Rum Blender - bespoke rum

The idea of blending rum conjurs images of dark, humid warehouses, barrels racked up as the angel's share escapes over the years while flavours mature and secrets passed down from blender to blender over the years. Much as I like that idea I live in Edinburgh so without a lottery win I'll not be in one of those warehouses any time soon.

Typical tourist, full of booze

Taking a deceptively simple concept and making it easy for your average drinker to make their own unique rum from the comfort of their couch (or on their smartphone while having a wee skive from work - sorry boss) rumblender  are a fascinating new entry into the rum world.

A company run by two of my fellow countrymen who already have a  whisky blending website and who have now expanded into the world of rum.

As this is a bit different to a standard rum write up I'll separate this into two sections: blending & buying the rum and the actual booze itself.

Blending & buying the rum - how hard can it be?

The website endeared itself to me immediately by just asking if I was old enough to be looking at it, rather than asking for my date of birth, which country I'm from and what I had for lunch. We're all adults and it's good to be treated as one.

Once you're in you're presented with a virtual empty bottle exactly like the one you'll receive and a choice of 7 different distillates you blend to fill it, 10ml at a time. Each has simple tasting notes ranging from the white rum named Buttered Strumpet to the smokier, heavier Smoke and a Pancake, the age and provenance of the distillates themselves are kept secret, understandably though there are apparently 218,618,933 different possible combinations!

Now, given this is the Internet you're obviously not able to taste it beforehand so there are six pre-chosen blends you can choose from and then tweak if you're not feeling brave enough to start from scratch. I went with the Heavy Stuff option as my previous attempts at rum creation did not end well.

After a wee bit of tweaking I finalised my blend.  I love big, bold flavours and thought upping the smoky proportion would work nicely, as I modified things the price of the bottle changed with it and I could always see what I was going to be paying.

Once I had finalised the blend it was time to name my rum, as a life-long fan of Hunter S Thompson I always loved the line uttered during Raoul Duke and Dr Gonzo's hallucinatory drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400

"We can't stop here, this is bat country!"

After that it was a simple matter of paying and sitting back and waiting. One touch I very much like is that all blends are stored on-line and you can share it with anyone who might like to order it or tweak it and make it their own.

Now, to what is the first, and almost certainly the last, mention of logistics on this website. Anyone who orders goods on-line knows the vagaries of courier companies, just search for Yodel and see the apoplectic rage induced by them if you don't believe me. With rumblender their courier sent me emails and texts when the order was dispatched which let me re-direct to a shop near work so I could pick it up rather than have to trek to an industrial estate in the backside of nowhere and told me once it had been delivered. It may be a small thing but it makes a huge difference to the customer experience.

Also worthy of note is that I ordered my bottle on a Thursday afternoon and was picking it up by Tuesday lunchtime, a very fast turnaround indeed, I have to say the customer experience is absolutely flawless.

The rum itself

On to the actual booze itself, which came in a beautiful, understated presentation box that was a little extra at checkout but I'm a sucker for good packaging. 

Simple, elegant packaging

On opening you have a wee certificate of blending and the decanter itself, it's a lovely shape, nice and solid and feels very premium in the hand.

A small thing perhaps, and indefinable, but this bottle has a very satisfying cork-sound.

Now, to the liquid itself, it's bottled at 40% ABV, personally I find an extra 2-3% can really make a difference but I understand why companies prefer to keep it to 40%.

This is a somewhat odd review, given I'm the eejit/genius responsible for this rum so I'll try to be as objective as possible.

Pouring a glass and giving it a swirl there are good, thick legs to it suggesting a good amount of pot-still rum.  On the nose it's full and rich, with some Jamaican/Agricole style funk coming through along with the promised smokiness. Taking a sip you get a pleasing dryness with woody, leathery notes blending with light hints of vanilla and dark chocolate before the smokiness comes through strong but not overpowering.

On the way down it's smooth and you're left with a refreshing dryness and an almost meaty flavour. Overall I'm very happy with this, at a guess I'd say there's maybe Jamaican and Trinidadian rums in the mix here for the funky, earthy notes and the light but dry notes but whatever it is I sure as hell enjoyed it.  Personally I loved the big,bold flavours from the "Smoke & a pancake" but a little does go a long way so tread lightly if adding it to your own blend.

