTroy retired in your 40s in
Sarasota, florida.
Yes, right, he was enjoying hisretirement.
He's loving it.
But he's watching how it's madeon rum while sipping on rum,
(03:28):
and you know what it's like whenyou're watching how it's made
on something.
You're like, oh, I couldprobably do that.
So he starts thinking I couldprobably do that and he starts
making flavored infusions.
He's having his friends try it.
They are loving it.
Of course, they're getting freerum why wouldn't you?
But they told him that heshould turn his hobby into a
business.
(03:49):
Troy went out.
He acquired this space in anindustrial park.
Then he contacted ChristianKarl, a German still
manufacturer, told them exactlywhat he wanted for his still
setup.
They sent over the equipment,showed him how to use it and he
spent the next two yearsperfecting our silver rum.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Ooh, second career, second success, and you have now
Runcation Nation.
You can get this not only inSarasota and Siesta Key, is that
correct?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
only in Sarasota and Siesta Key.
Is that correct?
Yes, not only can you get it inSiesta Key, in Sarasota, but
you can actually get it inFlorida in over 3,000 different
locations, whether it be liquorstores, restaurants, bars, and
we're also in 34 differentstates.
If you actually just go to ourwebsite siestakeyrumcom and then
click on the Find Rum tab.
There's a map.
(04:48):
You type your zip code in andit shows you all the locations
near you that carry our product.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Very nice Runcationation, there you go.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
You got like an app to find it.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
That's pretty incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I was going to ask, I was going to throw one of these
hard hitting journalisticquestions.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
You know how we are very hard hitting.
I sent him the questions inadvance.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I was going to ask one off script and I think he
answered it, which was what setsSiesta Key Rum apart, makes you
guys special.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So, really, what makes us so special is that we
are pretty much the onlydistillery that we're only using
real food ingredients.
What I mean by that is we use,like for our toasted coconut rum
, instead of using some type ofgovernment regulated natural and
I put natural in quotesflavoring.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Flavoring is a very broad umbrella.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Exactly, literally, could be tree bark from a tree
in Malaysia that they wouldchemically alter to make it
taste like coconut.
But we use real coconut.
We don't use any substitutes atall.
It is just hundreds of poundsof real toasted coconut flakes
and then we soak that in withour silver rum, along some real
honey and real vanilla.
Same with our spices, realspices.
(06:01):
Same with our coffee rum, realcoffee.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
That's fantastic.
That's as hard hitting as thisjournalism gets.
I promise.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
How did you come to work at CST Key Rum?
How long have you been there?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So I've actually been at CST Key Rum for my entire
life.
I'm Troy's stepson.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's a family thing.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yep, exactly, mom and troy were high school
sweethearts.
After high school was done theyboth went their separate ways
and then they found each otheragain at similar points in their
lives.
He had his own boys and then mymom had me and my brother.
They came together and thenwe've just became one big family
(06:47):
and I've seen Siesta Key grow.
Siesta Key Rum grow frombasically being that industrial
warehouse where he had a couchin there that's still set up and
no air conditioning, to athriving distillery.
It's been amazing.
Yes, troy did not want to giveme a full position right away.
(07:08):
He had me go through a tempagency to get hired into the
bottling line because he wantedto see what my work ethic was,
see how well I worked at thedistillery, how much I cared
about it, and eventually put meon as an actual bottling
employee.
So I did that for a few years.
Then I got moved into ourtasting room.
(07:30):
Then I started giving our toursand soon enough he had me
rewrite the entire tour.
I go on the news for thedistillery.
Now I do the events.
I absolutely love it.
It's amazing.
I do the events.
I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
It's amazing and you came in from the ground up and
just earned your way and it's afamily affair.
That's so great.
And I love how their highschool sweethearts reconnected.
We have a similar story, so tospeak.
That's amazing.
Yeah, so we've talked aboutyour history.
How are you as an employee?
You're stellar, it seems.
Five out of five stars.
(08:05):
What's your favorite job to doat the distillery or for Siesta
Key Room, since you sound likeyou have a lot of hats now is
(08:27):
giving the tours.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I absolutely love being in front of all of those
people and explaining theprocess.
My favorite part of the tourhas to be the production aspect
of it, because it's so cool totalk about the chemistry behind
everything.
See people's looks of oh mygosh, I had no idea that that's
how that worked, that's how thatwas made, and we always get
some really cool, fun questionson the tour too, which are tons
of fun to answer, and if I don'tknow the answer, I just make up
(08:50):
the answer, and that's alwaysfun.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Bake it till you make it.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I know you guys have partnered with other companies
in the past.
Talk about some of thosepartnerships and special series
that you've bottled and what aresome things people might want
to be on the lookout forpotentially.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, of course.
Since our beginning we'vealways done these special series
to give back to the communityand that all started with our
Mote Marine Sea Life labels,which some longtime fans
probably remember.
We had a sea turtle, a blackfinshark, we had a manatee and we
(09:35):
had a bottlenose dolphin andwith that we would give a
portion of the proceeds fromeach one of those labels sold to
that specific animal's habitatat Mote Marine.
Eventually we moved away fromthat.
When we were doing our newbottle designs and we wanted to
give to a more lesser knowncharity, we started doing our
(09:56):
Scooter of the Beach labels aspart of our local label series.
Scooter of the Beach is a hugecelebrity here in Sarasota.
A lot of people call him theambassador of Siesta Key Beach.
He's been in that samelifeguard tower for around 30
years.
He is absolutely amazing.
We put him on that label toalso raise awareness for
(10:20):
Sarasota Baywatch, anorganization that puts live
clams into the ocean to helpfilter the water.
Every single one of thoseScooter of the Beach labels we
sell.
We give $1 from every bottlesold to Sarasota Baywatch.
You're doing that.
We were able to donate over$2,000 to them, which was
absolutely amazing, and we'restill planning on continuing
(10:42):
doing that for years to come.
We also do our Buy High Hutlabel, where we celebrate the
Buy High Hut.
That's Florida's oldest tikibar.
It was built in 1954.
So of course we have tocelebrate that.
We don't have any labels ofthat available right now.
One of our next anniversarieswe might do another run of that,
(11:02):
but we'll see.
And then there's also themidnight past label that we had
done and that was to give aportion of the proceeds to the
restoration of midnight pastnice very nice the bi-hi-hat
also has something to do withyour distillery and the bar
(11:23):
there.
Infinity Room.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yes, the Infinity Room.
When I saw Infinity Room onyour website, we're like comic
book people, we're like comicbook nerds and we were like, oh,
infinity, like the InfinityGauntlet, like Avengers.
