Rum is one of the world’s most popular spirits, enjoyed by ‘old dog’ sailors and pirates! Created in the Caribbean in the 17th century, rum is made from sugarcane that is crushed to extract the molasses (if you like gingerbread, you’ll like rum).
The sugar converts to alcohol to produce a high-alcohol spirit, so keep measures low. It’s easy to get smashed on rum! Soldiers were so fond of it, they were often paid in rum.
NHS says to avoid all alcohol if pregnant/nursing or driving (or obviously if you’re an alcoholic). For everyone else, safe guidelines are 2 glasses of spirit (no more than 6 days a week). Or 1 glass of wine or 1 pint of beer (again no more than 6 days a week). Not a combined total, choose one!
White rum is not aged as long as dark rum (which takes years to mature) and some brands age in oak barrels for deeper flavour. A few rums offer blends with honey, but apart from that, most rums are vegan.
You can’t really have a ‘local rum’, because most rum contains Caribbean ingredients (we have too much rain and cold, to grow sugar!) But you can support artisans who blend the rum, and bring money into local communities.
Carbon-Neutral Rum (from Devon)
Two Drifters Rum is a carbon-neutral brand of rum from Exeter (Devon) that is hoping to capture 1% of the UK market. Based on an idea while working in Vancouver, this brand was created by a husband and wife who tasted rum on their first date and again on honeymoon.
His experience in capturing carbon led to them deciding to help remove carbon from the atmosphere, in conjunction with producing a good rum in sustainable packaging (compostable seals and labels).
All carbon if offset from shipping the molasses and farming sugar cane. Waste molasses is sent to a local farm. The range includes:
- Signature rum (matured in French oak casks)
- White rum (vanilla, apple, white pepper & lime zest)
- Lightly spiced (vanilla, chai tea, toffee apple & clove)
- Rich and fruity rum (pineapple, salted caramel, crème brulee)
Artisan Rum from Isles of Scilly
It may look like the Caribbean, but the Isles of Scilly is notorious for shipwrecks (a lighthouse once even blew over before it was finished, and had to be rebuilt). It also has a strong history of pirates, so it’s no surprise that SC Dogs Distillery is a popular tipple here
All bar one is vegan – contains honey.
The range includes William Gibson Gold Rum (named after the son of a smuggler and farmer whose land still provides the ingredients and John Nance White Rum (named after a family ancestor who would row 100 nautical miles to France to bring back contraband rum!
RNLI Sea Dogs Rum is made in honour of heroic lives that were lost in these treacherous seas. Distilled in small batches from local ingredients and aged in old whisky barrels, the lingering notes of peat produces a taste to savour, over ice. Each bottle raises money for water-safety initiatives.
‘Grog’ is another word for rum, linked to its history with pirates (simply robbers who work on ships, rather than on land). Back in the day when sailors would drink rum on board, pirates would loot anything they found and this included rum, which they traded as currency.
They would find coopers who would fill empty rum barrels with boiling water and roll them around to create a new drink called ‘grog’. Shiver me timbers!
Cornish Rum (with organic molasses)
Loveday Distilling (Cornwall) offers a nice organic rum made with smoked figs, orange peel and ginger. This is produced in small batches using slow-fermented organic molasses, ageing in oak ex-bourbon casks. Sold in bottles sealed with home-compostable tamper-proof seals made from seaweed. Sent in flexi-hex cardboard packaging.
Gold Rum uses slow-ferment organic molasses distilled in oak for at least 2 years, with flavours of bergamot, vanilla, honeycomb, gingerbread, toasted pecan & smoke. Spiced Rum features notes of orange, clove, fig, muscovado, sweet spice & smoke.
This company was founded by two friends who used to work on the island of St Agnes in the Scilly Isles. It offers a refill scheme for wholesale stockists and single bottles returned by customers, and feeds leftover ‘dunder’ (from distilling the organic molasses to some very happy local pigs!
Rum from the Hertfordshire Countryside
Scratch Rum (Hertfordshire) is made on the Benington Park Estate, in the grounds of a house dating back to the 16 century. Set amid rolling countryside, the distillery helped to renovate an old stable block, which had fallen into disrepair.
Choose from two House Rums: Golden Rum is matured in new oak casks and rested in glass, with notes of caramel, cinnamon & toffee apples. Faithful Rum is a white rum with notes of molasses, vanilla & cinnamon.
Artisan Spiced Rum (from Warwickshire)
Shakespeare Distillery (Warwickshire) makes its own rums in an eco-friendly distillery (growing its own rosemary to make gin). The distillery was founded by a man who began making dry gin at home, in a small copper still.
Inspired by a love of the Tudor period (this is the home of Shakespeare!), he has a PhD in Astrophysics, so creating gin was child’s play!
The distillery packs everything in glass bottles, uses compostable tamper seals and has removed all plastic display windows on boxes. It also offers a local refill scheme, for discounts on returning empty bottles. The range includes:
- White rum combines sweet summer fruits with soft citrus notes, and molasses.
- Spiced rum combines fruits with sweet mace, cinnamon & warming cloves
- Cask-aged rum is aged for 30 months in ex-industry bourbon asks, with notes of sweet butterscotch, toffee apple and sweet cinnamon spice.
- Tropical rum combines the white rum with warming spices, pineapple & mango.
Black Spiced Rum (from Devon)
The Devon Rum Co hand-crafts its artisan rums in the sailing town of Salcombe on the South Coast. Sold in plastic-free packaging, this carbon-negative company blends traditional rum ingredients with soft Devon spring water, whole aromatic spices, fresh citrus zest and natural flavours.
All bar the honey rum are vegan-friendly.
The range includes the signature Premium Golden Rum (rich caramel, smoky oak, tobacco, ripe banana, butterscotch, toasted oak and fresh citrus zest), a Spiced Rum (charred orange peel, smooth caramel, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, citrus, maple syrup and peppercorn)
And a Black Spiced Rum (blackstrap molasses, sweet cinnamon, orange zest, dark maple, spicy cardamom, allspice and fruity raisins).
Spiced Artisan Rum (from Leicestershire)
Lazydog Rum (Leicestershire) is an award-winning brand of rum, made in the heart of England. All bar the honey version is vegan-friendly.
- Signature Silver Rum has just 4 ingredients (molasses, water, yeast and time!) with a buttery caramel aroma (serve from the freezer over ice, or with fresh-squeezed pineapple juice.
- Spiced rum features cloves, cinnamon, orange peel and vanilla, aged on oak for a rich taste. Serve neat over ice or with your favourite mixer.
- Pumpkin-spiced rum is infused with raw panela sugar, for a spicy autumn drink.
- Sloe Rum is made with hand-picked sloe berries from within 2 miles, ideal over ice for winter days (or serve from a hip flask).
Where to Recycle Rum Bottles
Most councils collect glass bottles (wrap broken glass in thick paper and bin). If bottle banks are full, there is usually a phone number to call (don’t leave bottles outside full banks). You only need to rinse them quickly, and you can also leave on screw-top lids and labels.
