YSB: Tour & Tasting @ Old New Orleans Rum Distillery

Yo Ho Yo Ho & a Bottle of Rum!
Distilleries — if it creates alcohol I must explore it, doesn’t matter if its beer, vodka, wine, and now rum. I find them just as fascinating as touring a museum, usually with the added bonus of… tastings. You can only imagine my overwhelming excitement when I saw there was a Rum tour on the YSB list of events.
On arrival all sleepy eyed, running on fumes, at the ends of our YSB leg Unilocalers gathered in the tasting/​gift shop room, prior to taking the tour through the ages, I mean rum making process.
As you stepped into the distillery itself you could not but be blanketed by the smell of sweet molasses. The tour guide was great noticing our slow pep in step (or maybe it was just me, who am I kidding I know it wasn’t only me) was highly entertaining and knowledgeable. I felt like with this tour we got free range to explore all aspects of the distillery, or more so go camera crazy. Nothing was off limits per se, one area was littered with different knick knacks that showed the humor of those procuring this liquid deliciousness.
After the tour we all once more gathered back in the tasting room, for none other than, TASTINGS! We were offered a tasting of all their various rums, while not a huge connoisseur of the rum family. I found I enjoyed the Gingeroo very much, crisp with a ginger bite.
This definitely was a great way to wrap up the end of my YSP experience. Thank you Joi B and all the staff at Old New Orleans Rum Distillery for sending me off with a warm NOLA goodbye.

FUN! Y’know I love going to the Rum distillery… it smells like alcoholic candy which is awesome.
Love that we started with alcoholic tea. Then on to the tour. Great information, interested Unilocalers and great camaraderie.
Then on to to the tasting! LOVE the 10 year blue label that is only available at the distillery and so I was able to purchase a bottle of my own. YUM!

I am a rum drinker, so when I saw this tour available I couldn’t RSVP fast enough! Joi was kind enough to arrange for locals to pick us up to go on the tour. Very thoughtful.
They had a rum & iced tea drink ready for us when we arrived. When that ran out, they made more (YAY!)!
The tour itself was cool. They showed us the line, about 9 feet up the wall, where the distillery had flooded after hurricane Katrina. After the tour we were able to taste all of the varieties of rum that they make. I think the spiced rum was my favorite.
Shout outs to Jen and Josh for the rides! Thank you to Joi and Old New Orleans Distillery for having us!

⁵⁄₅ GINGEROOOO
this is a great tour to take if you can wander away from your usual spots. the guide was really knowledgeable and blended a good bit of standard industry and local information specifically about old nola rum. i think the Unilocal folks were able to learn alot and had a good time.

The tour guide was super fun and nice. He really gave the history of the distillery and how Hurricane Katrina affected the distillery. They were able to get up and running pretty fast after the water levels went down and in terms of product loss wasn’t that bad. Good for them. I am fan of their Gingeroo. This place is actually known for their Spiced Rum. The distillery area itself is pretty small. I guess I’m just used to the big beer breweries here in San Diego?
The lobby area is really cozy. There is the local artwork for your viewing so you have something to talk about with other Unilocalers other than the rum. Joi B., NOLA CM was awesome in terms of arranging the carpool to this event. I got to ride in her VW Bug! Getting to this location though seemed confusing. I considered the location on a beaten path/​street in an industrial area. You’re just parking on the side with no curb really. No biggie.

More like 3.5 stars. Not much of a rum drinker but it was nice to chill with old faces (Tom E. showing up was a surprise) and meeting new ones. It was neat to tour the distillery and hear about the history of the place. The place has nice home feel too, no fanfare with giant machinery for mass production. The only thing not done directly by hand is the labeling. Definitely thumbs up for local small business. The tour guy had interesting stories about the founder but seem to drag in some parts. It was pretty neat to see all the bottle and label design changes through the years and there have been plenty. The most interesting one was the bottle shape like a trumpet. After wards was the rum tastings. The guide told us to start with the light rums and work our way up to the gingeroo. The person in front of me took the sip of the first one and it didn’t go well since she’s not a straight shot type of person like myself. Yep, skip all that and I went straight for the gingeroo. Gingeroo is mixed rum which reminds me of Red Rock ginger ale. Loved it. Even better they offer delivery so I ordered two bottles to be delivered. Delivery is additional and they send orders out on Thursdays. There are some states that they don’t deliver to so check to be sure. Thanks CM New Orleans Joi for organizing this wonderful event.