But that is not it.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
No, I'm so happy you said that because I think about
that all the time and nobodyknows what I'm talking about we
got you thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
What is that all about?
How did it come?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
so the infinity room was originally where our
bottling line was set up, and wewould bring people in there.
Then we would show them how ourbottling line worked.
We wound up expanding more.
We were producing more and morebottles, so we had to move.
Our bottling line worked.
We wound up expanding more.
We were producing more and morebottles, so we had to move our
bottling line into the backwhere we had more space, and we
were like what do we do withthis empty room?
(12:13):
And Troy's always had the dreamof also having a bar.
One day he gets contacted bythe owner of the Bihai Hut.
He's like hey, we're going tobe doing some renovations.
We're actually going to bethrowing out our original bar.
Would you want it?
And Troy's been drinking theresince he was 17.
So of course he wanted to grabthis bar.
(12:35):
He's yes.
So he takes the bar, him andhis dad restore it and we
install it into what used to beour bottling room.
We wanted to also have sometype of centerpiece that really
drew people in.
They could look at this and belike, oh my gosh, that's amazing
.
So my mom actually designedthis infinity mirror.
(12:57):
We have a regular mirror andthen a one-way mirror that
you're looking through.
In between those two mirrors wehave cut in half barrels on
either side of the room, so itjust looks like we have this
whole hall of barrels going downinfinitely.
That was not reading.
There's only nine.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Oh, you have to come see it, yeah, it sounds like a
cool effect.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
You must.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Now I understand, and maybe that's my new
appreciation for the infinityroom.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, Now the infinity, the experience, and
after you've had some rum, theeffect is even more powerful.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Probably.
I thought there were many.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
As we've traveled the country, we've gone to various
breweries, distilleries and thelike.
An established brewery has aflagship or particular label
that keeps the lights on.
Or Siesta Key, what's yourflagship?
What's the one that keeps yourlights on and the taps flowing?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
What's our most popular rum?
That would definitely be ourtoasted coconut.
None of the other rums evencome close to it when it comes
to sales.
In fact, when we first releasedit, it was the only one that
had this massively effectiveinitial release, whereas the
others we had to start gainingcredibility with.
(14:17):
So we can start selling topeople who weren't just locals,
but the toasted coconut rum.
We had over 200 people lined upoutside of our doors the first
day it was coming out and wethought like we were gonna make
me get like 40 people who werejust like our neighbors and
people from sarasota.
But no people were flying inwhen they got the announcement
(14:37):
that we were doing a toastedcoconut rum and to this it's
still our most popular.
It's the announcement that wewere doing a toasted coconut rum
.
It's still our most popular.
It's the rum that we sell inevery single liquor store that
we sell to outside of Floridaand they still sell out of it
routinely.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Oh, so it's not the silver that you have in 35
states, it's the coconut.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
It's the toasted coconut, because it's our big
seller.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And do you distribute any other varieties to other
states?
Just the toasted coconut.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We do distribute other varieties of our rums to
other states.
Most states will have a totalwine and more, and that's
actually how we started gettingour distribution was we joined
their Spirit Select program.
So they were the people whowere able to get us into most of
the states that we were in andthey would do our toasted
coconut, but then they wouldalso do our spiced rum, because
(15:30):
everybody loves a spiced rum andyeah, unless it brings back
your bad college memories.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Maybe, but it doesn't for me.
I could tell you 100%.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
There are some people out there.
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Feel that pain.
But the toasted coconut is themost popular and we have a local
favorite here in Cape Coral.
We have Wicked Dolphin and theymake a coconut rum.
Have you ever tried that?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So we initially thought about a coconut rum.
The issue with when you'reusing these real food
ingredients is if you're justusing coconut on its own, you're
not going to get too much of aflavor.
It's the toasting of thosecoconut flakes that really
releases that flavor.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Your product is so unique because of that.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, yes, exactly.
And they go all out with thistoasting too.
You can just smell the coconutfrom these boxes.
It is absolutely incredible,and they taste so good on their
own.
Grab a cup, scoop some out andsnack on that while we're
getting the toasted coconut rumready.
It releases so much flavor.
(16:45):
You get that caramelizationwith it as well, which is so
nice.
It takes away any need to addin any type of flavoring or a
sweetener.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Toasted coconut, and that's why those two products we
do love our local distillery.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Of course it's different.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
They are two very different tasting rums.
And yeah, I prefer the toastedbetter.
Do you really?
I do.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Really.
Yeah, that's good, we're havingthe hot take right here.
That's a question I haven'tasked him.
We have some wicked dolphincoconut in there, but we have no
more toasted coconut, so now Iunderstand there's a reason.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I'm also a big fan.
As you can see, we're bothhaving coffee this morning.
I'm a huge fan of the coffeerum.
Now you said you're using realfood, whole food, and so that
means coffee grounds are goinginto rum and steeping.
Is it that simple?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Exactly, it's real Colombian coffee beans.
We send them to anotherindustrial park, they have them
roasted and ground locally andthen they send those over to us.
Once we get those bags, in theentire distillery smells like
coffee, which is awesome.
We have a giant French pressmachine, like the French press
you would have at home, but on ahuge, comically large scale.
(17:59):
We press our silver rum throughthose roasted Colombian coffee
beans, leading to our 70-proofcoffee, which I tell people is
the preferred drink of teacherseverywhere.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Oh, it's a hot take now that we're out for summer
break folks.
That's awesome.
I can tell you that it is thepreferred rum to have in your
coffee all the time.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
There might be some happening right there with what
little we had left over.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Okay, so what was your favorite limited series
that you have done?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Favorite limited series that we had ever done.
My personal favorite was ourGold Rum, which we discontinued
in 2019.
This was our silver rum,originally aged in whiskey
barrels.
In our last few batches it wasmoved from the whiskey barrels
into Ruby Port wine barrels.
It was my favorite thing in theworld.
(18:58):
We don't do that anymore, butright now at the distillery we
have our 1844 edition Port CaskFinish Silver Rum.
This is three Caribbean rumsaged in bourbon barrels for five
to eight years.
It's a Dominican, Panamanianand Nicaraguan rum.
They're aged in those bourbonbarrels for five to eight years,
(19:18):
then moved into Ruby Port winebarrels with ourbon barrels for
five to eight years, then movedinto ruby port wine barrels with
our silver rum for five moreyears.
We did 1500 bottles and soldover 800.
It was going very fast.
We only sell it at ourdistillery right now that sounds
really interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, have you had a chance to taste it?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I have have three bottles already.
It's so good Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
When we travel what 90 minutes?
Then we will have to get someof that if it's left.
You said there are a limitednumber of bottles 700 bottles
left.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I will say the fan favorite would probably be our
beer barrel series.
