CHAMPIONSHIP NIGHT IN MIAMI

There are a few moments when a city feels like it snaps back into focus, when the calendar, the crowd, and the energy all line up around the same thing.

Miami does not get many nights like that around college football, which is exactly why this one mattered.

For the first time in years, Miami was back in the College Football Playoff National Championship, and this time it was happening at home, in its own stadium, on the biggest stage the sport has to offer. What could have been just another busy weekend in a busy city turned into something else entirely. The kind of weekend where plans get made days in advance, where jerseys start showing up early, and where you can feel the tension building before the first kickoff.

The game itself lived up to it. It stayed close from start to finish, the kind of game where every drive feels heavier than it should, and on the other side of the field was Indiana’s quarterback, a Miami native, coming home to play the biggest game of his life. It was the sort of storyline that writes itself, but more importantly, it gave the night a sense of narrative that people could actually feel in the room.

By the time kickoff arrived, the city was already buzzing, and Tomorrowland Miami turned out to be exactly the right place to watch it unfold. It is the kind of venue that understands pacing and atmosphere, where the sightlines are good, the sound is right, and the crowd is there for the same reason. The place filled early and stayed full, and every swing in momentum seemed to move through the room all at once, the way it only does when people are actually watching the same thing together instead of half-paying attention.

This is the kind of night bars are built for.

It also happened to be a very good night to be drinking rum.

The two drinks that carried the night were the Passionfruit mojito and the Cuba libre, both built around SOIRÉ Blanco. Clean, bright, easy to drink, and exactly right for a game that refused to let anyone relax. You could tell what was working simply by watching what people ordered again, which is always the most honest signal in any bar.

SOIRÉ was there in the way a rum brand should be in moments like this, not to announce itself or interrupt the night, but to be part of it. Bottles opening, glasses moving, conversations happening around the same table where the game was being argued and celebrated at the same time. This is how habits are formed, not in isolation, but in rooms where people already care about what is happening.

By the end of the game, it was still close, the room was still full, and nobody was in a hurry to leave. Miami had shown up for itself, the moment had landed, and it felt like one of those nights people would remember without needing to be told why.

Those are the nights that quietly build brands.

And those are the nights where a spirit earns its place.