Last September, when I went to Ridgway, Colorado for the John Wayne Cancer Foundation's "Grit Series" marathon, I stopped at Honeyville in Durango to pick up a bottle of Red Cliffs Rum.
Unfortunately, they no longer brew it. They said that it didn't sell enough to continue.
The last bit of it in the last bottle I had was finished up this morning.
Cheers!
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| Above, Honeyville in Durango, Colorado. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
One of the things I always do whenever I am in Durango, Colorado is to stop at Honeyville at the north end of town to pick up a bottle of Red Cliffs rum. This I did during my trip to Ridgway or, at least, tried to do.
Honeyville discontinued it.
They said that they weren't selling enough to continue it, so they stopped brewing it last year.
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| Above, getting some Red Cliffs rum last year at Honeyville. |
It was a great-tasting rum with some spice to it. It was better, in my opinion, than the rum I bought in Cuba in 2019.
This was definitely disappointing.
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| Above, Jess and some of her purchases at Honeyville. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Before going to the Bar D Ranch for the night's dinner and show, we stopped first at Honeyville to pick up a few things.
Jess got a number of assorted jams and I got myself a bottle of Red Cliff rum. This rum, I've found, is a lot better than the run I picked up in Havana, Cuba, and their rums are supposed to be some of the best.
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| Above, yours truly and my Red Cliff rum. Photo by Jessica. |
We wandered around the store and watched bees in their glassed-in beehive.
For me, Honeyville is a "must-stop" while in Durango.
Today is going to be a relaxing day.
We have no plans except for going to the Bar D Chuckwagon this evening and stopping by Honeyville to pick up some goodies, including some Red Cliff rum.
This morning, I had a visitor. This bird hung around our camp for a while.
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| Above, St. Kathryn Cellars Blueberry Wine. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
While at Honeyville in Durango, Colorado last week, I sampled some wines there and liked the St. Kathryn Cellars Blueberry wine the best. So I bought a bottle.
According to Talon Wine Brands:
ST. KATHRYN CELLARS BLUEBERRY is a deliciously flavorful wine made with real, natural blueberries. It is medium sweet, with a wonderful blueberry aroma and flavor. Serve slightly chilled by itself or with a variety of foods. All of our St. Kathryn Cellars wines make great cocktails too.
It is a good sippin' wine.
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| Above, Alpen Rose RV Park in Durango, Colorado. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Today I made it into Durango, Colorado at 11:00 this morning. It is a three-hour drive from home, but I stopped in Thoreau, New Mexico for some groceries and a snack in Farmington, so it took me four hours. After Farmington, it seemed like I made it across the Colorado stateline in no time.
Before heading to the campground, I stopped at the bank to deposit my state tax refund check. It is always to have a little extra on hand while traveling.
I also stopped at Honeyville to pick up some rum and a couple of jars of bumbleberry jam. I decided to taste their blueberry wine. I liked it and bought a bottle. They recommend serving it chilled.
After my stop at Honeyville, I headed over to the Alpen Rose RV Park. Check-in was easy as the worker only had to pull my reservation envelope from the check-in kiosk and lead me to my campsite.
This is a nice little RV park. It's not as big as Lightner Creek, but once the spring/summer foliage comes in, this campground will look beautiful. Right now, I'd say 1/4 of the sites are occupied.
Tomorrow's agenda is to just wander around the old town section of Durango and check out the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad's museum and roundhouse. No train rides for me on this trip.
So far, the sky is clear and the temperature is around 60°. Not bad.
A few photos:
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| Above, the view looking towards the campground's entrance. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, The Beast at the campsite. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, driving to the campground from Honeyville. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, in old town Durango. The General Palmer Hotel is at right. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, Honeyville's hard liquor tasting bar. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, Honeyville. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, the San Juan Mountains from the ranch/farm area on the outskirts of Durango. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
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| Above, I'll be picking up another bottle of this. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Later today, I'll be heading off to Durango, Colorado to see Godzilla vs. Kong.
As I mentioned previously, the two nearest places to screen the movie is in either Show Low, Arizona and Durango. I decided to go to Durango, even though it is a little bit further away. At least the drive is more direct and is only 3 hours long and the scenery is great. Durango is home of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. We rode it last September.
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| Above, the Animas River from the Durango train. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
While there, I'll also snag another bottle of rum and jams at Honeyville. The bottle of rum I bought last September there is almost out.
I am going to try out another RV park. Lightner Creek Campground, where we stayed last year, is open, but it only has dry camping available.
Over the years, rum from Cuba had a reputation of being among the best in the world.
During a cruise to Havana, Cuba two years ago, I picked up a bottle of Havana Club rum. As far as taste goes, to this non-professional liquor taster, I didn't find it any better than Bacardi rum. It wasn't bad, but I didn't find it extraordinary either.
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| Above, the bottle of Havana Club rum I bought in Cuba. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Last September, during a stop at Honeyville in Durango, Colorado, I found a local-brewed rum in their gift shop, Red Cliffs. It has a bit of spice to it that gives it a good kick in flavor. I still have about a half a bottle of it left. I prefer it to the Havana Club rum.
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| Above, the Durango, Colorado rum. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
In my recent post on Coca-Cola of a couple of days ago, G-FAN's J. D. Lees and I got started a discussion about colas (funny how blog topics come up) and liquor. For some reason, as I mentioned in our comments discussion, Coke mixes with rums and other liquors a lot better than other colas. It has to be the formula (which is a closely-guarded secret). That's how I drink rums.
Funny thing, back during my college days, I used to tend bar at political fundraisers and whenever someone requested a rum & Coke, they tended to be from the Los Angeles/South Bay city of Lomita.
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| Above, Honeyville's sign in front. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
This morning, I was having a discussion about some souvenirs I bought at Honeyville in Durango, Colorado with my "honorary sister". Honeyville is a honey factory north of town and they have a gift store. I took some pictures of them.
I picked up a bottle of their rum and a couple of jars of their jams.
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| Above, a good rum from Honeyville. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
I tried out the rum already with some Coca Cola. It tasted quite good! It was as good, if not better than the rum I bought in Havana last year.
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| Above, the jams I bought at Honeyville in Durango. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Of the two jams I bought, I tried the bumbleberry jam yesterday. It was very good! The only other place I can recall that has bumbleberry jam is the Bumbleberry Inn just outside of Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah. \
If I get a hankering for some more of these, I can always take a three-hour dr\ive to Durango from home (that's handy).