The Old New Orleans Rum Distillery tour was a good experience. Upon arrival, we walked into a place that smelled of molasses. Our tour guide was actually kind of funny as he gave us the history of the Distillery. The place is kind of small which gives you that New Orleans home like feel. Some parts of the tour seemed to drag on a bit, but other than that it was a nice experience. The Rum tasting at the end was an added bonus which most of us enjoyed.

On little to no sleep, I left MEM early Sat morning so I could make it to the distillery tour. I am a huge fan of the process of how alcoholic beverages are made– and I had never been to a rum distillery before (at least that I can remember). This would be an appropriate time to find out.
After getting off the exit and getting a quick bite to eat, I was looking for a bank. That was a tough task indeed. So I went to look for this place, and when I got there, I thought «this must be a joke». It is literally at the end of a street that is cut in half by a railroad. One way in, no way out? Let the adventure begin…
Since I actually made decent time, I drove around some more looking for a bank. I had to go to an ATM outside of a gas station, that was fun. So I made it back, and I got to see some familiar faces. Very comforting.
I brought my «yelp» camera (which I have yet to upload the pics, sorry) and started snapping away like the tourist I was intended to be. I then saw Bill, Angela, Jelena, Tanya, Brian, and Jennifer. It was a great feeling!
It was time to go inside, and we mingled in the gift store area– which had plenty of stuff for sale. They had a container of some rum infused shtuff to try to get us liquored up before the tour. How appropriate! After a few drinks and some catching up with friends, it was time for the tour!
I think our tour guide was Jason, if not– my bad. He started off with a 10 minute intro about the place, how it was founded, and what it went through. I would like to make note that this is the oldest continuing distillery in the US (excluding Puerto Rico), even though it was started in 1995. Also, it survived the great hurricane, with 8 foot floods. He said that they were able to salvage 85% of the product.
When walking around and seeing everything, I liked how homey it was. This isn’t your mass produced rum. These are locals that take pride in their craft, and do it with the tools they have. Hell, one of their first stills, the founder bought it on ebay– hell yea.
At the end of the tour, we got to try all of the rums they have to offer. They were pretty good, but I cannot remember which tasted like what, as I threw them all back in one smooth motion.
Then it was time to fill up on souvenirs. I got a bottle of one of the rums for my roomie (which is already gone– oops), and a case of this spicy ginger ale they make (which I still need to send out to everyone!). I got a discount on the case, which was very cool.
Everyone that worked here was very friendly, it was an absolute wonderful feeling to be greeted into NOLA with this kind of event. I also got to meet the mastermind of the YSB, Joi! Thanks so much! It was great!

YO HO HO HO, AND A BOTTLE OF RUM!, Argh-​Ahoy!
SITREP
I got to do a pleasant re-​do of my first night here in NOLA by partaking of the Old New Orleans Rum, AGAIN! The first night we enjoyed this experience with our rum-​infused beverages at our Indulge Island Grill event.
But today, it was a visit like the Spaniard Ponce de Leon’s first visit to the «Fountain of Youth», for that is where we ended up: THE SOURCE OF THE RUM — at Old New Orleans Rum Distillery itself!
THE SETUP
It’s a BIT of a hike to get out there… IF you are really hiking. About a few miles out from the French Quarter past I-​10 or so. But well worth getting there.
It’s in a hood surrounded by some dilapidated buildings that really took a pounding from Hurricane Katrina, and it shows. [Even during the tour, our docent was made a point of showing the watermark where the flooding had completely immersed everything in the building up to eight feet, highlighted by the watermarks indicating such.]
THE RUMS
We got to sample all their rums, which were delicious with their own character, from the silver to the Cajun Spiced, to the super smooth aged blue label, all before the tour even started — they included the following:
* The Silver, the youngest & cleanest with no Oak Barrel aging — and interestingly enough, my favorite — and the one I purchased at $ 18 for the bottle.
* The 3 Year, which is a delicious blend and very very smooth, with a deeper taste.
* The 10 Year, which had a delicious oaky and smokey taste to it and probably still worth it at $ 55, but a bit beyond what I was willing to spend for a bottle of rum.
But the question remains, «What goes into Rum-​making?»
THE TOUR
The tour was fantastic and allowed us to get some answers about the art of rum-​making. From the fermentation process with the hops, the cleaning process and getting rid of acetone, the very colorful bottles that package the rum for sale, and the interesting history of the successes AND the failures since they were all out for us to see.
It was a grand time and I got quite a few pictures to show along with the very interesting dialogue about this exciting history of rummery.
THE LOWDOWN
A great place to visit and provide the interested party a delightful rum tour showing the process from beginning to end.