Overall this was a fast,easy and enjoyable experience that let me create my own unique rum, something I've always wanted to do but have never had the mechanism to do so before. Yes there is the risk that you won't like what you create but there is that risk with any bottle you buy and at least with this you can pour someone a glass of a rum that is uniquely and unmistakeably your own.

  

Bargains at Aldi

Currently Aldi, purveyors of cheap fruit,veg and random goods have El Dorado 15 for £35.99 and the 8 year old for £20.
Absolute bargains for two superb rums so fill your boots.

Black Tot Day - Lamb's Navy Rum

On July 31^st 1970 the Royal Navy finally halted the daily rum ration to sailors, known as "Black Tot Day" this was the inevitable end of a tradition that had lasted since the 17^thcentury. Increased mechanisation, and breathalysers, meant that serving a double measure of over-proof rum every day was a pretty terrible idea.

Drunken sailors - bad

 Back in 1655 the Royal Navy booted the Spanish out of Jamaica and promptly started to use local rum as their daily ration, replacing French brandy. Rum had been recorded in the Caribbean for some time before this, in 1651 a record from Barbados described:

"The chief fuddling they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias kill-divil, and this is made of sugar canes distilled, a hot, hellish and terrible liquor."

Which could certainly describe some rums I've drunk over the years (Tesco West Indian Rum I'm looking at you).

At that time sailors got ½ pint a day of strong rum.  Sailors would check that their rum hadn't been watered down by soaking gunpowder in rum and attempting to light it, if it failed to ignite it was "under-proof" if it lit it was "over-proof".  Once reliable ABV measures were introduced it was calculated that the gunpowder and rum mix would ignite at 57.15% ABV while some rums went as high as 80%.

In 1731 the ration was split in two, with a quarter pint being served between 11 and 12 am and the remainder between 5 and 6pm.  It's an interesting coincidence that at the same time the Royal Navy was increasing rum consumption they were also becoming the pre-eminent fighting force, so even back then we Brits liked a drink and a fight.

Admiral Vernon - loved a daiquiri

By 1740 Admiral Vernon had decided that neat rum was a bad idea, stating:

unanimous opinion of both Captains and Surgeons that the pernicious custom of the seaman drinking their allowance of rum in drams, and often at once, is attended with many fatal effects to their morals as well as their health … besides the ill consequences of stupifying [sic] their rational qualities … You are hereby required and directed … that the respective daily allowance … be every day mixed with the proportion of a quart of water to a half pint of rum, to be mixed in a scuttled butt kept for that purpose, and to be done upon the deck, and in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Watch who is to take particular care to see that the men are not defrauded in having their full allowance of rum… and let those that are good husbanders receive extra lime juice and sugar that it be made more palatable to them.”

Adding the water prevented sailors from hoarding their rations as it would spoil rapidly, however the taste of the water was unpleasant so lime juice was added.  At the time it was noticed that Vernon's sailors were healthier than the norm but no-one really new why, and it wasn't until 1747 that it was proved that citrus fruit prevented scurvy and not until 1756 that it was a requirement to add lime to the rum ration.

Now in the tradition of naval rums I picked up a bottle of Lamb's, as I can't afford the £610 for a bottle of the real Royal Navy rum and I've previously reviewed Pusser's.  It's been a bottle that was always tucked away on the back bar of pubs when I was growing up. Along with OVD and the depressingly ubiquitous Bacardi this was probably one of the first rums I was aware of.

A nice simple bottle

Lamb's has been around since 1849 and is a blend of 18 rums from Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Guyana which are blended and then aged for 4 years in the UK.  Indeed before being bombed out in The Blitz the casks were aged in cellars below the Thames at West India Dock, leading to the nickname of "Dock Rum". It's bottled at 40% ABV and runs around £16 for a 70cl bottle.

Looking at it there's a very deep, almost coffee like depth to the colour, it's a very attractive looking liquid to me. Taking a sniff you're immediately hit with a warming molasses which fades leaving a little hint of vanilla and cherry.  

A sip gives you a big hit of sweetness with a little burnt caramel edge to it and some vanilla that fades out quite quickly to eventually be replaced by a dryness coming from 4 years in ex-bourbon barrels.  It's a doughnut of a flavour profile, sweetness, then nothing, then dryness.

On the finish the dryness fades out reasonably slowly and although it slips down surprisingly smoothly there is a definite alcohol burn once it hits your stomach, while not as harsh as other rums it's definitely not the gentle warming of a Pusser's.. 

