Day three of my rum advent calendar and mixed results so far. I saw this one was on the list an was quite excited. It was recommended to me once so I bought a bottle to try and haven't got round to opening it yet. I'll try to keep this short and to the point, but I never manage to do that and it's more likely to be just as long and rambling as all my other reviews. We'd better crack on.
Bit of an intro
I've been looking forward to this one. I've tasted a Pusser's rum before and it was pretty good. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I remember it being good. I've also had a bottle of this exact rum in my cupboard for several years that I haven't opened. I'm glad to have a chance to taste it without having to worry about it getting oxidized or anything.
Today's country of origin is Guyana in South America. As usual the name needs a little explaining. Pusser's is the brand. The word pusser is a corruption or purser. The purser was responsible for the accounts and paperwork on a ship, and also for the comfort and welfare of the passengers. Part of their job was to make sure the rum was proper rum and not getting watered down and they would provide the "proof" that it was strong enough. They would do this by mixing a little rum with a little gunpowder and setting light to it. If the gunpowder could still burn even when dampened by the rum then the rum was strong enough, hence the name "gunpowder proof" This rum is bottled at 54.5% abv which is plenty strong enough. "This isn't gunpowder proof, it's gunpowder substitute" was a comment I heard about it. At that strength (which I assume is cask strength) we can expect a lot of flavour and complexity, but I'm expecting to add a fair bit of water.
I gather this rum is coloured to some extent and sweetened. I don't know for sure, it's what I've heard while doing a spot of research, but I don't particularly mind as long as it's not too sweet. I find I like some rums and others not so much and the deciding factor tends to be how sweet it is. If it's too sweet I'm not keen. I think colouring is fine. I know some people reckon they can taste a bitter, burnt sugar taste in coloured whiskies, but I'm not sure I can taste it. I have tasted that kind of flavour in whiskies but never found it off putting, just another flavour note among many. It seems to me that a burnt sugar note in a spirit made by fermenting sugar cane extracts and then heating it to a high temperature would be fairly appropriate, but hey ho. Yo ho I should say. This is a rum review after all.
Apparently a navy rum is traditionally a rum from Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and/or Trinida. A tot of rum was traditionally given to the sailors in the British navy every day, and the rum would of course be from the British colonies that produced it like Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. There is in existence the term "navy strength" which sounds like it ought to be an old traditional term, but it was actually coined in 1993 as a marketing maneuver. It refers to 100 proof which is 57.15% ABV under the old British alcohol proof system. Our American chums have their own proof system, where 100 proof is 50% ABV. Weirdly this "gunpowder proof" rum which ought to be 100 proof is a bit under proof on the British system and a bit over on the American system. I'm pretty sure the name is just a nod to Pusser's old naval connections. I think I've said enough. The Pusser's website gives a few tasting notes, we we'll compare later on.
Packaging
Obviously a tiny sample comes in a tiny bottle again. Let's have a look at the label on this one.
For a tiny admiral
I quite like the label on this one. Nice and simple, darker colour scheme, union jack. What more do you want? Granted it's not particularly creative, but as always it's the taste and aroma inside that's important. Doesn't look like a party drink does it? It looks very British military.
Smell in the bottle
On opening
Brown muscovado sugar.
Rich Christmas cake.
Again, not much point trying to smell it later. with just 20ml I'm going to drink it all in one sitting.
Appearance
Look at this.
The colour of the admiralty.
What a lovely colour. I gather it's got a bit of colouring in it, but it's still pretty. Nice and dark. As far as I know it's a dark rum, being a rum that's aged before being bottled, rather than being filtered and bottled right away. I think dark rums should be dark and this is. With whiskies the colour tells you very nearly nothing about the flavour. I don't know if it's the same situation with rums beyond the dark rum/white rum deal so I'm not making any inferences about the taste from the colour, but it looks pretty appetizing none the less.
Neat
Nose
Sweet and spicy.
Superglue, but just a hint. (Really, what's with that?)
Maybe baked banana.
Mild clove.
Not unlike a Speyside whisky.
Dark muscovado sugar.
Raisin.
Touch of candied peel.
Christmas cake.
Honey Rich honey.
Molasses.
Treacle.
