When I first attended in 2008, I was a wide-eyed rum enthusiast with no idea what to expect. I had never attended Tales before – in fact, other than Ed Hamilton via his Ministry of Rum, I didn’t know a single person that was attending. Five days and several hundred rummy beverages later, I had a bevvy of new friends to drink with all over the world.

This has been my third straight year attending Tales of the Cocktail. Every year presents me with new experiences, new faces and a lot of new information (and some cocktails, I’m pretty sure there were cocktails too).

Matt Robold is an Orange County, California-based blogger with a passion for rum, an interest he indulges on his blog Rum Dood. 10:27am – Finally got my wireless working so I won’t be using my blazing fast cellphone for this.  I don’t think there were this many island shirts and straw hats at Jeff Berry’s [...]

This is the debut post from Matt Robold. Matt is an Orange County, California-based blogger with a passion for rum, an interest he indulges on his blog Rum Dood. Tales of the Cocktail is rapidly approaching us, and it can’t come soon enough. This year will mark my first venture out to the show, and [...]