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World Rum Day is the annual, global celebration of rum and distilleries – with this year’s falling on 9th July 2022 – and we will certainly be raising a tot or two of our award-winning Jack Ratt Lugger rum in its honour.
Supped on the high seas
Traditionally associated with sailors and pirates,the association between rum and the sea began in the Caribbean in the 17th century as demand for sugar rocketed, and canny sugar cane planters discovered that distilling what was left at the end of the sugar-refining process made a raw white spirit.
However, as the export of cane spirits was banned, they ended up with more alcohol than they could trade in the local market. The solution was to sell this Caribbean rum to the Royal Navy – employed by the island governors to protect their sugar from pirates and other racketeers – as spirits were much less likely to spoil on board ship than wine or beer.
By 1687 the Royal Navy had adopted a mixture of rum from the English Caribbean islands as part of the crew’s daily allotment, and rum became a staple on Navy ships of nearly every nation for more than 300 years.
Lyme Bay Winery’s own coastal location adds to our affinity with this deliciously spicy and warming tipple. We named our award-winning Jack Ratt Lugger Rum after the fishing boats that notorious local smuggler Jack Rattenbury used to sneak contraband into Lyme Bay in the 18th Century.
Jack Ratt Lugger Spiced Rum
Unlike most commercial spiced rums, our Jack Ratt Lugger Spiced Rum is not defined by an overpowering vanilla characteristic. Instead, our aim was to create a rum that offers a full profile of spices.
As a result, we’ve aged Caribbean rum in bourbon-charred oak barrels right here in Devon before spicing it with nutmeg, orange peel, cloves and vanilla to create a superlative spiced rum, perfect for raising a tot to salute the setting sun and sailors around the globe.
Jack Ratt Lugger Golden Rum
With a nod to a slower pace of life, our 8-year-old Jack Ratt Lugger Golden Rum is a gorgeous sipping rum, many years in the making.
A carefully considered blend of 8-Year-Old Barbados Rum, 8YO Dominican Republic Rum, 8YO Venezuela Rum and 8YO Panama Rum, it is a blend of mainly column still molasses bases – apart from the 8YO Dominican Republic Rum which is a cane juice base and the Barbados Rum which is a column still with partly pot still.
The final blend is aged in ex-Bourbon wooden casks which gives Lugger Golden Rum lovely wood notes on the nose and a rich rum character alongside a wonderfully smooth front palate with a lingering finish and gentle heat.
Rum recommendations for World Rum Day
Rum is the base of many popular cocktails and gaining a well-deserved reputation as a complex artisanal spirit to be enjoyed in its own right. Whether you are a rum sipper or a mixer, here are our top rum drinking suggestions.
Drink rum neat
High-quality rums can be enjoyed neat or served over ice, with spiced rum a perfect example of this. In fact, spiced rum has become so popular that many are predicting it to “do a gin” and come through a meteoric resurgence.
Rum in your coffee
You’ve heard of an Irish coffee, but how about a Caribbean coffee? A splash of Lugger rum in your post-dinner coffee makes for a twist on the traditional digestif.
Cooking with rum
Spiced rums can add a new depth of flavour to sweet and savoury dishes alike. Try adding rum to marinades for meat or vegetables or stick with tradition with a rum cake recipe.
Rum cocktails
A good old rum cocktail is by far the best-known way of drinking spiced rum, whether that’s a classic Dark and Stormy mix of rum and ginger beer with a slice of lime, or try a spiced rum mojito with sugar, lime juice, soda water and mint.
We even have our own signature Spicy Lugger cocktail, which includes a flaming spice mix to add some flair to your summer drinking. You can check out the recipe and an easy-to-follow video here.
Rum delivered
If you’d like to sample the delights of our spiced rums you can buy them in person from our wonderful Cellar Door here in Shute, near Axminster in Devon, order them online or contact our friendly Lyme Bay Winery team via email at [email protected] or by calling us on 01297 551355. If you order by 2 pm we endeavour to deliver within the next two working days.
In the meantime we’d love to see how you are celebrating World Rum Day, so show us your creations on Instagram and Facebook.