Since we're only using realfood ingredients, we can't
release a bunch of differentrums.
This gives us a way to do thatbecause we're always getting
different flavored beers fromdifferent breweries.
They send us those barrels thathave that flavor in them.
We age our spiced rum in thosebarrels and pick up on whatever
(20:13):
flavor was in that barrel.
So we've had a milk stout thattasted like spiked hot chocolate
.
We had a chocolate pepperrelease and my favorite of that
series was probably our s'moresbarrel and that was an imperial
sweet stout from Arcane Aleworksthat was finished with graham
cracker marshmallow and roastedcacao nibs locally sourced from
Florida.
And we also have batch 47coming out June 14th, just in
(20:35):
time for Father's Day.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
That's a week right now.
What is this one that is goingto be on the 14th?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I can't give you too much information about it
because we are going to be doinga post about it and I don't
want to give information awayprematurely.
This is a new beer barrel we'redoing with our spiced rum and
it's going to come out June 14th.
We open at 10 o'clock, so Irecommend getting there at about
(21:02):
nine because we normally have alittle over 100 people at our
door before we're even open.
Once it's gone, it is gone forgood.
They normally sell out within afew hours.
How many?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
bottles.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
How many bottles for this one?
I believe 230, but don't quoteme on that.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Somewhere over 200.
Yeah, and you cannot tell uswhich brewery.
No, yeah, not yet.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
We're going to do a whole post on it.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Okay, I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
But the Runcation Nation now has the inside scoop.
They need to keep their eyesopen for that.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
You've mentioned your spiced rum on a couple of
occasions and I'm really sad nowthat we didn't get to try the
S'mores Limited series.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Go ahead.
I like spiced rum.
What sets you guys apart fromone of the big bottle
distilleries that makes a verypopular spiced rum?
That some people have had badcollege experiences with spiced
rum that some people have hadbad college experiences with.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
So the thing that really sets us apart is the use
of only real spices.
We're using cinnamon, cardamomand clove.
It really tastes like you'redrinking those spices instead of
having something that's like oh, this is really sweet, and then
, yeah, I guess I get some typeof all-spice flavor.
Sweet, and then yeah, I guess Iget some type of all spice
(22:24):
flavor to it.
It really is just that use ofreal spices.
In fact, we won the CaribbeanJournal's Rummy Award six years
in a row because of oursignature spice blend.
They said that not only are wethe best spice rum in America,
but we might even be better thanany in the Caribbean too.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I'll say your spice blend is really unique so many
times, especially again somefrom those big distilleries that
probably spill more than youguys ship they just taste like
they grabbed some of theMcCormick ground not even spices
, though, just like a little bitof vanilla extract and call it
a day.
And yours, cardamom, is areally strong spice to use and
(23:02):
you use it judiciously.
And then some of the othersthat you were talking about that
blend so nicely reminds me of amulled wine spice.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
That's yeah, that we would make at christmas.
Oh, it's delightful, it's sogood Now that you have a, do you
have a limited edition going onnow, or with that like an
anniversary one?
Did I remember that right frommy visit there?
Speaker 1 (23:31):
We do have a limited spice that is available right
now.
That is our Distillers Reserve.
This comes out once a year.
It's our spiced rum, aged andused whiskey and bourbon barrels
, and the blend of barrels weused for this one was Maker's
Mark, heaven Hill, angel's, envyBullet, jim Beam, jack Daniels,
old Elk and Kentucky Owl.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
People have heard of.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
It's good.
Wow, the way we're blendingthis is also super unique.
We're doing a Solera blendmethod.
We have our bottom row ofbarrels aging our spiced rum for
the longest time.
Once we're ready to release thebatch, we take a percentage out
of those barrels and refillthem with the next row above,
(24:13):
refill those barrels with thetop row and refill that top row
with new rum.
If we keep doing this processproperly, 100 years from now,
when Troy's great-grandkidsfinally take over the distillery
, we're still going to havenuanced traces of the original
first batch of the distiller'sreserve.
And another really cool thingabout this is that, since we're
using real spices, it's soimportant to our product Because
(24:35):
we use those real spices, theydon't evaporate out of the
barrels like you would find withother aged spiced rums.
So the cardamom and clovecontinue to become even more
intense and mature as they agealong with the rum.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
See, I think that's smart.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I should have brought some home to you.
You still have time to get some.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I think that your point about using real food
ingredients really can't bestressed enough.
We've talked about it on theshow numerous times.
A lot of brewers will use inbeer.
Some ingredients are just verydifficult to brew with.
When you're wanting to addflavoring to a beer, they'll
take the shortcut and use anextract which, especially for me
(25:15):
, peanut flavored.
The flavoring is chemically andnot very good.
It comes through in the productit does.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
So I think that stressing that is your unique
point and sets you all apart isjust a hundred percent.
We can hear that through all ofthe history and all of the
specific types of rum thatyou've been talking about that
you produce at Siesta Key.
I might've had a couple ofdifferent ones in a Mai Tai.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I was going to say she talked about the Mai Tai.
She bought ingredients for theMai Tai.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I did.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
What rums are you including in that and what makes
it so good?
Because I'm a big fan of theMai Tai as part of cocktail
history.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yeah, of the Mai Tai as part of cocktail history.
Yeah, oh, yeah.
So our Mai Tai is made withmajority our spiced rum, and
then we also add in some of ourtoasted coconut rum.
We use pineapple juice, orangejuice, then Orgeat we use the
Lieber Co brand of Orgeatbecause it's the one that we
found that doesn't give you thatchemical taste that you find
(26:19):
with a lot of different almondsyrups and then we just use a
little bit of grenadine forcoloring.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Okay, I might have brought home the Orgeat.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
She did.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It's available there, you can buy it, but I'm sure
you could buy it elsewhere too.
Right, it's all good.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Links in the show notes.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yeah, too Runcation each.
It's all good Links in the shownotes.
Yeah, we have the breakdown ofpretty much all of our recipes,
even the ones in our bar, on ourwebsite, so you can make all of
those drinks at home.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So we are the Runny Drink Podcast, and so we could
not let you get away withouttalking about how your rum might
pair with foods from all yourrecipes online, or from your
rums that you would pair withspecific courses, what would be
(27:12):
the ideal meal experience?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
ideal meal experience what?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
would you pair together with?
Would it be some local foodthat you might pair with, or is
it a type of food that you wouldrecommend with one of your
cocktails that you referred toon your website?
What do you think so?
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Can we include some of our limited products?
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
You got to start off your morning with breakfast,
right?
So I would recommend some nicepancakes and then a bottle of
our maple syrup spiced rum,which is our spiced rum aged in
maple syrup barrels, that werelease in either November or
December.
