Hillery & Son Premium Rum Punch
Hillery & Son is an authentic Premium Jamaican Rum Punch. Created from the closely guarded Bryan family recipe. At least that is what the marketing says anyway!
Upto now the site has focused on rums and spiced rums. We have featured the occasional liqueur but never any pre-mixed drinks or any of the “rum beers” which have sprung up over the past couple of years.
In order to keep the site “on trend” we will in future cover rum based curiosities such as those mentioned in the previous category.
Hillery & Son Rum Punch recipe is dating back over 100 years. A blend of exotic fruit, infused with the finest premium Jamaican white rum. Although it isn’t detailed on their website Hillery & Son currently use J Wray and Nephew White Overproof in their punches. Which is a big tick in the box from me.
Marlon Bryan founded the company in 2012. After three years of growth and development of the brand, Hillery & Son is now becoming more availabled across the UK in pubs, bars, carnivals, festivals and events such as The Rum Kitchen, Notting Hill Carnival and Beach East in the Olympic Park and Nottingham. Hillery & Son is also currently stocked in over 20 retailers across London. Including Drink Supermarket where I picked up my bottles.
Hillery & Son’s rum punches are available in three flavours Fruit Punch, Grape and Strawberry. They retail at around £3.50 per 250ml bottle. They are also available in 750ml bottles as well. I haven’t seen this for sale so I am not sure how much they are.
It would be easy to dismiss them as another faddy “alcopop”. Until you realise the ABV on the bottle. At 11.6% ABV these punches are more in keeping with a white wine than an alcopop.
The punches contain imported syrup’s from Jamaica and fresh exotic fruit juices. With Wray and Nephew as the rum base I’m expecting quite a substantial rummy kick. Perhaps a bit of twist on the famous “Ting Wray”.
I’m not Jamaican but Worthy Park’s distillery manager Gordon Clarke has tasted these punches and was very much in favour of them!
Original Fruit Punch
The bottles pictured to the right are the old design. The first photo in this article shows the new bottles.
I spoke with the makers of Hillery & Son prior to tasting their punches. On their website they have a number of suggested cocktails and ways of mixing their punch.
I was advised as primarily a rum lover just to chill the punches in the fridge and then enjoy from a chilled glass. No ice and no mixer.
With exotic fruit juices I’m getting a lot of Mango, Peaches and Passion Fruit on the nose and syrup the punch is very sweet smelling. It reminds me a little of cartons of sweetened tropical fruit juice. To be fair that does it a little dis-service it smells a lot more inviting and much less synthetic than most of those.
What strikes me the most though is the wonderful funky Jamaican pot still overproof rum which is rising above all the sweet fruity flavours. You can smell the full 11.6% ABV.
Drinking this punch is very easy – too easy really. You get great full flavoured Jamaican Overproof rum and sweet juicy tropical fruits. It is sweet but has a nice balance and doesn’t become cloying.
Strawberry Rum Punch
Next up is the Strawberry flavoured punch. Which being honest is my least favourite of the three. Like the Original Rum Punch the Overproof rum does still come through and you get a nice satisfying rummy kick.
The Strawberry flavour is nice and authentic tasting and it’s quite enjoying. However, for my taste buds and preference its just a bit too sweet. It reminds me of Strawberry flavoured ice pops its just a shade too sweet for me to enjoy as much as the others.
I did end up mixing this one and I made a Basil Punch (mine didn’t look quite as good as the photo so I didn’t use my photo!
It was easy to make Lime Juice and touch of Basil. The Lime Juice cut rhough the Strawberry nicely giving the drink a slightly bittersweet taste which I much preferred.
Grape Rum Punch
Finally we come to the Dark Grape Rum Punch. Again like the other two punches the flavours are bold, sweet but not cloyingly so.
The nose reminds me in a big way of dark grape flavoured boiled sweets which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of!
Once again the Wray and Nephew is not overawed and is perhaps most noticeable in this variant. Drinking this I add a few ice cubes (against the advice given) and it remind me very much of Grape Flavoured Slush – which was always my favourite as a kid.
