Dominic Roskrow - Rum - More than 100 of the world’s best rums

Copyright

HarperCollins Publishers

Westerhill Road

Bishopbriggs

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First Edition 2018

© HarperCollins Publishers 2018

Ebook Edition © February 2018 ISBN: 9780008271237

Version: 2018-03-01

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Author: Dominic Roskrow

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Rum set to step into the spotlight

What is rum and how is it made?

Styles of rum

A – Z of rum

Ableforth’s Rumbullion! 15 Years Old

Ableforth’s Rumbullion! Navy-Strength

Admiral Vernon’s Old J Tiki Fire

Alnwick White Knight

Angostura 1787

Angostura Cask Collection No. 1

Antiguo de Solera

Appleton Estate 21 Year Old

Appleton Rare Blend 12 Year Old

Bacardi Carta Blanca

Bacardi Gran Reserva Maestro de Ron

Bacardi Superior Ron Heritage

Basseterre Guadeloupe 1995

Bayou Silver

Bayou Spiced

Blackwell Black Gold

Bombo Caramel & Coconut

Brugal Anejo

Bundaberg Overproof

Bundaberg Rum Solera

Caña Brava Anejo

Captain Bligh XO

Captain Morgan Original

Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold

Clément Rhum Agricole Select Barrel

Clément XO

Cloven Hoof

Cruzan Single Barrel

Dark Matter Spiced

Dead Man’s Fingers Cornish Spiced Rum

Dictador 12 Year Old

Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva

Don Q 151º Rum

Don Q Reserva De La Familia Serrallés

Dunedin Rum

El Dorado 12 Year Old

El Dorado 25 Year Old Grand Special Reserve

Elements 8 Barrel Infused Spiced Rum

Flor de Caña 12 Years

Foursquare Port Cask Finish

Gold of Mauritius

Gosling’s Black Seal 151 Proof

Gosling’s Family Reserve Old Rum

Havana Club 3

Havana Club 15 Year Old Gran Reserva

Havana Club Selección de Maestros

HSE Rhum Élevé Sous Bois

Inner Circle Green Dot

Island Company Rum

Kill Devil Irma, Shipwreck Series

Kill Devil Pecan Rum

Koko Kanu Coconut

Kraken Black Spiced Rum

La Hechicera Fine Aged

Lamb’s Navy Rum

Liverpool Rum

Mezan 2004 Panama

Mocambo 10 Year Old

Morton’s OVD Demerara

Mount Gay Black Barrel

Mount Gay Eclipse

Mutineers Gold XO Special Reserve

Myers’s Rum

New Grove Dark Rum

New Grove Old Tradition Rum

Old Monk XXX Supreme

Old Port East Indian

Ord River Overproof Rum

Phoenix Tears

Phraya Deep Matured

Pirates Grog No. 13

Plantation OFTD

Plantation XO 20th Anniversary

Port Morant Demerara 1975

Pusser’s 15 Year Old

Pusser’s Gunpowder Proof

Pyrat XO Reserve

Rebellion Spiced

Rhum Agricole Vieux Neisson

Rhum Barbancourt 15 Years Old Estate Reserve

Ron Abuelo Centuria

Ron Cartavio XO 18 Years Old

Ron Zacapa Centenario

Royal Oak Trinidad Rum

Rum Sixty Six

Saint James 15 Year Old

Saint James Cuvée 1765

St. Nicholas Abbey 12 Year Old

Santa Teresa 1796

Santiago de Cuba Añejo Rum

Seawolf White Rum

Sparrow’s Premium Aged Rum

Spirits of Old Man Rum Project One

Spytail Black Ginger Rum

St Lucia 1931 Fourth Edition

Stone Pine Dead Man’s Drop

Stroh 80

Sunset Very Strong

Sweetdram Smoked Spiced Rum

Takamaka St André 8 Year Old

The Real McCoy 5 Year Old

The Real McCoy 12 Year Old

Trois Rivières Rhum Blanc

Valdespino Ron Viejo

Watson’s Trawler Rum

Westerhall Estate Rum No. 10

Wood’s 100 Old Navy

Wray & Nephew White Overproof

Zacapa XO

Zuidam Flying Dutchman Rum 1

Index

Picture Credits

About the Author

About the Publisher

Rum set to step into the spotlight

Given the continued success of the cocktail culture, a seemingly limitless demand for craft alcoholic drinks, and the demand from consumers for drinks with heritage and provenance, it’s tempting to say that rum is set to become fashionable again.

But it would be wrong to do so, mainly because while rum may not have spent a great deal of time in the spotlight, it has never left the stage either. Those old enough to remember the 1970s will recall that Bacardi and Coke and Rum and Black were highly popular, even back then. And by the time the mullet, shoulder pads and white trouser brigade were strutting their stuff at Club Tropicana with Wham in the 1980s, rum was the cocktail spirit of choice.

True, vodka was the dominant spirit when bartenders got serious and decided they were now mixologists. And when drinking spirits was reinvented as an art form, it was Scottish single malt and Japanese whisky that benefited.

But rum never really went away. It is the chameleon of the drinks world, changing its skin to survive in different drinking climates. At the populist end of the drinks spectrum it is represented by cheap and cheerful cartoon pirate brands. When we started taking exotic holidays it was all about rum on luxury yachts, next to crystal-blue water and reclining on white sandy beaches. When the Spice Girls were doing their thing, what we really really wanted was spiced rums.

When we started to premiumise our drinks, rum was there, the more traditional expressions riffing on a Royal Navy history that included a rum ration given to every sailor at midday for an amazing 230 years, until the ration was scrapped in 1970. The day it was stopped, 31 July, is marked by Black Tot Day. Rum is the only positive in the description of life in the Royal Navy as ‘rum, sodomy and the lash’, and a century before that the pirate link was established, as monarch-endorsed buccaneers set out to loot the ships of rival nations as they sought to trade in the Americas and across the Caribbean. There is an unsavoury side to the period, too, because much of the attraction of the Caribbean was, indeed, rum (and the sugar it was produced from), and the currency to purchase it was African slaves.

Rum is the drinks industry’s ultimate mistress, seductively whispering in the ear of bartenders everywhere ‘I’ll be whatever you want me to be.’ It is the ultimate multicultural spirit, available in white, brown, golden and dark formats. It is normally sweet with toffee and vanilla notes, but it can be oaky, fruity and spicy. It can be a cheap mixing spirit, or an expensive sipping one. There are standard and premium versions of it. It can be a loveable puppy of a spirit, all youthful exuberance and frolicsome fun, but it can be as venerable an old man as any Scottish single malt. You want the spirits equivalent of a Take That concert? Then a standard rum with coke or in a cocktail will do the trick. But if, metaphorically, a virtuoso performance at the Albert Hall is more your thing, then search out one of the rare and aged rums that are best enjoyed slowly and with respect.