Rum label transparency is of substantial interest to many enthusiasts. No, not whether you can see through the label or not. Rather, transparency in exactly how the rum was made. While the rum world has made great strides towards greater transparency recently, there’s still a great distance for brands to travel. Information disclosure is still... Continue Reading →
Pusser’s Rum Charles Tobias: On the Record (Part One)
For students of spirits history who pour over countless dry pages to glean precious tiny nuggets of information, coming face-to-face with living, breathing history that can be queried is as close to professional nirvana as one gets. Such was the case when my phone rang one morning, displaying a mysterious 284 area code. Not immediately... Continue Reading →
The British Navy’s Rum Vatting System: An inside look
As the 50th anniversary of Black Tot Day approaches, interest in all things British Navy rum is rising. A topic rarely discussed is how and where the navy actually blended their rum. Britain’s navy had a series of victualling (pronounced “vitalling”) yards in various places in the U.K., and elsewhere around the globe where they... Continue Reading →
Splicing the Mainbrace Without Navy Rum?
As we hurtle towards the 50th Anniversary of Black Tot day, a lot of interest is focused on the British Royal Navy’s tradition of issuing a daily rum ration to its members. One of the hallowed auxiliary traditions of the rum ration was the order of “Splice the Mainbrace”, called by an officer on the... Continue Reading →
Untangling All the Modern Navy Rums
Who doesn’t love the story of British Navy Rum? With the 50th anniversary of Black Tot Day coming up on July 31st, 2020, liquor store shelves are awash in "navy rum". As someone who’s spent the last 18th months intensively studying British navy rum, I’m quite excited about all this! But, in a cruel twist... Continue Reading →
Jamaican Rum on Acid: How Vinegar Brings the Funk
The learning never stops. For several years I’ve endeavored to understand the flavor science and history behind Jamaican rum’s unique hogo. As part of that I’ve visited every Jamaican rum distillery, save one, and documented what I learned. One such article I wrote was perhaps the first to clearly define what dunder is, and differentiate... Continue Reading →