Pirates with a Purpose: Sustainable Rums
Rum is a pretty strong boozy tipple (easy to get smashed on, so don’t drink too much!) These rums ferment 100% molasses, and blend with purified Devon water (for white rum) or spices and waste cacao husks (for spiced rum). Waste molasses are given to local farms.
Two Drifters Rum is a unique brand of your favourite Caribbean tipple, made in Devon with green energy, and sold in bottles with compostable seals, and sugarcane fibre labels.
Created by a couple who spent their honeymoon on St Lucia (home to rum!), they decided (with a joint background in marketing and chemistry) to get together to found a sustainable rum company in England.
One of the first rums with a carbon-negative footprint, it has high hopes to capture 1% of the UK rum market by 2028, and 1% of the global market by 2035. All without harming the earth.
Sold in a light, British-made glass bottle with FSC-certified corks, any carbon from importing rum ingredients is offset via Climeworks.
Most artisan spirits are mixed with tonic water, and quinine should be avoided for some medical conditions (and pregnancy/nursing, but then hopefully you’re not drinking vodka anyway). Avoid cola mixer for no-alcohol versions for pregnancy/nursing due to caffeine). Also check medication before consuming grapefruit or rhubarb tonic waters. Keep citrus fruit garnishes away from pets.
For glass bottles, cork is too dense to compost, so recycle at off licenses or send off in bulk to Recorked (don’t leave them lying around, they are choking hazards).
Before recycling cans, rinse then pop ring-pulls over holes. Then use your fingers/thumb to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
You can also buy taster sets, to try before you buy full bottles!
- Signature Rum is for the purists, with flavours of orange peel and muscovado sugar, matured in ex-Madeira casks for a year, which gives an orange aroma.
- Pure White Rum has fresh notes of vanilla, apple, white pepper and lime zest. Crisp and fresh.
- Lightly Spiced Rum is made with cacao husks (a waste product of making chocolate), and has notes of vanilla, chai, toffee apple and cacao.
- Overproof Spiced Pineapple Rum has notes of ripe fruits, salted caramel and crème brûlée, again enhanced with waste cacao husks for a chocolate flavour.
Serve the old-fashioned way by stirring with cubed ice, sugar syrup and orange bitters, and garnish with orange zest. Or just serve ‘on the rocks’ and garnish with orange slice.
Homemade Raspberry Mojito Recipe
This Raspberry Mojito (Katie Daisy) is a lovely way to celebrate a special occasion, especially if you are enjoying Latin American food. It blends fresh raspberries with lime juice and mint leaves, along with a simple sugar syrup and white rum. Then just top with soda water, ice, mint, more raspberries and fresh lime.
Clean R (a no-alcohol alternative to rum)
Clean R is a no-alcohol botanical infused spirit to replace rum, if you are not drinking or reducing alcohol. Crafted by an award-winning team of flavour experts using high quality ingredients, this is perfect to let you enjoy a tipple, but without the booze! Perfect for a no-alcohol mojito.
How to serve Clean R
- Mix 50ml Clean R with ginger ale or cola
- Top with ice.
- Garnish with a lime wedge
No alcohol strawberry daiquiri
Mix 50ml Clean R with freshly blended/strained strawberry juice, the juice of 1/2 lime, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Garnish with a fresh strawberry.
All drinks by Clean Co are made in Manchester with vegan ingredients. All are packed in recycled glass bottles with Flexi-Hex compostable packaging. Once opened, drink within 3 months.
Caleño Dark & Spicy (a no-alcohol rum alternative)
Caleño Dark & Spicy is a no-alcohol alternative to a dark and storm rum! Both vegan and gluten-free, this is from a Bristol brand that offers affordable alternatives to conventional drinks, inspired by the founder’s Columbian roots. It’s an exotic blend of pineapple, coconut, ginger, vanilla, kola nut and lime.
Just serve 50ml over ice with optional 15ml of fresh lime juice, then top with 200ml of ginger ale. Top with a lime garnish and optional pineapple leaves.
For a Tropical nojito, ‘smack’ 5 to 6 fresh mint leaves (to release their flavours) in a highball glass, then muddle with the wedges of 1 fresh lime. Pour over 50ml of Caleño Dark & Spicy and 15ml of sugar syrup (if you don’t want to make a batch, just add 15ml of agave nectar), then stir and top with soda water.
Garnish with a large mint sprig and a wedge of lime.
The founder has Columbian heritage, a country with the most biodiversity on earth (after Brazil). A third of the country is rainforest, where pink dolphins leap out of the water. Having said that, the locals won’t be drinking this spirit – their national drink is made from sugar cane, and very much not alcohol-free!
