In southeast Asia rum seems to dominate the landscape like banana palms or tuk-tuk taxis. In Thailand, the rum is almost always SangSom. If a pirate has a leather-bound flask attached to his hip, this is likely the rum that’s in it. Not the fancy stuff, just a deep golden, powerful sugar cane liquor that tastes like a warm tropical breeze and makes your belly feel like it has been blessed by Buddha. I was introduced to SangSom by unnervingly friendly locals when I asked what was available to drink.
“Water,” I was told, “or Happy Water. Both good, but one makes you happier.” Since Buddhists aren’t supposed to drink alcohol, this surprised me. But enjoying this rum in admirably small amounts seems to be a national pastime. As a friend here told me, “Follow all the Buddha’s directives and you are enlightened. Follow most of them and you are human.”
I have seen people mix it with root beer, soda water, sprite, tonic, just about anything you can imagine, but usually fruit juice. My personal favorite concoction with SangSom is to pour lime juice over ice, then the rum, then top it off with coconut water, preferably fresh from the coconut, but work with whatever you’ve got. As anyone who reads these knows, I’m not a fan of sweet drinks, so working with rum’s natural sweetness requires either no mixer at all or something very very simple, preferably acidic to fight off the scurvy from months at sea.
It says right on the bottle that it’s “Special Rum” and I’d have to agree. Honestly, if you can manage to have the locals call you “Happy Water” then you must be special, right? I haven’t left Thailand yet as I write this and so far it has a perfect record. Every time there is a bottle of this on the table, those sitting at that table part ways as new found friends. Much like Italian wines, which have a truly magical ability to bring people together around a table, this rum carries some kind of ancient Siamese sorcery in it and seems to make people light up with smiles all night long until they drift off to dreamland. The headaches the next morning, however, I think it’s not fair to blame on the rum. After all, it did its job perfectly. In the hot Thai nights it must be chased with plenty of water or you’ll feel the dark side of that same magic.