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Festival To Feature World's Best Rums
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The weekend festivities include a formal rum tasting dinner, tasting seminars and a silent auction.
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Published: March 26, 2009
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Rum aficionados will flock to Ybor City during the next few days to sip and judge the finest brands from around the world during the fourth annual International Rum Festival.
At 6:30 this evening, a formal rum tasting dinner takes place at Teatro on Seventh restaurant in Ybor City. Several brands will be sampled, including Tommy Bahama, Barcelo, Diplomatico, Rums of Puerto Rico, Prichards, Mount Gay and Botran.
A rum barbecue will be held at Gaspar's Grotto on Seventh Avenue at 7 p.m. Friday, with barbecue demonstrations and samples of such Latin dishes as albondigas, chorizo skewers and black bean bollitos.
The festival's main event happens Saturday when more than 45 sugar-cane based spirits will be judged in the Rivoli room at The Ritz Ybor from 6:30 to 10 p.m. A panel of judges will evaluate Brazilian cachacas, rhums and rums produced throughout North America, the Caribbean and South America.
During Saturday's event, Rums of Puerto Rico will provide specialty stemware from which guests can sip. Tasting seminars will be transmitted live on the Web sites acorkabove.com, 80proofgeneration.com, beveragemarketingonline.com, ustream.tv and polishedpalate.com.
A silent auction, benefiting the Sky Ranch Foundation, will take bids on rum products and hand-rolled cigars will be sold by Tampa Cigars. The week's events are produced by The Polished Palate of Clearwater.
For ticket information, go online to www.polishedpalate.com.
Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324 and jhouck@tampatrib.com.
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