N is for Nicaragua

This month I am participation in a blog challenge. I will write 26 blogs. Each title will begin with each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. My idea is to write about different countries and cities I’ve visited and share a specific memory experienced there.  I am now over halfway finished! Such an optimist! Hope you enjoy!

 

This post shall be my homage to the best rum in the world, Flor De Cana.  It would be an ode to rum if I knew how to write one.  I actually first tasted Flor De Cana while living in Honduras.  At the time I believed it was Honduran. Later I learned that while Honduras has its own rum, they prefer the Nicaraguan rum. Rather a no brainer there, Flor being worlds better than any of the others I came across in all of Central America.

And so it was that when I left Honduras to go traveling south for a few months, I made it a goal to get to the Flor De Cana Distillery.  Having drunk the beautiful dark liquor for the better part of a year, I was anxious to see where and how it was made.  Chichigalpa is not exactly on the beaten path and supposedly you needed to make reservation to take a tour.  I tried and failed to do that.

Instead, I simply showed up, jumping off a bus on its way to Managua, in a very tiny, dusty town.  The distillery was hard to miss, it being the tallest building among one story shacks.  I walked to the distillery and was grateful to see another gringo already there. This was a good sign. An even better sign was when he told me he had, in fact, made a reservation. Good on you kid! Thanks! It was easy enough to join his tour, as he was the only one anyway. (A note to readers- My luck is not usually this good when I travel, sadly, but somehow, when it comes to rum, it is. I think it might have something to do with our mutual respect for one another.)

The tour was in Spanish. Mine was not all that great at the time, though I did my best to follow and understand.  But, really, it didn’t matter much. I saw the rum in the giant vats, I saw the barrels and the processing line, and in the end, I tasted every year up to 50!!!!! I suppose if I am to be honest, that is the reason I came.  It was glorious.

Since returning to the states, I have been singing Flor’s praising and introducing everyone I can to the lovely liquor.  I am surprised, though grateful, to find it in a select few liquor stores and even some bars around town now.  The secret is out folks. If you’re not drinking it, you’re wasting your time.