Bacardi 8 rum was the “sole preserve of the Bacardi family for over one hundred and thirty years” it is a “unique blend of the finest Bacardi Rums matured for no less than eight years”. Whilst the first part of the of the statement may be slightly fanciful the second part indicates to me that ALL the rum in the bottle is at least 8 years old. Still this hasn’t stopped the Bacardi Bashers and the Rum Conspiracy Theorists (there are some absolute crackers to be found online) from suggesting otherwise…….
Tag Archives: Caribbean
Captain Morgan Black Spiced Premium Spirit Drink with Caribbean rum, select spices and natural flavouring – to give it its full name. The spirit drink is aged in Double Charred Blackened Oak Barrels. It is Blackstrap rum (very thick molasses), Rich Clove Spice and Premium Cassia bark.
Unlike the Spiced Gold this is not readily available in the United Kingdom as yet. I find this a little strange as even the presentation suggests this is the Captain’s answer to The Kraken (see my review). It also uses a predominantly black and white colour scheme and the bottle shape is very similar. It omits the two rings on the neck and gains an upper hand by having a synthetic cork enclosure (pictured below). The rum/spirit drink is 40% abv. I have seen this available in the United States at 47% abv. I’m not totally sure why such regional difference apply, whether it is down to taste or politics, I really don’t know. Often rums are stronger in the UK than their US counterparts so its a bit of a conundrum.
I purchased this rum mainly due to the demography. I hadn’t tried a rum from Belize, simple really. One Barrel also boasted of a number of gold medal awards, in major spirit competitions. A Gold Medal in the Dark Rum category at the second International Cane Spirits Competition in 2007. In 2007 and 2008 Gold Medals at the International Rum Festival.
Appleton Estate V/X Jamaica Rum was the entry level rum for the Appleton Estate brand. It has now been re-branded as Signature Blend – the juice I can reliably assure you all is exactly the same as before.
The rum is distilled, blended and bottled in Jamaica by J Wray & Nephew. It is imported into the UK by J Wray and Nephew (UK) Ltd. The Appleton V/X is bottled at 40% abv. The blend of rums are between 5 and 10 years old. The master blender at the Appleton Estate is Joy Spence, who was the first female master blender in the spirits industry. Joy has been at the Appleton Estate for over 30 years now. She became the master blender in 1997. The Appleton Estate has been producing rum since 1749, officially.
For those in the UK please don’t let the title confuse you. This is NOT the “Original” Sailor Jerry rum which was so radically altered back in 2010. This is a recent bottling of the “newer” recipe. For those outside the UK, Sailor Jerry has always been more in keeping with this formula. In the US the rum is bottled at 92 proof (46% ABV). In the UK it is bottled at 80 proof (40% ABV). It is also marketed as a Navy rum in the US. To be honest a lot of the information relating to Sailor Jerry is a bit confusing and contradictory. If you can clarify any of the information please feel free to comment below this review. The title of my review, as always is based on how the rum is described on its/my bottle.
The Kraken is a fairly newish rum to the market. Introduced in 2009 to the UK and at a time when Sailor Jerry had re-branded and changed its formula. The Kraken was introduced to compete with Morgans Spiced and Sailory Jerry. The darker nature of the rum was hoped to give a more authentic style rum experience.
I don’t know what the sales of this rum are like worldwide. However, I’ve seen it stocked in a few high end hotels over here in the UK and a good few wine merchants carry it.
However, it hasn’t quite hit Aldi over here yet and I suspect it never will!
If Patron did indeed “add” the infamous orange flavour to this rum then as a marketing strategy it would seem to have worked wonders! Notwithstanding Bacardi this rum brand has to the be one of the most talked about rum brands in the world (not bad going consider they only do two rums!).