Bru at Key West Legal Rum Distillery

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Across 5 iconic Keys' locations, travel with Bru through incredible parks and excursions to give you a sample of what the Florida Keys and Key West is all about before you book your own trip.

Transcript

00:00What's up? It's Brew. Today we are with the man, the myth, the legend, Paul Menta. If you didn't

00:04know, Menta stands for mint. We are at Key West Legal Rum Distillery. Paul, it's so nice to be

00:10here. Thank you so much. We just wrapped up the mojito class. It was awesome, right? How did we

00:13do? You, I tell you what, you did really good. I had my doubts in the beginning. Well, you poured

00:18the rum for me, so I couldn't mess that part up. Yeah, you got a good pour. Absolutely. It's so

00:23fun to see how this all comes together. Tell us about the distillery, how it came to be,

00:27and your story with, you know, how it's unique to the Keys. I mean, you know, it's, I've lived

00:31in Key West for a very long time. I had restaurants down here, so I was a chef. I did everything

00:37from fine dining to $5. I've done it all and got, and just went, what do I want to do now?

00:43What's the next thing? I wanted to find something that nobody else had ever done. Nobody had ever

00:48distilled in the Keys. We're rum runners. We are not, we're not moonshiners or that we used to get

00:54the rum. It all came from Cuba because that's where the sugar was. They started having sugar

00:58here in 1960. We started, and I said, well, hey, this is a drinking town with a tourist problem.

01:04Like, let's make rum. So I went through the process that I thought was going to be easy.

01:09I was stone broke at a point where I was like doing very well for myself all in. And what you see is

01:1712 and a half years later of using the techniques of a chef or a cook to make rum and to make

01:24something that you can enjoy. You don't feel like the next day you don't want to say Key West

01:29legal rum because you'll, you won't get a hangover from my rum. We go slow, but there's a reason

01:35because we want you to have a quality product that doesn't have any preservatives and all that junk

01:40and everything. And you're in Key West. You're supposed to have a good time. You're not here for one day.

01:45I hope you're here for seven days. And we want the whole seven days to be amazing because

01:49this island has given me so much that as much as you're enjoying it, guess what? So am I 39 years

01:58later. Oh my gosh. It's been so cool to learn the process too. Like every step is so careful,

02:03like you said, and the salt curing process within the barrels. Tell me about that. Cause I feel like

02:07that's unique, obviously. Yeah. I'm that guy that everybody watches pull the barrel down to the end

02:12of the street. It's nice to have a distillery with an ocean, like a thousand feet away.

02:15It's kind of the, uh, the employee pool, if you want to call it that. But we go down there,

02:19I fill the barrels with salt water, bring them back here. And then I let them swell when they're

02:24done. I dump them out and I wait to see that salty brine. So there's a sign out in the distillery

02:29that we use for our marketing at the beginning. And it said, cause I was called this in a convention

02:34and it said, idiot or genius. What idiot put a chef in charge of a distillery? That was actually

02:41said to me at a convention when I said, I wanted to salt cure barrels. Well, 12 years later,

02:46copyright it and having a unique flavor of only Key West because, uh, somebody just earlier asked me,

02:52they said, well, what's the best rum and everything. And I don't believe there's a best rum. When you go

02:57local anywhere, if you have a locally made product, that's going to be the best ingredients. And you're

03:04going to have the best flavor. So Key West rum in Iowa, I make it there is not going to be the

03:09same, right? It could be its own unique thing, but it's not going to be the same. But since you're

03:13in Key West, Oh, you got to have rum. It's obviously working. Whoever said idiot or genius,

03:17who's laughing now? Oh man. That's why I gave you a big pour. Yeah. I was like, I'm just hyping this

03:22guy up. Um, all right. So we got to do the mojito making class, which is so cool. I mean,

03:27she's listen, I, I, everybody tries to give me the credit. She's the super star on that one. She's

03:33unbelievable. So when people come and visit though, tell us about what it's like and what

03:37their experience is going to be when they come and see you. Well, I mean, when they come here,

03:40so we're, I think one of the few things you can find that's free. So free tours, free samples,

03:48free samples of pina colada. You walk in the door and our staff hand you a little, it's colada. So

03:54have you had any Cuban coffee yet? No, not here. Okay. So you got it. You get that colada and then you

04:01pour in those little shot cups. It's called a Bucci. Well, here we make a pina pineapple colada

04:06in the little shot cups that everybody gets for free to try because this is a community here and

04:12we like to share our community with people. So that's the thing when you're here, everybody's

04:16welcome. And we walk around, you'll just have a great time, like get lost on this Island and

04:21somebody will point you the right way. And here's a local step. If you hit water, just turn around

04:24and go to your life. Gosh, I love that. You're just full. I love one-liners. They're incredible.

04:28My last question is like, what makes, you know, Key West Legal Rum Distillery so like

04:32unique to the Keys and what people should be looking forward to when they come down and

04:35get you to soak up all the culture that you guys have? I mean, the history, because I'm

04:39passionate about history. Everything I do here, I use my cooking background. So it's very,

04:46very different. Let's say I've made some mistakes and we let people try stuff out front. If they

04:52tell me it's no good, I don't have an ego. So we don't make it. But the stuff we do have

04:56has been vetted by at least 500 to a thousand people. And when you come in here, man, it's

05:01just about, you're on vacation. So I want you to have that drink, sit there with your umbrella and

05:06go, Hey man, this tastes like vacation. So good. That's our goal. That's it. And your buddy Gordon,

05:11he's on one of these barrels somewhere here. Did you make him one of these? What was his words

05:14when he, when he sipped it? Um, am I allowed to curse? Yeah. It was like, are you kidding me?

05:20No. I love that. I said the same thing. Paul, it's been so nice to get to know you. Thank

05:24you so much for having us. This is delicious. Best moment you know, I've ever had in my life.

05:28I mean, that's the compliment that we always like to have. Absolutely. So it's, well,

05:31I hope mine's special to you, but thank you so much. Appreciate you. Yeah, man.

05:36Congrats on all the success. It's been really fun to learn.

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