Add in some Overproof rum and I’m very much enjoying this “adult slush”. Very tasty.
Despite picking these up I was quite sceptical about them. They are certainly much better than the likes of the rum flavoured “beers” such as Fosters’ Rocks (it really doesn’t) and Cubanista.
These are sweet tasting cocktails in a bottle but they elevate themselves from mere alcopops or novelties as they have that huge authentic high ABV rum kick.
As I haven’t reviewed (or really sampled much Authentic Jamaican Rum Punch) I was toying with the idea of not giving these a score. However, I’ve been really pleasantly surprised by these and have thoroughly enjoyed them. They are a great summer drink – believe me if I had noticed them earlier in the year I would have picked them up! Apologies for the timing of the review if you are in the UK.
Certainly something worth looking out for next summer. Ideal for barbecues and sunny days outdoors. The two we might get anyway……
Jammin’
Diplomatico Ambassador was launched in London, England in 2011. It is currently the most expensive of the various rums available under the Diplomatico brand.
Moving onto the nose it is as I was expecting. Very rich, reminiscent in some ways of Ron Zacapa, rather then DRE. It has that same sugary syrup note with a hint of something vegetal beneath it. It is very rich and the Sherry finish is very evident.
You don’t feel like you are drinking something which is almost 50% ABV. In many ways I don’t really feel I’m drinking rum. Which is where the Ambassador really runs into trouble with me. It’s too much like liqueur – a nice warming after dinner treat but NOT rum.
Lemon Hart is a rum brand which as intrigued me for some time. Talked about regularly on websites devoted to rum, yet strangely absent from the country where it is blended and bottled. I’ve never come across a bottle of Lemon Hart rum in any store in the UK – ever. Only very recently I notice that The Whisky Exchange have recently begun stocking their Dark rum and the 151 proof. These rum’s seem very popular over the pond.
This adds a little distinction to the contents of the bottle. The rum is bottled and blended in Great Britain and the rum is a product of Trinidad and Guyana. There is nothing which indicates any prolonged ageing of the rum. I assume that the rum is a young, unaged mixing rum.
Sapucaia Real Extra Old Versao Limitada. Sapucaia are a Cachaca brand founded way back in 1933. Hailing from Pindamonhangaba in the state of Sao Paulo. It was originally created by well known (at the time) entrepreneur Cicero da Silva Prado. It is still owned by the family.
The back label has a little information on the bottling in Portuguese and a link to the website etc.
The finish reveals a little bit of tartness and a fairly short fade out of the oak and spice. I was hoping for more from the finish. It is a touch on the short side.
Pusser’s “Nelson’s Blood” Aged 15 Years is their marquee expression. I think, (and I will get this all confirmed) that the rum is a different blend to the Blue Label. It is not just a more aged version of it. However, I also understand that despite this it is still a blend of Trini rum with a hefty dose of the famous Port Mourant wooden still distillate.
into the rum.
I would love to give a few tasting notes on the Pusser’s 15 but I’m finding that with each visit I’m finding something more. There are few rums which can exhibit so many different facets of the various rum styles but Pusser’s 15 is one of them. The only common trait in rum which I cannot really detect with this rum is oakiness. It has the sweetness of an El Dorado Demerara and the tread carefully” menace of a Caroni, it has deep fruity “funk” of a Jamaican. Okay I’ll give it shot…..
Rhum Neisson Blanc 55%. Neisson are a Rhum Agricole producer from Martinique. Neisson produce their rhums from sugar cane harvested at their distillery and are a cane to bottle operatiion. They are not a brand that buy in rhum for blending and ageing.
d stands out. Some of their more recent creations have a more modern “trendy” style of presentation but for their more traditional core rhums they have this older style.
Another Habitation Velier Hampden release. This time out its a three way collaboration which has brought this particular rum into existence. HLCF/LROK is a blend of two Hampden expressions which have both been issued individually HLCF (Hampden Light Continental Flavoured) and LROK (Light Rum Owen Kelly).