We have our release coming upthis year.
That'll be batch three, eitherNovember or December.
(28:03):
We have our release coming upthis year.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
That'll be batch three, and I would recommend
having some of that in a glass,as well as pouring a little bit
of it over your pancakes.
I was going to say would youcall that a sipping rum?
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I would definitely call that a sipping rum.
Most of our rums, in fact allof our rums, we advertise as
sipping rums.
Of course, they do go greatbeing mixed in things.
Because of those real foodingredients they're not going to
have that harsh bite when youmix them, so that's what makes
them dangerously fun.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
I don't think a thing you brought back had any harsh
bite or burn, didn't it didn't?
This is dangerous.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You can sip it and you know how with scotch you
need sometimes you need ice toopen up the so that it's a
little water or just a littlewater.
So it's not as peaty maybe, andintolerable depending on which
ones you've got.
You don't need that here.
I really feel like you don'tchill it if you want, but you
don't.
It's fantastic, that's thefirst course.
Oh, so the first course is likebreakfast.
Yes, yep, so I would do likenice lunch oh I forgot what I
(29:08):
was gonna do don't worry, wehave the magic of editing.
Exactly, we do the magic ofthat, so we'll fix it in post I
like to have a little bit ofdessert before I have dinner.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
So, I would do a key lime pie and then I would also
make our key lime pie cocktailthat we have on our website,
which is our toasted coconut rum, some silver rum that had some
key lime juice soaking in it.
You mix that together.
(29:42):
You're going to add a littlemore key lime syrup.
You'll do a graham cracker rimon your glass, do some whipped
cream and add a slice of lime ontop of it, and you can't go
wrong with key lime, especiallyhere in Florida.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Something added in a martini glass for some reason
that just sounds like that wouldbe killer oh my key lime pie
martini yes, would be great.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Wow, okay, so we have a breakfast, we have a dessert
in the middle and then I like tofinish off savory.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
I love savory more than sweet, so I would do a nice
steak and an old old fashionedwith our distiller's reserve
Talk about the flavor notes onthe distiller's reserve for
everyone.
So the flavor notes you'regetting on that distiller's
reserve is a little more intensecardamom and clove but you're
also getting that charred oakyflavor from the inside of the
(30:36):
barrel which just continues tobecome more intense as we age it
further.
This one is aged from four to15 years, so you're really
getting an intense taste of allof those flavors.
And something that's reallynice with our old fashioned
recipe is it involves us takingthe rum and then soaking a whole
(30:57):
orange peel in there for a fewhours beforehand.
So you got to do some prep timeon this Taking a little Amarina
cherry syrup, putting that inthere with it, taking some
Angostura bitters, putting themin there about, I would say,
four to six dashes for one, andthen a few dashes of some orange
(31:19):
bitters, because you reallywant that nice citrusy flavor.
And then I would add thoseAmarina cherries themselves, put
about two in there, or just anice big circle ice.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Oh, I love that.
Oh, like a big cube, yes.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
A big cube of ice, big circle this doesn't get all
melted.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
That sounds fantastic and if you have never tried a
rum old fashioned, it's a reallyunique twist on the cocktail
and I think that rum inparticular sounds like it would
just be a wonderful sipper.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That'd be fantastic, fantastic.
Now everybody has got to bewanting to go out and find you.
So say again for everybody, nowthat we have talked all about
the highlights of your rum wherecan they find you, learn more
(32:17):
about you, and where can theyfind the product?
Speaker 1 (32:20):
you learn more about you and where can they find the
product?
So you can learn more about usand find where you can purchase
our product by going tosiestakeyrumcom.
We have tabs all over ourwebsite for all of your
different needs, whether it berecipes, where you can find our
rum, a little bit of history,awards we've won and
descriptions of our bottles.
If you want to find out when wehave different limited releases
(32:41):
, you can sign up on our emaillist at the bottom of our
website where it says subscribe,or you can go to our Facebook
or Instagram.
The place where you're going toget the most information is by
going to siestakeyrumcom.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Excellent, and we will link to your website in the
show notes, as well as yoursocial media and some of the
recipes that we've talked abouttoo.
Kevin, we want to thank you fortaking time to join us here on
the Run Eat Drink podcast.
It's been absolutely fantastichaving you here.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
It's been wonderful to be here.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I am so glad that I went up there to do the Turtle
5K.
That was actually on Siesta KeyBeach and it was the 39th
annual.
So I'm telling the runcationnation that the perfect day
would be the perfect runcationfirst you do the 40th annual run
for the turtles on the beachand then you get some great
(33:35):
local seafood and then you dothe tour and have all of the
things that we have been talkingabout on the show today.
I was with some people who werelocal to Siesta Key in Sarasota
and they said that at the Bihaithere's also a hotel.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Golden Host Resort.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yes, so you can have the perfect runcation and I will
come and do it with you.
Dana, are you in?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
sounds good to me yes .
Speaker 2 (34:08):
So everybody, let us know when you're coming and we
will plan the perfect runcations.
It's perfect to celebrate anykind of accomplishment and,
kevin and Kevin, we really hopeto get back up there very soon
for the Turtle 5K or sooner forthe special releases.
We can't wait to accomplish,explore and indulge with you
(34:33):
really soon.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Thank you so much.
I can't wait to see you guysthere.
Hi, I'm Kevin Maroney , customer Experience Manager
for Siesta Key Rum, and you arelistening to the Run Eat Drink
podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Run Eat Drink podcast.
We feature destination racesfrom across the country and,
after the race, we take you on atour of the best local food and
beverage to celebrate.
So, whether you are an eliterunner or a back-of-the-packer
like us, after the race, we takeyou on a tour of the best local
food and beverage to celebrate.
So, whether you are an eliterunner or a back-of-the-packer
like us, you'll know the bestplaces to accomplish, explore
(00:37):
and indulge on your nextruncation.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
On today's show, dana , we welcome customer experience
manager kevin maroney fromsiesta key rum.
This is a place that we fell inlove with, or at least I did
with what you brought back fromwhen you went and did the 39th
annual run for the turtles 5kthere on siesta key beach I did
that and then I went to the tour.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So I did the running and then the eating and the
drinking in the correct order.
The running drink podcast.
So I did it not before the run.
Aren't you proud?
Aren't you proud Kevin.
Welcome to our show.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
It is great to be on the show today.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Welcome.
Welcome, we're so happy.
We love your rum and I lovedyour tour.
I'm going to take him up toSarasota and Siesta Key.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I'm excited she brought home a bunch of things
to sample from Siesta Key rumand I did.
I enjoyed him very much.
