Pusser’s relaunched their rums in 2014 to stop all the confusion about the various Blue Labelled rums floating around different parts of the world at varying strengths.
One of the rums that caused the least confusion was this one. Not because the bottle does not immediately make you think it is one of their lower proof rums but because it was and is only available in one country. For some reason our German cousins were not satisfied with a meagre 54.5% ABV rum and demanded more so this 75% ABV expression was launched for the German market only. Thanks to the guys at Beers of Europe I was able to obtain a bottle for £49.99. Which sounds quite expensive but once I’ve explained exactly how this 75% ABV rum SHOULD be drank you will see I wasn’t stung too badly.
Dark Matter: Inspired by Science, Driven by Curiosty. Is the tagline for this newly released Spiced Rum which hails from the less than Caribbean like island of Great Britain. More precisely from Aberdeen, Scotland.
Brugal have made a concerted effort to break into the UK market over the past couple of years. The rum has been re-branded and has even found itself in one or two of the nations supermarkets. The rum is imported into the UK by The Erdington Group based in Glasgow, Scotland.
Haiti occupies the smaller Western part of the Island of Hispaniola (the island is shared with the Dominican Republic. Despite this Haiti is the most populated full-member state in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It is famous for exports of cotton clothing, coffee, mangoes and to a lesser degree r(h)um.
Mount Gay Black Barrel was new to the UK Market in 2014. More Traditional Mount Gay drinkers bemoaned the addition of this new rum. Not only did it come complete with the newer “Mount Gay 1703 Barbados Rum” presentation but it also replaced the Eclipse Black which was bottled at 50% ABV.
Plantation’s line of rums are multi award winning and feature regularly at events around the world. They are a very active, if relatively new player (if we trace rum back to 1703 certainly) in the rum world.