Can You Taste the Difference? 

Our local Sainsbury’s started stocking a new rum a few months back, A Trinidadian golden rum – aged for 8 years and priced at only £14.49.  We had to grab a bottle...

A Wordsmiths Dream Rum 

I can’t believe I’m finally putting some words together on this rum.  I knew for sure it was coming to the UK last July (2010) and I’d received a tip-off some months before that.  Marblehead Brand Development has secured the UK distribution to a rum that has done rather well in the US.  In fact I don’t recall any of my America based rum buddies having a single negative word to say about it...  Of course the carefully staged marketing strategy and large gift bundles might have had something to do with that!  Still a year or so on, you would have thought that if the rum was sh*t – then someone would have found the words to point this out.

12 Months and Counting... 

I recently wrote about a conversation with Michael Speakman of Saint Lucia Distillers (SLD) and their experiments with a different manufacture process – namely working with sugar cane juice rather than what is pretty much the default for English & Spanish style rum production: molasses.  The experiment revolves around the fermentation of sugar cane juice – a product that is much richer in sugar content and will bring different flavours to the resulting ‘wine’ which goes for distillation.

When I wrote the previous article, I had actually been promised a bottle of one year old, cane juice rum but chose to hold it back from the article.  I can’t tell you how excited I was when the bottle turned up one morning at work...

Laid Bare... 

I’m pleased to say that this humble website has been tracking Rum Dictador for a while now.  We had a feeling that behind the glossy, sexy images, there’s a rum with a story to tell.  We first met in 2009 at RumFest.  Then earlier this year [2010] we found that Vanquish Wines here in the UK added Dictador to their portfolio.  And I think I’m right in saying that the lovely ladies on the Dictador stand at RumFest last October 2010 were a talking point for a great many and (possibly) a deflection from the quality within the bottle.

The thing is that since RumFest, on the few occasions that Dictador has come up in conversation, the comments I hear haven’t been all that positive.  Don’t get me wrong – everyone is entitled to an opinion.  There are rums that I don’t like and the reason I don’t like those ‘other’ rums is solely due to the fact I don’t like the flavour.  But I think a little bit of information about the brand and manufacturing process will help people see that bottle contents are pretty special and that the strong marketing image is not a smokescreen.

A Lucky Find: The Sënarïs Ron Añejo 

It’s not often I find a rum that genuinely surprises me with its qualities.  A chance introduction, the oddest of meetings and a moment of pushy assertiveness all combined to leave me with a strong contender for my best rum find of 2010.

Handmade, Wrapped In History, Perfect For Christmas... 

Here at TheFloatingRumShack.com we were blown away at the Gosling’s Rum Club last July, when the ‘Old Rum’ was served during the tasting session.  An amazing flavour and really something of a find – I love it when something completely unknown to me comes along.  We will be aiming to add a bottle to our collection at some point – perhaps sooner rather than later because we just got a reminder of the story of the Gosling’s Family Reserve Old Rum from Sarah at Love Drinks and I thought I’d share it with you...