I got to enjoy all that withoutdoing the running.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
You're injured, he's injured, he says he's injured,
and so I guess the rum helps theinjury.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
The more you drink, the less you care.
I brought home medicine.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I brought home the best medicine in the world.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
There you go Medicinal value.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And it was so good we wanted you to come on and share
with our Runcation Nationthat's what we call our
community for our podcast,because it's June, july and
August.
It's the summer, and in thesummer we have national days.
We have important nationalholidays that we have to speak
with you about, which areNational Mojito Day, that's our
(02:15):
anniversary, and then there'sNational Rum Day and National
Mai Tai Day.
In August it's National Mai TaiDay.
At the end of August, I got it.
So we think that your rum wouldproduce the best cocktails to
celebrate, it would be the bestrum to sip on, and we want to
(02:36):
talk all about it with you.
Before we get started, can youtell us a little bit about the
history behind Siesta Key Rumand how it came to be?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Siesta Key Rum is actually Florida's oldest
established craft distillery.
We were established in 2007 byTroy Roberts, our owner and
founder.
And, really funny story, beforeall of this he was in the
software industry.
He had developed a couple ofdifferent websites for avid
(03:05):
sports car enthusiasts.
So like different sports carforums, especially like Corvette
Forum was his biggest one.
When he was in his 40s.
He was actually bought out.
And I know you're thinking poorTroy retired in your 40s in
Sarasota, florida.
Yes, right, he was enjoying hisretirement.
He's loving it.
But he's watching how it's madeon rum while sipping on rum,
(03:28):
and you know what it's like whenyou're watching how it's made
on something.
You're like, oh, I couldprobably do that.
So he starts thinking I couldprobably do that and he starts
making flavored infusions.
He's having his friends try it.
They are loving it.
Of course, they're getting freerum why wouldn't you?
But they told him that heshould turn his hobby into a
business.
(03:49):
Troy went out.
He acquired this space in anindustrial park.
Then he contacted ChristianKarl, a German still
manufacturer, told them exactlywhat he wanted for his still
setup.
They sent over the equipment,showed him how to use it and he
spent the next two yearsperfecting our silver rum.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Ooh, second career, second success, and you have now
Runcation Nation.
You can get this not only inSarasota and Siesta Key, is that
correct?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
only in Sarasota and Siesta Key.
Is that correct?
Yes, not only can you get it inSiesta Key, in Sarasota, but
you can actually get it inFlorida in over 3,000 different
locations, whether it be liquorstores, restaurants, bars, and
we're also in 34 differentstates.
If you actually just go to ourwebsite siestakeyrumcom and then
click on the Find Rum tab.
There's a map.
(04:48):
You type your zip code in andit shows you all the locations
near you that carry our product.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Very nice Runcationation, there you go.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
You got like an app to find it.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
That's pretty incredible.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I was going to ask, I was going to throw one of these
hard hitting journalisticquestions.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
You know how we are very hard hitting.
I sent him the questions inadvance.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
I was going to ask one off script and I think he
answered it, which was what setsSiesta Key Rum apart, makes you
guys special.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So, really, what makes us so special is that we
are pretty much the onlydistillery that we're only using
real food ingredients.
What I mean by that is we use,like for our toasted coconut rum
, instead of using some type ofgovernment regulated natural and
I put natural in quotesflavoring.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Flavoring is a very broad umbrella.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Exactly, literally, could be tree bark from a tree
in Malaysia that they wouldchemically alter to make it
taste like coconut.
But we use real coconut.
We don't use any substitutes atall.
It is just hundreds of poundsof real toasted coconut flakes
and then we soak that in withour silver rum, along some real
honey and real vanilla.
Same with our spices, realspices.
(06:01):
Same with our coffee rum, realcoffee.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
That's fantastic.
That's as hard hitting as thisjournalism gets.
I promise.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
How did you come to work at CST Key Rum?
How long have you been there?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So I've actually been at CST Key Rum for my entire
life.
I'm Troy's stepson.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
It's a family thing.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yep, exactly, mom and troy were high school
sweethearts.
After high school was done theyboth went their separate ways
and then they found each otheragain at similar points in their
lives.
He had his own boys and then mymom had me and my brother.
They came together and thenwe've just became one big family
(06:47):
and I've seen Siesta Key grow.
Siesta Key Rum grow frombasically being that industrial
warehouse where he had a couchin there that's still set up and
no air conditioning, to athriving distillery.
It's been amazing.
Yes, troy did not want to giveme a full position right away.
(07:08):
He had me go through a tempagency to get hired into the
bottling line because he wantedto see what my work ethic was,
see how well I worked at thedistillery, how much I cared
about it, and eventually put meon as an actual bottling
employee.
So I did that for a few years.
Then I got moved into ourtasting room.
(07:30):
Then I started giving our toursand soon enough he had me
rewrite the entire tour.
I go on the news for thedistillery.
Now I do the events.
I absolutely love it.
It's amazing.
I do the events.
I absolutely love it.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
It's amazing and you came in from the ground up and
just earned your way and it's afamily affair.
That's so great.
And I love how their highschool sweethearts reconnected.
We have a similar story, so tospeak.
That's amazing.
Yeah, so we've talked aboutyour history.
How are you as an employee?
You're stellar, it seems.
Five out of five stars.
(08:05):
What's your favorite job to doat the distillery or for Siesta
Key Room, since you sound likeyou have a lot of hats now is
(08:27):
giving the tours.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I absolutely love being in front of all of those
people and explaining theprocess.
My favorite part of the tourhas to be the production aspect
of it, because it's so cool totalk about the chemistry behind
everything.
See people's looks of oh mygosh, I had no idea that that's
how that worked, that's how thatwas made, and we always get
some really cool, fun questionson the tour too, which are tons
of fun to answer, and if I don'tknow the answer, I just make up
(08:50):
the answer, and that's alwaysfun.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Bake it till you make it.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I know you guys have partnered with other companies
in the past.
Talk about some of thosepartnerships and special series
that you've bottled and what aresome things people might want
to be on the lookout forpotentially.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, of course.
Since our beginning we'vealways done these special series
to give back to the communityand that all started with our
Mote Marine Sea Life labels,which some longtime fans
probably remember.
We had a sea turtle, a blackfinshark, we had a manatee and we
(09:35):
had a bottlenose dolphin andwith that we would give a
portion of the proceeds fromeach one of those labels sold to
that specific animal's habitatat Mote Marine.
Eventually we moved away fromthat.
When we were doing our newbottle designs and we wanted to
give to a more lesser knowncharity, we started doing our
(09:56):
Scooter of the Beach labels aspart of our local label series.
Scooter of the Beach is a hugecelebrity here in Sarasota.
