The end of another year. Let's call it a rum year, as that's the theme of this website. I'm sure none of you are here to read about my personal life in 2023, so I'll stick to rum.
2023 has been super interesting, which resulted in 21 articles, 24 reviewed bottles, 1 daiquiri challenge and numerous updates to the sugar list, which now has 375 entries. I did some rum related traveling as well. St Lucia, Martinique and South Africa have all been amazing. I wrote about St Lucia already, but will still work on articles about a couple of Martinique producers and South Africa's Mhoba, in 2024. I keep on putting these off, as it is so much work to write such articles, but I've put myself on the spot now......so 2024 it is.
When you write stuff that has an opinion in it, you'll receive comments from people on them of course. Most are very positive. Private messages with questions about producers, certain rum types, how to taste, where to find etc. I love helping people with their rum questions. I also receive criticism, which also makes sense. I don't mind it. In some cases it helps me to balance my views and see things from a different perspective. In other cases some get triggered by my negative view on the marketing of their favourite rum, like in this article about Papa's Pilar Ernest. It's all good. The award for most arrogant comment of the year goes to fellow blogger The Lone Caner, who was laughing at my Plantation article on Reddit and made the following comment, among others:"I thought the article was reasonable well done within the obvious limitations of your biases". I thought that was very opinionated for someone who tends to stay away from expressing an opinion. That's good progress!
Talking about that article, it's turned out to be the most read one of the year. Followed closely by something I wrote about my dismissal from the Ministry of rum and its culture change. I guess people prefer to read these article types more than rum reviews. I'll continue writing both in 2024.
Here's a list of the most read articles of 2023:
I'm always humbled by the amount of views and comments that I receive in regards to my little website. Readers from all over the world! Never expected that. Thank you for following my rum journey! I'd quickly lose my writing motivation if it wasn't for all that.
Happy 2024! I'm looking forward to all the photos of people and their rum choices for NYE. I might spam socials with that a bit as well. Stay safe!
