Matugga Spiced Rum is the latest in a batch of new Spiced Rums which are using English Spirit Distillery’s Old Salt Rum as their pot still rum base.

I recently reviewed Matugga Golden Rum just in time for its release at the London Rumfest in November.  I also published a press release which should explain just about everything you need to know about the brand.

Matugga’s rums are now both stocked at Master of Malt and the Whisky Exchange – two of the UK’s big online retailers.  Both rums currently retail at a very exacting £38.45 for a 70cl bottle with an ABV of 42%.

As Spiced Rums go Matugga are pricing themselves in with other English Spirit variants Old Amazon and Bushtea Spiced Rum.  Also in this price range of spiced rums comes the excellent Bristol Black Spiced, Dark Matter and Master of Malt’s own Rumbullion!

There is little doubt the UK spiced rum market is probably the most hotly contested area of the UK rum market.  Market leaders The Kraken and Captain Morgan continue to dominate but hopefully releases such as this from Matugga might see people move away from those hideous synthetic concoctions.

So what does Matugga Spiced have up its sleeve to trump the other Spiced Rums on the market?

No fewer than 6 authentic botanicals – black tea, ginger, cloves, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon.

If, like Dark Matter they are indeed 100% authentic then this will make for a pretty fiery spiced rum!

In the glass Matugga Spiced looks much the same as the Golden Rum.  The botanical infusions certainly haven’t altered the make up of the rum.  It is still a very vivid shimmering gold.

The nose still has a lot of the “Old Salt” pot still rum in play.  My previous experience of a Spiced Rum using this base was the Old Amazon Tonka Bean Infusion.  I felt at the time that the Tonka Bean worked well alongside the rum to smooth out its rough edges and the added sweetness worked well.

The Matugga Spiced Rum actually gives a fiery kick to the rum base.  The ginger and black tea are very prominent alongside a little hit of Cinnamon.  The vanilla and clove to me don’t make much of an appearance.  It may be that especially the vanilla is just smoothing out the rougher edges of the pot still rum.

It is another very interesting Spiced Rum.  As a mixologist I’m not totally sure what I would do with this as there is a lot going on with it.  Personally I tried mixing it with cola made for a very strange drink.

Over ice I found it much better.  There is so much going on with this Spiced Rum it seems a shame to drown it with something else.  It almost competes with rather than plays alongside a mixer.

The Matugga website has its own ideas for signature serves, so if you do buy a bottle of this you might find more joy with one of their suggestions.

I tried my own take on their Matugga Clandestino ( I didn’t have the Champagne syrup so just used sugar syrup with a little Prosecco) which was pretty tasty.

I preferred their Golden Rum to this but it is daring and interesting so kudos to them for giving it a go.