A lot of people call him theambassador of Siesta Key Beach.
He's been in that samelifeguard tower for around 30
years.
He is absolutely amazing.
We put him on that label toalso raise awareness for
(10:20):
Sarasota Baywatch, anorganization that puts live
clams into the ocean to helpfilter the water.
Every single one of thoseScooter of the Beach labels we
sell.
We give $1 from every bottlesold to Sarasota Baywatch.
You're doing that.
We were able to donate over$2,000 to them, which was
absolutely amazing, and we'restill planning on continuing
(10:42):
doing that for years to come.
We also do our Buy High Hutlabel, where we celebrate the
Buy High Hut.
That's Florida's oldest tikibar.
It was built in 1954.
So of course we have tocelebrate that.
We don't have any labels ofthat available right now.
One of our next anniversarieswe might do another run of that,
(11:02):
but we'll see.
And then there's also themidnight past label that we had
done and that was to give aportion of the proceeds to the
restoration of midnight pastnice very nice the bi-hi-hat
also has something to do withyour distillery and the bar
(11:23):
there.
Infinity Room.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yes, the Infinity Room.
When I saw Infinity Room onyour website, we're like comic
book people, we're like comicbook nerds and we were like, oh,
infinity, like the InfinityGauntlet, like Avengers.
But that is not it.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
No, I'm so happy you said that because I think about
that all the time and nobodyknows what I'm talking about we
got you thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
What is that all about?
How did it come?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
so the infinity room was originally where our
bottling line was set up, and wewould bring people in there.
Then we would show them how ourbottling line worked.
We wound up expanding more.
We were producing more and morebottles, so we had to move.
Our bottling line worked.
We wound up expanding more.
We were producing more and morebottles, so we had to move our
bottling line into the backwhere we had more space, and we
were like what do we do withthis empty room?
(12:13):
And Troy's always had the dreamof also having a bar.
One day he gets contacted bythe owner of the Bihai Hut.
He's like hey, we're going tobe doing some renovations.
We're actually going to bethrowing out our original bar.
Would you want it?
And Troy's been drinking theresince he was 17.
So of course he wanted to grabthis bar.
(12:35):
He's yes.
So he takes the bar, him andhis dad restore it and we
install it into what used to beour bottling room.
We wanted to also have sometype of centerpiece that really
drew people in.
They could look at this and belike, oh my gosh, that's amazing
.
So my mom actually designedthis infinity mirror.
(12:57):
We have a regular mirror andthen a one-way mirror that
you're looking through.
In between those two mirrors wehave cut in half barrels on
either side of the room, so itjust looks like we have this
whole hall of barrels going downinfinitely.
That was not reading.
There's only nine.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Oh, you have to come see it, yeah, it sounds like a
cool effect.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
You must.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Now I understand, and maybe that's my new
appreciation for the infinityroom.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, Now the infinity, the experience, and
after you've had some rum, theeffect is even more powerful.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Probably.
I thought there were many.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
As we've traveled the country, we've gone to various
breweries, distilleries and thelike.
An established brewery has aflagship or particular label
that keeps the lights on.
Or Siesta Key, what's yourflagship?
What's the one that keeps yourlights on and the taps flowing?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
What's our most popular rum?
That would definitely be ourtoasted coconut.
None of the other rums evencome close to it when it comes
to sales.
In fact, when we first releasedit, it was the only one that
had this massively effectiveinitial release, whereas the
others we had to start gainingcredibility with.
(14:17):
So we can start selling topeople who weren't just locals,
but the toasted coconut rum.
We had over 200 people lined upoutside of our doors the first
day it was coming out and wethought like we were gonna make
me get like 40 people who werejust like our neighbors and
people from sarasota.
But no people were flying inwhen they got the announcement
(14:37):
that we were doing a toastedcoconut rum and to this it's
still our most popular.
It's the announcement that wewere doing a toasted coconut rum
.
It's still our most popular.
It's the rum that we sell inevery single liquor store that
we sell to outside of Floridaand they still sell out of it
routinely.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Oh, so it's not the silver that you have in 35
states, it's the coconut.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
It's the toasted coconut, because it's our big
seller.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
And do you distribute any other varieties to other
states?
Just the toasted coconut.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We do distribute other varieties of our rums to
other states.
Most states will have a totalwine and more, and that's
actually how we started gettingour distribution was we joined
their Spirit Select program.
So they were the people whowere able to get us into most of
the states that we were in andthey would do our toasted
coconut, but then they wouldalso do our spiced rum, because
(15:30):
everybody loves a spiced rum andyeah, unless it brings back
your bad college memories.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Maybe, but it doesn't for me.
I could tell you 100%.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
There are some people out there.
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Feel that pain.
But the toasted coconut is themost popular and we have a local
favorite here in Cape Coral.
We have Wicked Dolphin and theymake a coconut rum.
Have you ever tried that?
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So we initially thought about a coconut rum.
The issue with when you'reusing these real food
ingredients is if you're justusing coconut on its own, you're
not going to get too much of aflavor.
It's the toasting of thosecoconut flakes that really
releases that flavor.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Your product is so unique because of that.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Yeah, yes, exactly.
And they go all out with thistoasting too.
You can just smell the coconutfrom these boxes.
It is absolutely incredible,and they taste so good on their
own.
Grab a cup, scoop some out andsnack on that while we're
getting the toasted coconut rumready.
It releases so much flavor.
(16:45):
You get that caramelizationwith it as well, which is so
nice.
It takes away any need to addin any type of flavoring or a
sweetener.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Toasted coconut, and that's why those two products we
do love our local distillery.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Of course it's different.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
They are two very different tasting rums.
And yeah, I prefer the toastedbetter.
Do you really?
I do.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Really.
Yeah, that's good, we're havingthe hot take right here.
That's a question I haven'tasked him.
We have some wicked dolphincoconut in there, but we have no
more toasted coconut, so now Iunderstand there's a reason.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I'm also a big fan.
As you can see, we're bothhaving coffee this morning.
I'm a huge fan of the coffeerum.
Now you said you're using realfood, whole food, and so that
means coffee grounds are goinginto rum and steeping.
Is it that simple?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Exactly, it's real Colombian coffee beans.
We send them to anotherindustrial park, they have them
roasted and ground locally andthen they send those over to us.
Once we get those bags, in theentire distillery smells like
coffee, which is awesome.
We have a giant French pressmachine, like the French press
you would have at home, but on ahuge, comically large scale.
(17:59):
We press our silver rum throughthose roasted Colombian coffee
beans, leading to our 70-proofcoffee, which I tell people is
the preferred drink of teacherseverywhere.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Oh, it's a hot take now that we're out for summer
break folks.
