Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/118688
COVER STORY PHOTO: KIRK WEDDLE Cocktail waitress Ashley Small is about to serve the signature Kryptonite, made with Blue Chair Bay White Rum, at Wild Wild West in Austin. Music Association and Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year's documented island life. Inspired by the phrase he uttered on his boat one sunny Caribbean day, the taste was created to capture the notion, "What if I could just bottle this up?" What's not surprising? Chesney's new brand is a rum, widely recognized as the spirit that puts the fun in cocktails. After all, this is the man who brought us the anthems "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem," "When The Sun Goes Down" and "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven," songs that practically revolutionized the concept of kicking back and enjoying life. His current concert trek is being called the 2013 No Shoes Nation Tour, named for the fans who diligently arrive summer after summer to share the songs, the party and the memories with their friends. Kenny Chesney's work ethic is legendary. He has sold more than 30 million albums, topped the Singles charts 24 times and the all-genre Top 200 Albums chart six times. The singer/songwriter has sold in excess of one million concert tickets each of his last ten tours. But it is his love of the laidback island lifestyle that has tinged his songs, music videos and philosophy for the last several years. Creating Blue Chair Bay Rum was almost literally a natural progression. "Over the years, I've had my share of rum on the road and in the islands and the more different rum I drank, the more I thought about what I wished rum would be like," says Chesney. "That's the trouble with learning: You figure out what you really want, and then I just couldn't find it. No matter where I went, what I tasted, it wasn't quite what I wanted. So the idea has been rambling around my head for a while." The first in the new rum expressions is Blue Chair Bay White Rum, an 80-proof beach-made rum born of golden sugar with subtle hints of island spice, rum cake and oak. Next is Blue Chair Bay Coconut Rum, a bold but smooth 53-proof version of beach-made Blue Chair Bay White enhanced by sun-ripened coconut flavor. Then there's Blue Chair Bay Coconut Spiced Rum—a mellow, Caribbean spice–infused version of Blue Chair Bay Coconut that's also 53 proof. Each transports its drinkers as close to the islands as one can be without getting on a boat or plane. As Chesney says, Blue Chair Bay Rum was "born on the beach." Teamwork "Getting to go down to Barbados with [Blue Chair Bay Rum Master Blender] Mike Booth and spending time at the West Indies Rum Distillery when we were working on what Blue Chair Bay Rum was going to taste like . . . that was one of the most incredible experiences of my life," says Chesney. "A stone's throw from the ocean, a distillery that has been turning out rum for over a hundred years—how cool is that?! It's the essence of what Blue Chair Bay Rum is all about." Booth, a former Master Blender for Canadian Club, has developed many rums around the world. He jumped at the opportunity to work with Chesney and his team to create his new brand. "I'm a fan who listens to his music, and Kenny is very down-to-earth, so it's been really interesting," says Booth. "He was very much involved in telling me what he wanted and choosing the flavors, tasting the rums and sharing what he liked and what he didn't like." Booth's distilling philosophy meshed with Chesney's preferences and working style. "It's like being a chef, knowing ingredients and combining them to make the perfect dish—or in this case the perfect rum," Booth says about the spirit that is universally appealing, not just to country fans. april 2013 / the tasting panel / 61