“Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum”
I made some driving rules for myself. Hmmmm. Don’t drive at night through the Aussie’s “road kill” laden highway and don’t drive drunk. I am driving on the left side of the road in the right side of the car (I was still washing my windows to signal).
Having said that, I stumbled on to the last tour of the Bundaberg Rum Factory on a Saturday afternoon. Just perhaps, I had no time to find myself a wholesome meal. NOPE, it was a lunch and breakfast of Dark and Stormy (rum and ginger beer) and of course the always on tap Bundy Rum and Cola. I sure did like the Bundy Hospitality room.
I found it strange that the Polar Bear is the mascot of the rum and proudly displayed on every label. I thought polar bears were more of a cold weather Canadian thing. It was explained to me that the polar bear represents cool and refreshing. Fair enough, I will allow them to continue to use my Canadian animal. I just better not see a beaver on a cigarette pack. (Oh ya, their cigarette packs come in 50s not 25s like in Canada). The Aussies sure must smoke a lot.
The tour of the factory was fascinating, we got to try samples throughout the process. From raw sugar cane to molasses to rum. Interesting to note is that before we proceeded into the large aging vats; they made us do breathing exercises. A good thing we did as the rum vapors were quite strong. No cameras allowed in either because the flash might ignite a spark. Then we would have been burnt toast. Upon my departure to Canada, I had an armful of Bundy Special Edition dark. It is the smoothest rum I have ever had. Just nice on ice straight.
