Barrio Central, Poland Street, London

Well let it not be said that I am not spoilt with these fabulous events I get to go along to! 

Rum and chocolate are up there in terms of favourite things I like to put in my mouth and so I was very excited to be invited along to this event, which has been put together by Barrio, El Dorado Rum and Rococo Chocolate.    

 In the funky refurbished basement of Barrio Central in Soho (where I have spent more than a handful of brilliant evenings in my time), I arrived to be handed an rum old fashioned, made by the talented Barrio mixologists.     Tonight we were lucky enough to be sampling El Dorado’s world-renowned 12yr, 15yr & 21yr rums, presented by Dean Macgregor, alongside speciality chocolates from Rococo’s Sam Smallman.  

First up we were on the 12 yr rum ( voted best  rum in the world 2016) with mellow notes of brown sugar and stone fruits this was a perfect easy start to the evening. This was paired with a heavenly 40% sea salt milk chocolate and the a 60% dark chocolate orange, which was so good it will make you think twice when reaching for the Terry’s.

Next up the renowned 15 yr rum which has won best rum in the world 7 times! You can see why and is described as a rum lovers rum. Aged for longer it is slightly more smoky and is bit more whisky-like because of this. Red cherry, prune, and liquorice come through this rum and when paired with the roccoco 63% dark chocolate it became very smooth and almost took away the alcohol hit.

The final rum was the 21 yr and I have to admit this was a bit too punchy for me. Very smoky and complex and I would imagine would go very nicely in a cocktail (don’t shoot me, rum purists) like an old fashioned. The first chocolate that came along with this was voted the best flavoured chocolate in the world this year and it was dark chocolate flavoured with green cardamom. The second and last chocolate was an absolute corker and this was a dual layer ganache with a layer of jelly and fresh raspberries mixed with ganache. 

 Dean and Sam were a delight to listen to and they both ooze such passion about their respective loves.