Toffee.
Lots of dark sugary tings.
Arrival
Muscovado.
Alcohol sting and quite a lot of it. Pretty much set my throat on fire.
Development
Sweet.
Christmas cake.
Finish
Dark chocolate.
Christmas cake lingering. This would be a good cake. Really rich and fruity, with raisins and candied peel in.
Suggestion of marzipan.
Hint of mint maybe? Cooling sensation.
Water - 2tsp because it's proper strong
Nose
Rich dark treacle.
Molasses.
Toffee.
Sticky toffee pudding.
Raisin.
Spices.
Toffeeish biscuits. Reminded me of those things with the squares on and the toffee in the middle. Not sure what they're called.
Treacle tart.
Maybe ginger, but candied or crystalized, maybe ginger syrup.
Dried fruits other than raisin. Possibly prune?
Ginger cake.
Arrival
Realy nice.
Slow.
Something familiar, estery, faintly metallic maybe, very pleasing. What is it?
Dark chocolate.
Ginger cake.
Golden syrup cake.
Maybe cinnamon, or cinnamon cake. Syrupy cinnamon cake.
Development
Chocolate
Dried fruit soaked in brandy.
Boozy Christmas cake.
Spices coming in that lift the whole thing.
Dark molasses.
Bitter-sweet treacle.
Golden syrup cake.
Bonfire toffee maybe.
Burnt sugar type toffee.
Finish
Bit of dark chocolate.
Hint of metallic something.
Vegetal, herbal.
Golden syrup cake lingering.
Ginger cake.
Dark Treacle.
Really dark ale, like a sweetish stout.
Bitter-sweet.
A few extra comments
What a magnificent experience that was. I thoroughly enjoyed myself there. So far I've enjoyed rums from Guyana and Barbados, which are both on the list of countries that navy rum traditionally comes from. I have a suspicion that I'm going to like other rums from the other navy rum countries. It makes sense to me that Navy rums, being connected to Britain and the British navy, would appeal to a British person such as myself. Each culture has it's own kind of flavour palate, and as we grow up in our own culture we learn to appreciate our own culture's set of flavours. For me these would be the British flavours and I suspect navy rums are a part of that set of flavours. The Peruvian rum I had yesterday isn't quite in that set, having too much sweetness, and didn't really suit my taste. However, the Peruvian rum was also weaker and therefore would be holding a bit less flavour so maybe it was that.
I noticed with this rum that there were a lot of flavours of sweet things, like treacle, toffee, molasses, various cakes etc. but the rum itself wasn't over sweet. It was quite sweet, but certainly not too sweet to be a very pleasant rum. Clearly there is a difference between these flavours and actual sweetness. This is probably because the sweetness is detected by the taste buds in the mouth and is one of only five taste sensations picked up there, the others being salt, sour, bitter, and savoury (or umami). The rest of what we usually call taste is actually smell. There can therefore be a flavour of something sweet but with very little sweetness.
Let's have a look at how my notes match with the manufacturer's notes. Always interesting to me and there's a chance it'll be interesting to you too. For the nose Pusser's have pungent molalsses, treacle, toffee, honey and vanilla with oak, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. I didn't get all of that. I didn't particularly pick up oak, although I did get Christmas cake type smells and European oak tends to have that kind of smell. I didn't pick up nutmeg specifically, but I did get spices and I did get the cinnamon and ginger. Weirdly enough they haven't given any actual notes on the flavour, bu they do mention that it is full bodied with a long mellow finish which I thoroughly agree with, especially the body. You can chew on a mouthful of this for a couple of minutes.
Conclusion
This was a marvelous rum. Chewy, complex, not too sweet. Quite Christmassy, so appropriate for an advent calendar. If all rum was like this I'd drink more of it. On a scale of one to ten the pirates will be yo-ho-hoing all over the place. Would I buy it again? Absolutely flipping yes! Already got a bottle and will buy another when it's finished. Main brace well and truly spliced. Well done, Pusser's.
No idea what's coming tomorrow. Rum of course, but beyond that your guess is as good as mine. Actually my guess is probably better because I can cheat by peeping in the box. If it's as good as today's rum I'll be a very jolly roger indeed.
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