Mainbrace Premium Spliced Rum. Look again – read the title again. Don’t make my mistake. All is not as is first seems. Especially when you started drinking at 7am……

I was first introduced to Mainbrace at the Boutique Rum Fest, London in October last year. I say introduced what I mean is that I first completely ignored Mainbrace Rum at Boutique Rum Fest. Why? It’s Spiced Rum innit?

No Wes, as Peter Thornton kindly pointed out on the Saturday of Rum Fest proper (where they were also exhibiting), it’s a SpLiced rum. As in splice the mainbrace.

Ahhhhhh it all makes sense now……….kind of.

Anyway I tried it as the stand wasn’t as busy as some of the others and I quite enjoyed it. It was different. So I got myself a bottle and tried it again when I got home. Eventually I got around to writing a review and here it is!

Mainbrace Premium Spliced Rum is a blend of rums from Guyana and Martinique. It is as far as I am aware the first “brand” of rum to splice agricole rhum and molasses based rum together. Yes I have seen blends from other bottlers include agricole rhum – I’m sure one of Compagnie des Indes blends has molasses and agricole in it’s make up? The thing is no brand has ever come out with this as their raison d’etre.

So I am hopefully correct in saying that this is unique. Failing that it’s a pretty interesting experiment nonetheless. Mainbrace Premium Spliced Rum is a blend of unaged rhum from Martinique producer La Favorite and a unique blend of Guyanese rum from 3 of Demerara Distillers Limited famed stills. These rums are aged between 2-5 years. So essentially we have a kind of Navy rum mixed with a White Unaged Agricole.

Mainbrace Premium Spliced Rum retails at around £35 in the UK you can currently find it on DrinkFinder for £36.99. It is bottled at a respectable if not earth shattering 40% ABV. Presentation wise as you can see the rum is bottled in a very naval style bottle. Bottom heavy with a long neck so it would be difficult to “knock over” on high seas. I like the bottle and will be making good use of it once the contents have been drank.

So lets move on and see exactly how a Agricole/Molasses hybrid works.

In the glass Mainbrace Premium Spliced Rum is a rich golden brown. The nose is full of toffee, caramel, milk chocolate and a hint of raisin and dates. I’m not getting much of the agricole side of things on the nose.

Further nosing reveals a good weight of oak spices and some aniseed. There is a fair amount of spicy ginger and a hint of white pepper.

The nose is nice and reminds me more of independently bottled continental aged Demerara rum than Navy style rum such as Woods. The agricole rhum in the blend seems largely redundant at this point.

Sipping on Mainbrace Premium Spliced Rum is a very clean experience. I get the feeling the “cleaner” notes coming from the white unaged agricole are working against the slightly “oilier” flavour profile of the Guyana blend. I’m getting a fair amount of Port Morant like aniseed notes and some Enmore/Versailles “tarry” notes. It maintains a nice degree of sweetness with the caramel notes and the white agricole gives it a slightly fresh mouthfeel. A tiny touch of mint perhaps.

This is a very easy drinking rum but not one which is lacking in complexity. The initial entry is quite easy going with a nice balance of sweet sugar cane, toffee, caramel and some nice aged oak spices. Vanilla and a touch of green olive arrive on the mid palate.

There is a lot going on. The finish is quite peppery and has a slight chilli note to it. It is certainly the spiciest part of the drink. It is a good length and it’s quite rewarding.

This is a kind of soft entry into Independently bottled Demerara rum. Whether that is down to the Agricole influence I am not sure. It does have a certain lightness though which makes this pretty accessible.

This is not a bad drop of rum at all for the price – it also makes a good addition in cocktails requiring both Demerara and Agricole. Rather than compete with each other the two styles of rum work very well together. I’d be interested to know the ratio of Guyana to Martinique.

This is a rum which could perhaps be dismissed as a bit gimicky. At the price I feel it’s definitely worth a punt. I do worry though about how adventerous consumers might be. On the face of it seems a bit strange but it tastes really good!

Worth it if you are feeling lucky…….