Distilling Class @ Spirited Union Rum Co. (Amsterdam)

Dear Tristan and Claude. First of all thank you for the experience. We had a blast.

However, please make sure to have more labels in stock for the Maracuja & Pineapple flavour. It's a shame we weren't able to put a corresponding label on our own bottle wit regards to the chosen recipe.

That's it for now. We had a lot of fun as I said earlier. But please make sure to have all sticker labels in stock next time ;-)

I've recently attended a distilling workshop with a group of friends. I had done the same workshop a year ago and have had a very pleasant experience, and I've been really disappointed by the difference this time around.

They had booked too many people. There is a limited number of spaces/alambics to create your own rum recipe; which is the point of the workshop. They booked 3 more people that they were spots: this means that you can't create your very own recipe but have to follow one someone else made - that's the same than buying a bottle to me, and for 70€. "We have a big group today" is not a good excuse, do not book more people than you have spots, hence the booking system ??

Last time we attended, it was amazing: we were a small group of 10-15 people, were given a masterclass about the distilling process, explained a wheel of flavours in a booklet to ensure we made delicious combinations and the possibility to write down the recipe we created thanks to the 50+ flavours available. This time they gave us a 5 min talk, an already printed recipe to make, and the choice to substitute amongst 15 or so ingredients without much explanation of what would work. We could also only pick dark rum, instead of choosing between white and dark. The fact that the electricity went completely out for a while was not part of the main problem - here again, maybe don't book 27 people if you can only handle 15...
Up to the end, where last time we all came up with a name for our rum and one person won a small prize for the best, and personalised labels were printed with the names and ingredients for you to have a truly customised bottle, this time they gave us an already existing label, which of course had nothing to do with the actual bottle content that we had changed.

Finally, for 70€ we went for the formula with unlimited cocktails. Last time they had 2 members of staff: one directing the workshop, and one making cocktails the entire time. This was a real barista with tailored recipes for you and fresh ingredients, serving high quality unique cocktails, absolutely delicious. This time, they mixed a rum and a soft in a container for all to serve ourselves.

So overall if you've never been there before, you will enjoy the experience - you do leave a bit drunk with a bottle of rum after some laughs with your friends - but to someone who has seen their workshops before, this had cost saving all over it. I understand the company needs to prioritise profits now.

This was a really nice evening, others on the same tour were great and the hosts done an amazing job at keeping us all entertained.

It’s a little out of the city about 35 minutes walk from the train station but worth it!