New magazine Hot Rum Cow is a beautiful panegyric to booze

The British predilection for binge drinking has long been obsessed over by the national media with thunderingly judgmental editorials over our unhealthy relationship with the demon drink accompanied by lurid pictures of youngsters passed out amid the chip wrappers of a major British city (which we’re led to believe could be anywhere in the country, but for some reason is almost always Cardiff).

Out of this darkness though has emerged in recent years a much more considered attitude to booze which has gone hand-in-hand with a rise of microbreweries and a real interest in an alcoholic landscape beyond fizzy warm lager and impossibly coloured alcopops. It is precisely this more discerned drinker being targeted by Hot Rum Cow a new quarterly magazine named after a rum-and-milk cocktail which combines erudite writing and beautiful design, “a modern magazine steeped in our historic love affair with booze.”

The team behind it were inspired by a social and cultural fascination with drink and drinkers which they say is "a tale of people and ideas; it’s intriguing and amusing; it’s the story of our world, through a glass darkly.

Although the inaugural issue is a gin special the contents is eclectic as they leave no stone unturned in a quirky quest to bring their subject to life. “We roam the filthy streets of 18th century London investigating ‘the gin
craze’; we drink arrack; we explore the vineyards of Lebanon, brew hooch and discover why, in the name of art, a pair of angry young brewers stuffed bottles of their extraordinarily strong beer inside preserved stoats.”

We’re always thrilled to welcome any new printed venture and when it’s a cause so close to our hearts then that excitement is ramped up to 11. We can’t wait to see how it develops.