Black Tot Rum Last Consignment British Royal Naval Rum. This is the fourth release from Elixir Distillers in their “Black Tot” series that I have reviewed. It was, however the first one they released. Pretty much as long as I started to get quite serious about rum I’ve known about this mythical (and expensive) bottling.

It seems to have been released in batches over the years. I guess to try and drive demand partly keeping it looking more limited than perhaps it was. That said the current £750 price tag will put a lot of people off. It’s simply just too expensive for a lot of people to justify even if they could afford it. I certainly know I have my limit when it comes to what I can justify paying for a bottle of booze and it falls way below £750.

Black Tot Rum Last Consignment British Royal Naval Rum is a blend of various flagons of genuine Navy rum (pre-dating Black Tot Day), which as a result of Black Tot day were never bottled by the Royal British Navy. Sukhinder Singh of The Whisky Exchange and avid collector of fine and rare spirits bought as many of these flagons as he could find. Noticing the differences between each flagon he set about perfecting a blend which best encapsulated British Royal Navy Rum.

As mentioned earlier current retail of this bottle is £750. Strangely The Whisky Exchange have no stock currently but you can pick it up at Master of Malt. As well as the stubby opaque bottle full of rum, complete with a chunky embossed cork stopper you also get a Tot cup, similar to those used in the days of daily rum rations, a wooden display case, a rum ration card and a book about the history of Black Tot, written by rum expert Dave Broom.

The exact make up of this rum is unknown and numerous different types of barrels are noted as being used to house the various rums. Which in turn were contained within the various different flagons. It’s a fair guess to say that a lot of the rums will come from familiar “English Style” rum destinations, such as Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados and Guyana. Whilst the actual age of these rums is clearly pre-1970, the rum has not been aged in wood as the flagons used to store the rums from 1970 onwards are ceramic.

Black Tot Last Consignment British Royal Naval Rum is bottled at 54.3%, which is pretty much “Gunpowder” strength. I’m not going to bore you all with an essay about gunpowder strength or give you a history lesson on Navy Rum. This is a rum review so we’ll crack on with that……

In the glass we have a very dark spirit. I would suggest some caramel colouring was added at some stage. It is a dark brown colour with a reddish/orange hue.

The nose is musty. It smells a little “old”. Black Tot Last Consignment British Royal Naval Rum has a tarry character initially. Some diesel oil and some road tar. A touch of sweetness comes through in the form of raisins, red grapes and a touch of black banana. A touch of black cherry also comes through.

It’s complex and you keep getting different aromas with each nosing. It’s quite smoky and has a very leathery aroma to it as well.

Sipped it is very smoky on the initial sip with a very tarry and musty flavour to it. It’s musty and again feels “old”. It’s not as fruity as I might have hoped for. The influence of the Caroni rum in the blend is quite evident as is the Guyanese elements. However the Guyanese elements are adding a more musty aniseeed note than the usual sweet raisin profile.

Further sips reveal a slight burnt smokiness and some hints of banana, guava and some rusty metal (?

). It’s a hard rum to try and describe. It’s quite bitter in parts and it isn’t the easiest of rums to come to terms with.

However, a few sips in I’m starting to get more fruitiness – raisins, plums and some tannic red grapes. Especially on the mid palate.

The finish is a reasonable length but is quite dry and doesn’t linger for as long as you might expect from such a heavy style of rum.

What you are tasting here is a snapshot in time. Something that cannot really be repeated. Were the Royal British Navy still getting a rum ration, I dare say it perhaps wouldn’t be as good quality as this is.