That's awesome.
I can tell you that it is thepreferred rum to have in your
coffee all the time.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
There might be some happening right there with what
little we had left over.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Okay, so what was your favorite limited series
that you have done?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Favorite limited series that we had ever done.
My personal favorite was ourGold Rum, which we discontinued
in 2019.
This was our silver rum,originally aged in whiskey
barrels.
In our last few batches it wasmoved from the whiskey barrels
into Ruby Port wine barrels.
It was my favorite thing in theworld.
(18:58):
We don't do that anymore, butright now at the distillery we
have our 1844 edition Port CaskFinish Silver Rum.
This is three Caribbean rumsaged in bourbon barrels for five
to eight years.
It's a Dominican, Panamanianand Nicaraguan rum.
They're aged in those bourbonbarrels for five to eight years,
(19:18):
then moved into Ruby Port winebarrels with ourbon barrels for
five to eight years, then movedinto ruby port wine barrels with
our silver rum for five moreyears.
We did 1500 bottles and soldover 800.
It was going very fast.
We only sell it at ourdistillery right now that sounds
really interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yeah, have you had a chance to taste it?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I have have three bottles already.
It's so good Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
When we travel what 90 minutes?
Then we will have to get someof that if it's left.
You said there are a limitednumber of bottles 700 bottles
left.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
I will say the fan favorite would probably be our
beer barrel series.
Since we're only using realfood ingredients, we can't
release a bunch of differentrums.
This gives us a way to do thatbecause we're always getting
different flavored beers fromdifferent breweries.
They send us those barrels thathave that flavor in them.
We age our spiced rum in thosebarrels and pick up on whatever
(20:13):
flavor was in that barrel.
So we've had a milk stout thattasted like spiked hot chocolate
.
We had a chocolate pepperrelease and my favorite of that
series was probably our s'moresbarrel and that was an imperial
sweet stout from Arcane Aleworksthat was finished with graham
cracker marshmallow and roastedcacao nibs locally sourced from
Florida.
And we also have batch 47coming out June 14th, just in
(20:35):
time for Father's Day.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
That's a week right now.
What is this one that is goingto be on the 14th?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I can't give you too much information about it
because we are going to be doinga post about it and I don't
want to give information awayprematurely.
This is a new beer barrel we'redoing with our spiced rum and
it's going to come out June 14th.
We open at 10 o'clock, so Irecommend getting there at about
(21:02):
nine because we normally have alittle over 100 people at our
door before we're even open.
Once it's gone, it is gone forgood.
They normally sell out within afew hours.
How many?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
bottles.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
How many bottles for this one?
I believe 230, but don't quoteme on that.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Somewhere over 200.
Yeah, and you cannot tell uswhich brewery.
No, yeah, not yet.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
We're going to do a whole post on it.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
Okay, I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
But the Runcation Nation now has the inside scoop.
They need to keep their eyesopen for that.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
You've mentioned your spiced rum on a couple of
occasions and I'm really sad nowthat we didn't get to try the
S'mores Limited series.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Go ahead.
I like spiced rum.
What sets you guys apart fromone of the big bottle
distilleries that makes a verypopular spiced rum?
That some people have had badcollege experiences with spiced
rum that some people have hadbad college experiences with.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
So the thing that really sets us apart is the use
of only real spices.
We're using cinnamon, cardamomand clove.
It really tastes like you'redrinking those spices instead of
having something that's like oh, this is really sweet, and then
, yeah, I guess I get some typeof all-spice flavor.
Sweet, and then yeah, I guess Iget some type of all spice
(22:24):
flavor to it.
It really is just that use ofreal spices.
In fact, we won the CaribbeanJournal's Rummy Award six years
in a row because of oursignature spice blend.
They said that not only are wethe best spice rum in America,
but we might even be better thanany in the Caribbean too.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I'll say your spice blend is really unique so many
times, especially again somefrom those big distilleries that
probably spill more than youguys ship they just taste like
they grabbed some of theMcCormick ground not even spices
, though, just like a little bitof vanilla extract and call it
a day.
And yours, cardamom, is areally strong spice to use and
(23:02):
you use it judiciously.
And then some of the othersthat you were talking about that
blend so nicely reminds me of amulled wine spice.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
That's yeah, that we would make at christmas.
Oh, it's delightful, it's sogood Now that you have a, do you
have a limited edition going onnow, or with that like an
anniversary one?
Did I remember that right frommy visit there?
Speaker 1 (23:31):
We do have a limited spice that is available right
now.
That is our Distillers Reserve.
This comes out once a year.
It's our spiced rum, aged andused whiskey and bourbon barrels
, and the blend of barrels weused for this one was Maker's
Mark, heaven Hill, angel's, envyBullet, jim Beam, jack Daniels,
old Elk and Kentucky Owl.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
People have heard of.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
It's good.
Wow, the way we're blendingthis is also super unique.
We're doing a Solera blendmethod.
We have our bottom row ofbarrels aging our spiced rum for
the longest time.
Once we're ready to release thebatch, we take a percentage out
of those barrels and refillthem with the next row above,
(24:13):
refill those barrels with thetop row and refill that top row
with new rum.
If we keep doing this processproperly, 100 years from now,
when Troy's great-grandkidsfinally take over the distillery
, we're still going to havenuanced traces of the original
first batch of the distiller'sreserve.
And another really cool thingabout this is that, since we're
using real spices, it's soimportant to our product Because
(24:35):
we use those real spices, theydon't evaporate out of the
barrels like you would find withother aged spiced rums.
So the cardamom and clovecontinue to become even more
intense and mature as they agealong with the rum.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
See, I think that's smart.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I should have brought some home to you.
You still have time to get some.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I think that your point about using real food
ingredients really can't bestressed enough.
We've talked about it on theshow numerous times.
A lot of brewers will use inbeer.
Some ingredients are just verydifficult to brew with.
When you're wanting to addflavoring to a beer, they'll
take the shortcut and use anextract which, especially for me
(25:15):
, peanut flavored.
The flavoring is chemically andnot very good.
It comes through in the productit does.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
So I think that stressing that is your unique
point and sets you all apart isjust a hundred percent.
We can hear that through all ofthe history and all of the
specific types of rum thatyou've been talking about that
you produce at Siesta Key.
I might've had a couple ofdifferent ones in a Mai Tai.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
I was going to say she talked about the Mai Tai.
She bought ingredients for theMai Tai.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I did.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
What rums are you including in that and what makes
it so good?
Because I'm a big fan of theMai Tai as part of cocktail
history.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yeah, of the Mai Tai as part of cocktail history.
Yeah, oh, yeah.
