Today I am reviewing an offering from the wonderful Foursquare Distillery, Barbados. The island often cites itself as the birthplace of rum. The oldest “official” (ie legal) rum distillery in the world is the Mount Gay Distillery, so its a fair enough claim to make. They also have plenty of other facts to back up their claims if you look into rums rich history.
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Rum and Britain have a long and tangled past together similar to other plundering European countries such as France, Spain and the Netherlands. Indeed the very origins of the word “rum” has been attributed to each of these nations (and others) at some point.
Like it or not rum was used as a commodity by British Privateers and was used to establish the slave trade in the Caribbean and the US. Empires were built on the trade of goods in the Caribbean and the islands frequently changed ownership between the warring European Empires.
Mauritian Rum is a new one on me. I have in the past tried Pink Pigeon Spiced Rum. Penny Blue hails from the same distillery as Pink Pigeon – The Medine Distillery. However, Penny Blue promises an altogether more sophisticated and grown up experience.
Regulars readers of the blog may be familiar with the press release I placed on the site a couple of weeks back. By way of thanks for promoting this venture (which is done in conjunction with the wonderfull Berry Bros and Rudd) I was sent a sample of the 4th batch of this Single Estate Mauritian Rum.
31st July 2016 will mark the 46th Aniversary of Black Tot Day. 31st July 1970 was the final day a “daily tot” of Navy Rum was given to British Royal Navy Sailors and personnel.
Mezan are a relatively new independent bottler. They are in Marussia Beverages portfolio (which also include’s Doorly’s). I’ve spoken with the firm so hopefully I will be able to ask them more questions etc in the near future. Their website does have a lot of good information though and showcases the brands current line up of rums.
Spiced Rum comes in for a lot of flak. It is widely viewed as a cheap party drink and in the US it is widely seen as a Frat House mixer. Drank with the sole purpose of getting very drunk, very quickly.
Here in the UK many peoples views on Spiced Rum have been clouded by Morgan’s Spiced Gold and Sailor Jerry. In the late 00’s Sailor Jerry and Cola was actually the “in” drink for a short period. For reasons which have never been fully explained the Sailor Jerry boom in the UK was cut short, not by changing trends but by the actual producers of the rum.
Bacardi re-launched this rum only last year in the UK. Until then Bacardi Gold (as it was then) was bottled at 37.5% ABV. This was increased to 40% ABV. Now the whole Bacardi line up has been re-vamped and Bacardi Gold has been re-named in a more contermporary style whilst still keeping some of the distinguishing Bacardi features.