When you think Martini, you think class, sophistication and high society garnished with a couple of olives.

Can you win our wine World Cup Quiz?

CLICK HERE TO DO THE QUIZ

About 2 hours from Joburg, on a farm along the R70 between Henneman and Riebeeckstad in the Free State, I joined the guys at Whistler Rum Distillery for their end-of-the-month jol. With a local singer strumming away, a Free State Sand Storm cocktail in hand and a big red sun setting in front of us, I took a sip and realised I didn’t know much about rum at all.

A week later I went to the Pan-African Rum Festival and tasted as many South African rums and cocktails as possible. Now I’m plotting my own cocktail mixes! But before I get ahead of myself, let’s go back to the basics of rum 101.

You know what goes well with that delicious peanut sauce, yes lentils! Red lentils cook up super quick.

This Bacon Wrapped Avocados appetizer recipe is sure to win over everyone you know. Crispy brown sugar bacon wrapped around a creamy avocado, and it’s easy!

“Here we have a Canadian walking into an English bar to talk about American gin…”

A good interior design can do as much for a bar as good drinks can.

Poached pears sound so boring, right? In this recipe, the rum and the spices add warmth and great flavour to the light syrup, which is not overly sweet.

ON FEBRUARY 14, 1929, AROUND 10:30 a.m., Clark Street in Chicago was rattled by gunfire. The city’s most powerful gang leader, Al “Scarface” Capone, had finally sent some hit men after a rival gang. When the shots subsided, seven people were dead. It was, the Chicago Tribune later put it, “the most infamous of all gangland slayings in America.”

Storing wine on its side won’t prevent corks drying out, and may even accelerate their degeneration, according to Amorim’s director of R&D, Dr. Miguel Cabral.