So our Mai Tai is made withmajority our spiced rum, and
then we also add in some of ourtoasted coconut rum.
We use pineapple juice, orangejuice, then Orgeat we use the
Lieber Co brand of Orgeatbecause it's the one that we
found that doesn't give you thatchemical taste that you find
(26:19):
with a lot of different almondsyrups and then we just use a
little bit of grenadine forcoloring.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Okay, I might have brought home the Orgeat.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
She did.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It's available there, you can buy it, but I'm sure
you could buy it elsewhere too.
Right, it's all good.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Links in the show notes.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yeah, too Runcation each.
It's all good Links in the shownotes.
Yeah, we have the breakdown ofpretty much all of our recipes,
even the ones in our bar, on ourwebsite, so you can make all of
those drinks at home.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So we are the Runny Drink Podcast, and so we could
not let you get away withouttalking about how your rum might
pair with foods from all yourrecipes online, or from your
rums that you would pair withspecific courses, what would be
(27:12):
the ideal meal experience?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
ideal meal experience what?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
would you pair together with?
Would it be some local foodthat you might pair with, or is
it a type of food that you wouldrecommend with one of your
cocktails that you referred toon your website?
What do you think so?
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Can we include some of our limited products?
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
You got to start off your morning with breakfast,
right?
So I would recommend some nicepancakes and then a bottle of
our maple syrup spiced rum,which is our spiced rum aged in
maple syrup barrels, that werelease in either November or
December.
We have our release coming upthis year.
That'll be batch three, eitherNovember or December.
(28:03):
We have our release coming upthis year.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
That'll be batch three, and I would recommend
having some of that in a glass,as well as pouring a little bit
of it over your pancakes.
I was going to say would youcall that a sipping rum?
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I would definitely call that a sipping rum.
Most of our rums, in fact allof our rums, we advertise as
sipping rums.
Of course, they do go greatbeing mixed in things.
Because of those real foodingredients they're not going to
have that harsh bite when youmix them, so that's what makes
them dangerously fun.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
I don't think a thing you brought back had any harsh
bite or burn, didn't it didn't?
This is dangerous.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You can sip it and you know how with scotch you
need sometimes you need ice toopen up the so that it's a
little water or just a littlewater.
So it's not as peaty maybe, andintolerable depending on which
ones you've got.
You don't need that here.
I really feel like you don'tchill it if you want, but you
don't.
It's fantastic, that's thefirst course.
Oh, so the first course is likebreakfast.
Yes, yep, so I would do likenice lunch oh I forgot what I
(29:08):
was gonna do don't worry, wehave the magic of editing.
Exactly, we do the magic ofthat, so we'll fix it in post I
like to have a little bit ofdessert before I have dinner.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
So, I would do a key lime pie and then I would also
make our key lime pie cocktailthat we have on our website,
which is our toasted coconut rum, some silver rum that had some
key lime juice soaking in it.
You mix that together.
(29:42):
You're going to add a littlemore key lime syrup.
You'll do a graham cracker rimon your glass, do some whipped
cream and add a slice of lime ontop of it, and you can't go
wrong with key lime, especiallyhere in Florida.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Something added in a martini glass for some reason
that just sounds like that wouldbe killer oh my key lime pie
martini yes, would be great.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Wow, okay, so we have a breakfast, we have a dessert
in the middle and then I like tofinish off savory.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
I love savory more than sweet, so I would do a nice
steak and an old old fashionedwith our distiller's reserve
Talk about the flavor notes onthe distiller's reserve for
everyone.
So the flavor notes you'regetting on that distiller's
reserve is a little more intensecardamom and clove but you're
also getting that charred oakyflavor from the inside of the
(30:36):
barrel which just continues tobecome more intense as we age it
further.
This one is aged from four to15 years, so you're really
getting an intense taste of allof those flavors.
And something that's reallynice with our old fashioned
recipe is it involves us takingthe rum and then soaking a whole
(30:57):
orange peel in there for a fewhours beforehand.
So you got to do some prep timeon this Taking a little Amarina
cherry syrup, putting that inthere with it, taking some
Angostura bitters, putting themin there about, I would say,
four to six dashes for one, andthen a few dashes of some orange
(31:19):
bitters, because you reallywant that nice citrusy flavor.
And then I would add thoseAmarina cherries themselves, put
about two in there, or just anice big circle ice.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Oh, I love that.
Oh, like a big cube, yes.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
A big cube of ice, big circle this doesn't get all
melted.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
That sounds fantastic and if you have never tried a
rum old fashioned, it's a reallyunique twist on the cocktail
and I think that rum inparticular sounds like it would
just be a wonderful sipper.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
That'd be fantastic, fantastic.
Now everybody has got to bewanting to go out and find you.
So say again for everybody, nowthat we have talked all about
the highlights of your rum wherecan they find you, learn more
(32:17):
about you, and where can theyfind the product?
Speaker 1 (32:20):
you learn more about you and where can they find the
product?
So you can learn more about usand find where you can purchase
our product by going tosiestakeyrumcom.
We have tabs all over ourwebsite for all of your
different needs, whether it berecipes, where you can find our
rum, a little bit of history,awards we've won and
descriptions of our bottles.
If you want to find out when wehave different limited releases
(32:41):
, you can sign up on our emaillist at the bottom of our
website where it says subscribe,or you can go to our Facebook
or Instagram.
The place where you're going toget the most information is by
going to siestakeyrumcom.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Excellent, and we will link to your website in the
show notes, as well as yoursocial media and some of the
recipes that we've talked abouttoo.
Kevin, we want to thank you fortaking time to join us here on
the Run Eat Drink podcast.
It's been absolutely fantastichaving you here.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
It's been wonderful to be here.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I am so glad that I went up there to do the Turtle
5K.
That was actually on Siesta KeyBeach and it was the 39th
annual.
So I'm telling the runcationnation that the perfect day
would be the perfect runcationfirst you do the 40th annual run
for the turtles on the beachand then you get some great
(33:35):
local seafood and then you dothe tour and have all of the
things that we have been talkingabout on the show today.
I was with some people who werelocal to Siesta Key in Sarasota
and they said that at the Bihaithere's also a hotel.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Golden Host Resort.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yes, so you can have the perfect runcation and I will
come and do it with you.
Dana, are you in?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
sounds good to me yes .
Speaker 2 (34:08):
So everybody, let us know when you're coming and we
will plan the perfect runcations.
It's perfect to celebrate anykind of accomplishment and,
kevin and Kevin, we really hopeto get back up there very soon
for the Turtle 5K or sooner forthe special releases.
We can't wait to accomplish,explore and indulge with you
(34:33):
really soon.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Thank you so much.
I can't wait to see you guysthere.
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