While there is no codified definition for what makes a navy rum, there are some guiding principles that are mostly agreed on.

On the nose, there are the predictable molasses and brown sugar notes, followed by tropical notes, especially banana. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. So a navy rum would be a rum guided by the Man recipe, a blend constituting aged rums from two or more of the colonies of Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. In 1850, the Royal Navy’s “Grog Committee” reduced the rum portion to 1/8 of a pint, which would be served daily at 6 bells during forenoon (11:00 am). Around 50% of the blend is from the wooden pot, double distilled rums from the Port Mourant still, and the balance is from column stills at Demerara.A revelation in the world of flavoured rums, this Caribbean rum was originally created by the Plantation cellar master as a highly limited edition treat for thirsty bartenders out in New Orleans, where it became an overnight sensation. It mixed well with the daily dose of lime juice that was doled out to British sailors to prevent scurvy.

Sailors could check that their tots (rum rations) weren’t being watered down by asking the purser (the man responsible for the rum on the ship, known as the ‘pusser’) to light some rum-doused gunpowder in front of the crew. One such is an annual release begun last October and timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, an important date in the history of the Royal Navy. On the palate, the rum is sweet, with distinct molasses and caramel flavors, followed by tropical fruit notes of melon and banana, along with flavors of raisin, a bit of prune and date and some dried orange peel. Not just in the sense that rum had to be “Gunpowder Proof” but also, in that like the recipe for this, Gunpowder was indeed added to rum! On the nose, there are pronounced molasses and dark sugar notes, followed by a creamy, almost buttery aroma, vanilla and dried fruits notes of dates, prunes and figs, along with tropical spices of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, pepper and just a touch of clove and a hint of furniture wax.Pusser’s Rum Ltd was set up in Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, to bottle and distribute the rum. This tiny test run of only 50 bottles was matured over a year in a cask of French oak and bottled at 60%abv. Various half-finished projects sit on my desk which, by stages, creep towards completion as time allows.