On the occasion of the last day in July, we celebrate British Royal Navy traditions with a remembrance of Black Tot Day — July 31, 1970 — the infamous day that British sailors were served their last daily ration of rum aboard the ships.
The End Of An Era
For more than 300 years, the navy had issued a ration of rum to their sailors daily, but it all ended on Black Tot Day. Nearly a decade later, the recipe was exhumed and the tradition of enjoying Navy style rum was rekindled with the first release of Pusser’s Navy Rum in 1979.
Pusser’s Navy Rum
The classic navy-style dark, rich, full-flavored rum, Pusser’s British Navy Rum Blue Label, at 84 proof, is the key ingredient in the famous Painkiller trademarked cocktail.
As with the original British Navy formula, principal marques in this blend are created in legacy wooden pot stills in Guyana, providing a rustic distillation process similar to those used centuries ago, producing a bold, rich flavor profile.
Tasting Notes
This medium bodied, deep orange amber rum offers heady aromas of citrus candy, molasses, vanilla, sassafras and smoked honey. On the palette, Pusser’s Navy Rum offers bold flavors of toasted oak, dark tropical fruit, burnt sugar, creamy caramel and sherry are presented before the warm, long lasting finish offers fading echoes of treacle and old wood.
Pusser’s Rum Expressions
Pusser’s also produces a 15 year old version of its Navy Rum, a spiced expression and a unique gunpowder edition, along with several collectable versions in elaborately decorated ceramic vessels.
A substantial donation from the sale of each bottle of Pusser’s Navy Rum benefits The Royal Navy Sailor’s Fund, a legacy charity more commonly called the “Tot Fund.”
Pusser’s rum is imported and marketed by Shaw-Ross International Importers in the United States. This navy rum is available in 50 states, and through select online outlets, for about $25.
More about Pusser’s Navy Rum on Back Tot Day: http://pussersrum.com/blacktotday/
Pusser’s Rum web site – http://www.pussersrum.com
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The fermented wash is double distilled, first in a classic Alembic copper pot before a second distillation in a copper column hybrid with 20 plates.
Tickets are $50 per day for general admission and $75 for VIP guests. Friday’s trade admission — for members of the spirits profession — is $25.
After distillation, the base rum is blended with an infusion of whole organic vanilla beans in high proof rum, then diluted with Colorado Rocky Mountain snow melt water to bottling proof.
Aromas of rich molasses and brown butter dominate the nose, before a suggestion of vanilla, cinnamon bun, toasted coconut and dark fruit. On the palate, initial notes of sweet caramel, butterscotch and vanilla butter cream precede prune wine, chocolate brownie and treacle with just a hint of oak. The finish fades slowly with echoes of sweet coconut, then bitter chocolate over buttery croissant.
The rum’s secret recipe was first developed in 1832 by Sebastian Stroh. Like Jägermeister, this “inlander rum” is sometimes perceived as a powerful manly elixir representing a wistful bygone era of old European spirit making.