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Top CBD Spirits Spiced Rum. Top Beverages Limited are a new company set up by entrepeneurs Nick Pullen and Saf Ali. They have released no fewer than nine products, as part of their brand’s Top Beverages launch.

This Spiced Rum is one of three rum expressions they have released. Now, I will be perfectly honest at this stage that I was extremely sceptical about CBD infused or Hemp rum. The other rums in the series are a White Rum and a Mocha Flavoured Rum.

Dead Man’s Fingers released a hemp/CBD based rum around six to nine months ago. My cynicism was not tempered by their marketing campaign. I think they may have been fined for it, as it had a heavy “taking drugs and getting stoned” message. Really grown up.

For anyone unfamiliar with what CBD is, let me explain. CBD (cannabidiol) is an oil that is naturally sourced from hemp plants and is widely used for pain relief by sufferers of many conditions, including arthritis and MS. It is also said to be beneficial in the treatment of many other illnesses and conditions, including Alzheimer’s and anxiety.

What it doesn’t do despite the name, is get you stoned! At least not when it is regulated and produced, in the manner of the CBD used in this particular product. Which was explained to me by Nick Pullen

“Our 5% water soluble CBD solution contains 5 mg of CBD and 95 mg of Vegetable Glycerin, SOYA LECITHIN, Medium Chain Triglycerides, Linolenic Acid, Linoleic Acid, Oleic Acid, Alpha-Pinene, Beta-Pinene, Limonene, Terpinolene, and Citric Acid. The unique combination of CBD, carrier oils, terpenes and phytocannabinoids give our spirits a cloudy appearance, which indicates that CBD is present in each and every spirit we hand bottle.

Our CBD is sourced from certified hemp farms in Europe and is grown to organic standards and does not use any pesticides. Our CBD meets all relevant EU requirements, including the requirement that it has less than .2% THC. In fact, independent laboratory tests conducted on behalf of Top Beverages cannot detect any THC levels within our CBD.

Top Beverages has worked with legal counsel and food safety professionals to develop and implement strict testing protocols to guarantee CBD quality, content, integrity and consistency as well as to meet E.U. standards relating to CBD and THC content.”

So that is the CBD part taken care of. What about the rum that is used in this product? Imported from the Caribbean?

Actually no, this was one of the first things that surprised me about Top CBD Spirits Spiced Rum. The rum is distilled here in the UK in Arbroath. Again Nick was on hand to tell me all about the production

“650 litres of molasses and water is fermented for 3 weeks to create around 10% alcohol wash. This is distilled in a 500L and 200L hybrid still, using 3 copper plates to produce around 150L of rum spirit at 50% ABV. The rum spirit is then distilled one more time using the 200L hybrid still with 1 copper plate, specific cuts are made to produce around 65 litres of white rum at 78% ABV, this is left for 3-5 days to mellow and relax. It is then reduced to 60% ABV when the spices are added for 24 hours before being filtered to remove the solids from the spices. The resulting spiced rum is reduced to just above bottling strength.”

So they are producing their own unaged rum as the base for this Spiced Rum. So what kind of spices are we talking about. Well aside from the 50mg of premium full spectrum CBD they are also using cassia bark, orange peel, ginger and Indian Vanilla pods. No syrups, essences or any synthetic flavourings and no added sugar.

Top CBD Beverages Spiced Rum is currently available via their website. It retails at £39.95 for a 500ml bottle. However, you are getting a bit more bang for you buck with this Spiced Rum as it is bottled at a whacking 54.5% ABV.

So we’ve got an unaged Scottish rum, infused with CBD and made with only natural spices, with no added sugar bottled at 54.5% ABV. Captain Morgan’s Spiced this is certainly not……….

In the glass we are presented with a slightly hazy (due to the CBD) yellow/straw coloured spirit. It certainly does not give the appearance of any added colourings.

Nose wise you get a lot of orange zest and ginger on the initial nosing. Followed by some sweeter more floral notes from the vanilla and some hot spicy almost Eastern notes of the cassia bark.

Everything which the producers state has been added to the mix is there. Thankfully and to be honest I really didn’t know quite what to expect flavourwise – I am not getting any Cannabis or Tobacco like notes from the CBD. I did have concerns it might taste a bit like that horrible Tobacco rum, you often find on the Spanish holiday islands.

All in all it’s a very pleasant and very authentic smelling nose. It’s bright and fresh and nicely balanced. It does however have a lot more body than say something like Sailor Jerry or Old J. The extra ABV is noticeable on the nose. This might not appeal to the more died in the wool vanilla extract flavour Spirit Drink (I won’t say rum as a lot of it isn’t high enough ABV) drinker. But it’s more than okay with me and I really like the menace of the 54.5% ABV spirit which lurks underneath the spices.

Sipped it is, especially for this time of year very warming. Unsurprisingly! It’s actually very pleasant with some really nice spice notes and a lovely burn of ginger and orange zest. It has a good balance provided by the relative sweetness of the vanilla pods but we are talking here really more of an infused tasting rum than a flavoured/Spiced rum. It has an almost “home made” kind of quality to it.

It’s great to have in a glass that you can just a very small nip of every now and then. As it is a Spiced Rum then I gave it a good slug of cola and also tried it with some lemonade. It made very punchy, very “grown up” tasting drinks.

This is a Spiced Rum which might prove to be a bit marmite-esque. It’s similar to the likes of Spice Hunter from BB&R and to a lesser extent it’s Scottish cousin Dark Matter (this doesn’t have the added sugar).

I like it, though I will understand why others might not be so keen. I wouldn’t play up any potential health benefits of drinking this, despite the CBD. Top CBD Spirits Spiced Rum is a far better product than I was expecting.