Black Tot Rum | Master Blender's Reserve 2021

Dark Rum
Bottled By Elixir Distillers 70cl / 54.5%

An outstanding assemblage of top class Caribbean and other world rums, Black Tot Master Blender's Reserve Rum has been blended using rums from countries including Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Australia to commemorate the centenary of the last rum ration given to Australian Navy sailors serving on British ships.

Bottled at a traditional 54.5%, this superb Navy rum also includes elements from the Black Tot 50th Anniversary blend, plus a small percentage of the original Black Tot blend, only tiny quantities of which now survive.

Attributes

Tasting Notes

Nose: Cinnamon sticks, cooking in brown butter, with nutmeg and cloves. Overripe mangoes and baked bananas, with dusty dark chocolate. More citrus notes build in the glass - satsumas and freshly squeezed navel oranges blend with juicy nectarine and cooked honey. In the background, a dense oily note complements the zesty flavours and merges with herbaceous notes of mint and lemon thyme.

Palate: At first, a huge hit of concentrated orange and mango juice, with fresh mint and golden brown caster sugar. The sweetness evolves into milk chocolate and salted caramel, while the fruit seems to become denser, bringing in flavours of guava and passion fruit. Another sip brings orange blossom, balanced by runny honey.

Finish: Clementine and mandarin make up a citrus salad, evolving with a pleasing dryness reminiscent of thyme and oregano. Right at the very end, a hint of diesel oil.

Recipe

Guyana
Guyana historically has been one of the world’s leading producers of molasses and rum, and it was undoubtedly the heart of the Navy Rum blend. Despite the consolidation of its many distilleries, Guyana’s historic stills have survived and continue to make a variety of rich and flavourful rum marques at Demerara Distillers. 13.5%
17 Years Old
Demerara Distillers
Column Still

Barbados
The birthplace of molasses rum in the Caribbean. Barbados is famous for elegant and balanced blends of pot & column still rum, with notes of tropical fruits, vanilla, and coconut.
17.7%
10 Years Old
Foursquare Pot/Column

Trinidad
Trinidad’s most famous rums have all developed out of distilleries founded in the 1900s, most notably Caroni and Trinidad Distillers. The former made a heavier style column still rum (no longer in operation), and was a core component of the original Navy Rum blend - while the latter is a lighter, cleaner style, and is responsible for continuing the heritage of Trinidad rum today.
21.1%
11 Years Old
Trinidad Distillers
Column Still

18.5%
10 Years Old
Trinidad Distillers
Column Still

2.8%
24 Years Old
Trinidad Distillers
Column Still

Jamaica
Classically a heavier style pot-still rum, Jamaican distilleries like Hampden utilise longer fermentation times, as well as wild yeast strains, and the addition of dunder and muck pits in their molasses ferment to create distinctively big, funky flavours. 5.3%
9 Years Old
Hampden Pot Still

Australia
Introduced to this blend to mark 100 years since the cessation of rum rations for Australian sailors serving on British ships.
6.7%
14 Years Old
Beenleigh Pot Still

Black Tot 50th Anniversary Rum
Used as the base for this blend.
14.1% Perpetual Blend
World

British Royal Navy World Blend
World blend of original navy rums, continuously blended in wooden vats from the early 1800s through to 1970.
0.3% Solera Original
Royal Navy Blend
Pot/column