Preacher: Consistently Inconsistent

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Capn Jimbo
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Preacher: Consistently Inconsistent

Post by Capn Jimbo »

And there he - our Holy Inconsisteminence - goes again...

Some of you may be wondering just why do I call the Preacher "consistently inconsistent"?

A fair question which I will answer, but I must say I have become quite bored with the whole matter so please don't expect too much more (unless of course the Preacher goes off on yet another rhum spitting tirade). I have no interest in providing cheap entertainment for websurfing flockers.

This orginated, for me at least, out of the Preacher's rather intense rejection of the notion of Barbancourt as a cane juice, agricultural rum (or "agricole" in the original French and later, his own AOC-representing terms). He was quick to call Barbancourt - an old and revered company - a liar when their label clearly states "made from fresh cane juice", and where their own website details what has been called one of the "world's greatest spirits"as produced in the French manner.

And did so in a flippant, condescending and yes, inconsistent manner.

At one time or another he claimed that Barbancourt was made from "fresh cane juice" (his book), "cane syrup" (his website description of the distiller) or "sugar cane juice, syrup and/or molasses depending on availability" (a fairly recent thread). He claimed that someone - apparently from the distillery - was his source of information. When I pointed out these discrepancies, he thanked me. When I later critiqued this use of hearsay to smear the distiller, I was attacked and finally liberated" by our fuming Prophet.

The Preacher claimed this was all an "oversight", and that the latter version ("made from sugar cane juice, syrup and/or molasses depending on availability") was actually the correct one, adding that he'd been so informed by a mystery informant prior to the publication of his now dated book. Now never you mind that the timing - a very old bit of hearsay - predated his already quite dated book, which means that at best...

The information was ancient.

Let's get this straight. Smearing a company is no small matter and represents a pretty important and ballsy claim. Even so there were three separate versions. And that the "final" version was revealed only when challenged. And that final version was not only hearsay, but ancient at that (prior to 1997). So an unnamed someone once said something more than eleven years ago and he still relies on this old and rusting hearsay to damn a company??

Yup. Now that's balls! But not the kind of cajones I admire.

A bit more searching at "The Ministry" provides yet another contradiction. The good preacher shouts the praises of his Martinique based, AOC-approved St. James as an honored producer of "rhum agricole". Even though in his distiller's section he admits that St James does not have the capacity to ferment all of their "fresh cane juice" on the spot - and concentrates some juice into a semi-syrup for storage and later dilution/fermentation! Yet rejects Barbancourt as a producer of "rhum agricole" for the same alleged violation...

Hypocritical and inconsistent. How bout one more?

On yet another thread about a rum called Scarlet Ibis, a poster reported purchasing this rum based on its label claim that it was made using a pot still: "On the label on the back it says blend of three to five year aged Trinidad rums produced in copper pot stills and aged in white oak." Our Final Authority preacher raced to his lecturn...
Preacher Ed:

"I don't want to disappoint anyone, but it appears that the people who designed the label got a little ahead of themselves in calling Scarlet Ibis copper pot still rum. It has a medium to heavy body but it wasn't distilled in copper pot stills as there hasn't been one of those stills operating in Trinidad for some time, it was however aged in white oak."

He added:

"As I've written many times, don't get hung up on the age of your rum. Likewise, don't get hung up on the type of still. When I first saw the label I questioned the pot still claim because I knew that Angostura, the last surviving distillery in Trinidad didn't have a pot still. Caroni, the last distillery to close hadn't used a pot still in years, so it was a pretty safe bet that this wasn't pot still rum."
Really? No pot stills in Trinidad? And spoken with such clarity and smug authority! Except it just ain't so. From the Preacher's own Trinidad distiller's section:
(In a long and authoritative description of the distillation of 10 Cane, Moet and Hennessy, Trinidad)

"Once fermentation is complete the wash is pumped into the 10,000 liter copper pot still where the alcohol content is concentrated to about 30% during the 12 hour distillation. Two smaller pot stills are used to effect the final distillation to about 75% abv."
Still questioning the pot still claim of Scarlet Ibis? I'm not. Another hipshooting oversight leading to the smearing of yet another distiller? You decide.

Bottom Line:

Our Preacher is indeed consistently inconsistent. And you don't have to go far to locate the egg to apply to his face - simply search his own website where his own words are your best available resource for contradiction. Is he a bad guy? I don't think so. What we have here is a sailor who has done a bit too much "research" into his product of choice, and who seems to have a habit of painting himself into the "expert's corner". Short term memory is the first to go.

One of the problems with such a course of events is that we begin to believe our own bullshit. I do, we all do. But the difference is you and I don't hold forth as the "Final Authority". Indeed, I make it clear that I am a Compleat Idiot - a claim easily verified and that challenges no one, lol. Further, we don't have to protect our position; instead we tend to welcome the truth from others. We don't have to ban, er "liberate" any posters who dare disagree with us. And last...

We don't have to pretend we are unbiased because we don't represent "Carribean Spirits" - one of the Preacher's commercial interests and importer of La Favorite and Neisson AOC cane juice rums...
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