This is quite a bit better than I expected it to be and comparing to some older reviews I suspect they've rebalanced their blending as part of their re-launch of the brand this year. That being said it's not a sipper, and has no real pretensions to be, so judging it as such isn't particularly useful, if you want a sipping navy rum, grab a Pusser's.

So, as a mixer how does Lamb's perform?

With Coke it works fine, the flavours are strong enough to hold up although it definitely accents the sweetness. 

Since Admiral Vernon advocated mixing rum with lime juice and water I tried this in a Daiquiri and it was remarkably good.  Using 50ml of rum, 25ml of lime juice and 15ml of sugar syrup I knocked a quick one up and the lime cuts through the sweetness very nicely, the hint of dryness is still there and it makes for a very refreshing drink.

So, overall, a decent enough rum. It's not subtle or complex but it's not meant to be, it's a good opening gambit for someone trying dark rums. I'd happily keep a bottle around for mixing when I want something with a bit more heft than a Mount Gay or an Appleton's

Summary

• 40% ABV
• £16 for 70cl bottle
• Nose – Molasses, vanilla, cherry
• Flavour – Burnt caramel sweetness, a gap, then dryness
• Finish – Surprisingly smooth going down but noticeable burn once it reaches the stomach
• Not a sipper
• Mix with coke or in a daiquiri

Pusser's Navy Rum - an unapologetic bruiser

A slightly different take on this review because this particular rum is a little bit of history so some context before we get to the booze itself.

What shall we do with the drunken sailor? - serve him a Caipirinha

From 1655 until 1970 the British Royal Navy served sailors a daily ration of rum, prior to that beer was served but that often spoiled on long voyages. Once Britain had colonised the Caribbean rum was served and each sailor was given a pint a day. Funnily enough this resulted in a lot of accidents and drunkenness and Admiral Vernon issued an order stating that:

“unanimous opinion of both Captains and Surgeons that the pernicious custom of the seaman drinking their allowance of rum in drams, and often at once, is attended with many fatal effects to their morals as well as their health … besides the ill consequences of stupifying [sic] their rational qualities … You are hereby required and directed … that the respective daily allowance … be every day mixed with the proportion of a quart of water to a half pint of rum, to be mixed in a scuttled butt kept for that purpose, and to be done upon the deck, and in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Watch who is to take particular care to see that the men are not defrauded in having their full allowance of rum… and let those that are good husbanders receive extra lime juice and sugar that it be made more palatable to them.”

The drink was nicknamed grog and gave us the word "groggy" as you'd expect to feel after a pint of rum.
Over time the amount of rum served was reduced until it was finally halted on July 31st 1970, Black Tot Day when the Royal Navy finally conceded that drinking high % rum and operating warships was a pretty bad idea.
A few years later a Canadian entrepreneur persuaded the Admiralty to sell him the recipe for navy rum and this is what Pusser's is today, more than 50% of the profits go to various naval charities including the Royal Naval Sailors fund and the US Navy Memorial Foundation amongst others.
So, to the booze:

• 54.5% ABV (in UK, believe it’s around 42 - 43% in US)
• Around £30 a bottle
• A blend of rums from stills in Guyana and Trinidad
• Aged a minimum of 3 years
• No added sugars or other flavourings
• Initially on the nose you get a huge alcohol hit, as you’d expect at that ABV but as it warms in the glass spicy orange, ginger, pepper, oak and a little bit of vanilla come through
• Taste wise there’s a peppery, burnt caramel warmth with a smokiness once the alcohol hit melts away, a lot smoother going down than you’d necessarily expect it to be
• The finish is long and lingering with an overall smokey note being the last to go

This “behaves” a lot more like a good whisky than most rums, and that comes down to the stills. The wooden pot stills in Guyana that are used are the only commercial ones still in use and are over 250 years old. This makes things a lot heavier and more full-bodied than most other distilleries can manage, rum from these stills also goes into the El Dorado, XM and OVD ranges.

As with cask strength whiskies you can sip this neat and it’s good, but a drop of water really does open it up and mellow off some of the rougher edges. A bottle of this will last you a long time, a glass or two of an evening will take the edge off nicely or after a good meal but it’s definitely not a session rum.

That being said some things should be savoured, enjoyed over time and this is certainly one of them.