The British have a long standing love affair with dark rum. Most navy rum is British Navy Rum. Dark, sweet Demerara based rum’s are fairly commonplace in the UK Supermarkets. Brands such as Lamb’s and Captain Morgan lead the way in terms of sales. Rum which has been distilled and aged in the Caribbean but transported to the UK for blending (and occasionally further ageing). Lamb’s and Captain Morgan use a blend of different rum’s from different islands. Jamaican rum is used in Captain Morgan to lead the way in terms of flavour (it fails miserably).
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There’s probably not a lot to be said about Bacardi that hasn’t been said before. Probably, on this blog and one of my other Bacardi reviews amongst other places. It was on completing a review of Lemon Hart White Rum that I realised I hadn’t actually reviewed Bacardi Superior. I’d had the pictures taken and reviewed a few other of Bacardi products but somehow I’d totally forgotten to review their flagship offering.
Glen Catrine Distillers are probably not very well known outside of the UK. The distillery is based in Catrine, Ayrshire, Scotland. Glen’s are best known for there entry level vodka which competes somewhere in the void between supermarket vodka and Smirnoff, Russian Standard, Absolut etc. The vodka is quite often bootlegged and a number of television programmes have warned consumers to be on the lookout for counterfeit Glen’s. I have to say I hope the same problem hasn’t afflicted their Dark Rum as I bought this in a back street supermarket in Cyprus!
Flor de Cana (Sugar Cane Flower) are a well known and well respected rum producer from Nicaragua, Central America. This rum is slow aged for 12 years and bottled by Campana Licorera de Nicaragua. UK distribution of the rum is handled by Amathus Drinks PLC www.amathusdrinks.co.uk. Whom procure a number of more exotic spirit offerings.The Centenario 12 is bottled at 40% ABV and I obtained a 70cl bottle which cost a little over £40 in the UK.
Havana Club 7 Anos is the first in the Havana Club series in terms of price which is intended as a sipping rum. The other Anejo’s and White Rum’s in the range are aimed entirely at mixing. There is little to say about Havana Club that hasn’t been said before. I think the rum is still largely unavailable in the US of A and I’m pretty sure Bacardi have even taken advantage of this to issue their own “Havana Club” brand of rum.
English Harbour is a rum which I had been looking at for some time. For whatever reasons I had resisted the temptation to buy a bottle online. I was presently surprised to find Newcastle (Upon Tyne) department store Fenwick’s had it in stock. There is something satisfying about actually being able to have the experience of being able to buy a half decent bottle of rum over the counter. Whilst the rum was slightly more expensive than online (£27.50) this was tempered by the ability to have the rum instantly (even though its taken nearly 3 weeks to try it!) and the fact no P&P charges.
A Premium Sipping Rum isn’t really a big deal anymore. You could probably spend most of your life trying every premium sipper and never get close to trying them all. However, what hasn’t really been done before is a white sipping rum. Whilst the casual rum drinker may consider Bacardi Superior to be a premium white rum, in terms of sipping it doesn’t even come close to the kind of smoothness and complexity that befits a true sipping rum.