What’s better than rum? Not much, you might say… well, how about a rum flavoured beer?!
Last night, me and Tom took a trip down the rabbit hole to the secret launch party of Cubanisto – a brand-spanking new beverage which blends beer with the taste of rum, adding citrus, orange zest and lime with an aroma of cane sugar and treacle (which we would discover to be pretty darn delicious). I’d received an email a couple of weeks ago inviting me to a night of ‘mystery, surprise and intrigue’ which would apparently ‘reward the curious and favour those looking to discover the unknown’.
House of Mask is a series of immersive events happening at small venues and clubs across the country throughout the summer, and promises an immersive experience for beer fans to ‘Discover the Spirit Within’. The first date was in London back in April, Bristol last night, and now they’re travelling to Manchester in June, and then on to Glasgow in July. You can find out more here.
I was definitely curious to find out what the Bristol House of Mask involved, but I certainly did not anticipate what followed. It was all very secretive and exciting; we were told to head to a postcode, and to look for the neon skull. We followed the clues (hi, Google) and it lead us to Paintworks.
[SPOILERS!]
(if you’re planning to go to one of these events, I should probably mention that there are a lot of spoilers ahead. I don’t want to ruin the experience for you, so look away now!)
A short stroll towards the back of Paintworks and we soon heard the dull thud of bass, and spotted a neon skull on an otherwise pretty ordinary looking building. We arrived pretty much bang on time, and because we weren’t ‘fashionably late’ I was concerned that it may not have got into the full swing of things yet. Certainly, there weren’t many people outside, except the lovely lady who gave us our wristbands and directed us through the smoky entrance.
Once inside, we were greeted (I say greeted in the loosest possible sense) by a chap dressed entirely in white, who spouted in a monotonous tone “Good evening, Sir or Madam. Confess to enter.”
What?
I was unbelievably confused. I had never been to a club or venue where the first thing that they ask for is a confession, not an ID or entry fee. The shock of it made my mind go completely blank, and I was unable to think of anything interesting to write down. Tom had his in the bag straight away – he is a secret 1D fan. After a few moments of ‘umm’-ing and ‘ahh’-ing I came up with this pathetic offering – I secretly despise Alesha Dixon.
With our confession cheques written out, we headed into a small waiting room, the walls lined with creepy looking masks.
Wait a minute, a waiting room?!
Myself and Tom waited along with three others, and soon realised that to progress to the next stage of the experience we were to wait until we heard the doorbell, when we would be invited to enter into the next room one at a time. It was pretty scary, all I could hear from the next room was the sound of two women exclaiming “HELLO SIR OR MADAM. MAY WE HAVE YOUR CONFESSION?” in perfect, eerie unison. It was a little unsettling – I began to picture creepy sets of twins, and wondered if I should actually walk alone into a dark room to confess my hatred of a D-list celebrity, or perhaps I should just turn around and run. Before I could make my mind up, it was my turn.
As you can see, they weren’t overly impressed with my confession. They filed it away, handed me a funny shaped piece of card and told me to proceed through the cupboard to my left. This was getting weirder.
It wasn’t over yet; through the cupboard I met another straight faced man, who handed me my own mask and told me to ‘be whoever I wanted to be’. I gladly accepted his offering, and the opportunity to hide behind my mask from any more encounters with strange people. He then prompted me round the corner, where I found a beautiful neon sign – ‘Discover the Spirit Within’ – and a tiny tiny door, much like the one Gene Wilder makes everyone squeeze through in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. By this point I had a huge grin on my face – this was so much fun!
Tom had caught up with me, fresh from his encounter with the weird twins, and we headed through the tiny door into the main event. On arrival, we were finally handed what we had come here for, our first taste of this magical elixir which had warranted all of this madness. On first taste, Cubanisto is much like Corona or Desperados, but then you notice something a bit different about it – there’s a mild sweetness, and most definitely a hint of something citrussy. Orange makes a nice addition as well as lime, as it has a bit more of a deeper flavour, differentiating the taste of Cubanisto from other citrus flavoured lagers. The rum flavour was certainly in there too, on first taste I was instantly aware of how strong it is (around 5.9%) – I would like to think that this beer is a transitional beverage, for when you’ve moved on from pints and want something more portable and flavoursome.
The event space was far bigger than I had anticipated, with the place filled with smoke and neon signs, and decorated with amazing artwork along the walls detailing past ‘House of Mask’-ers most secret confessions. There was even a projector playing out some of the best ones – ‘I am Banksy’, ‘I lied to get in here’, and my personal favourite, which I think we can all relate to, ‘I ate 2 bags of crisps today’. On one side of the room was the bar, and right next to it a bench and table filled with pens and sticky dots, for customising the bright white masks. The whole place had an amazing feel to it; House of Mask is apparently ‘inspired by the vibrant and colourful nightlife of El Vedado, a district of Havana’, and the mixture of the neon, the sugar skulls and the awesome illustrations was really special.
Despite navigating the tricky entry procedure and making our way safely inside, our adventure was not over yet. The funny pieces of card we had received from the weird twins were puzzle pieces, and we needed to find one more person who had the last piece, so that we could get a key to unlock a wooden chest. And inside chests, be treasure!
We spent a good half hour chatting to people and trying to locate the last piece, but soon found out that pretty much everyone had the same two as we did. Cue hovering by the entrance, and accosting a total stranger for the last piece, which I am completely guilty of doing. I know this goes against the whole fun element of getting to know people, but I was pretty desperate to find out what was in those chests!
At last I got my grubby mitts on a rather awesome looking key, to which I then practially ran over to the wooden boxes in the far corner. I pressed my key up to the electronic pad thingy (fancy) and claimed my prize – FREE FOOD! It’s as if they read my greedy mind. The food was being provided by the ever-excellent Hickory Pig, who also run a pop-up kitchen in the equally excellent Arbor pub, The Three Tuns.
A few beers later, and the UV lights came out, bathing everything in an incredible neon glow. My mask looked pretty spectacular too! At 11pm we were ushered to the main stage for another mystery, which turned out to be a very talented beatboxer guy, followed by more music and some very, very questionable dancing. By this point we were pretty famished, and so turned our coupons in for a ‘medianoche’, which turned out to be a little brioche type roll stuffed with pulled pork, smoked ham, emmental, mustard and pickles, squished and toasted. Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious. Makes me hungry for some more Hickory Pig!
The night wrapped up at 1am, and after another beer we decided to call it a night. I certainly won’t be forgetting my night at the House of Mask in a hurry! All that remains is to thank Cubanisto for the invitation and all of the delicious beer, amazing food and fantastic entertainment. If you live up North and fancy a night out with a difference, then you can’t get much different than a trip to a neon-lit Cuban sugar skull paradise. Don’t forget to sign up for your tickets!
