Pirate's Grog Aged Rum: Pirate by Name, Pirate by Nature.

This week we’ve donned an eye patch, acquired our own blasphemous parrot and set full sail on a debaucherous pirate ship with one rebellious and hot-headed rum: Pirate’s Grog Aged Rum. And if you’re looking for a fiery, honeyed cup of poison to eat away at the day’s infernal misfortunes, then this freaking beauty is your main man. But don’t worry, there’s no need to go all pirate whilst your sipping, but it does help to set one hell of a scene!

Now we love rum, it’s true. So much so that at one point in their haphazardous, debatable life, a certain individual here at We Are Distilled got a bloody tattoo of the stuff in a dubious place only seen by the few. Yeah we know, idiotic (or heroic, but that depends on your mental state!), and a decision definitely more questionable than the contents of a Malibu bottle. But anyway, let’s not bore you anymore with our teams disputable choice of body art, let’s dive head first into this bottle of pure, adulterous nectar.

Hailing from the sun-soaked, tranquil island of Roatan, just off the coast of Honduras, spoilt with its endless coral and magnificent marine life, Pirate’s Grog is made from a rapturous blend of four Caribbean rums, aged in old whiskey casks for up to five years and is the only rum to be exported out of Honduras. Now the story of this rum is quite impromptu, quite adventurous and it starts with two far-flung travellers who left their old lives in Blighty in search of the wonders this unpredictable world has to offer. And these two renegades go by the names of Gareth Noble and Beth Jones.

After lapping up the Caribbean life and taking on the task of looking after a huge house surrounded by an overgrown jungle, they stumbled across this beauty of a rum and were fortunate enough to cross paths with the creator, a Dutch immigrant called Robert J. van de Weg. At a time when he was struggling to keep up with demand, these two wonderous souls formed a partnership whereby he produces the rum and they bottle it in the UK. What a perfect combo, eh! You can now find Pirate's Grog in Harvey Nics, 25 independant bars and in Gerry's in Soho, and they've also just won a design award at the World Rum Awards 2015 for their black pot bottle. Pretty neat if you ask us! So, now you've got a back story, let's get involved with this old grog...

And what’s it like on the nose then? Well initially, and in all honesty, the aroma of this rum is very understated. It doesn’t immediately hit you with any audacious or robust notes and it certainly doesn’t march you down a plank with a knife at your back. But wait; hold on a minute, you need take your time with this restless pirate, it’s not all it originally seems to be. Pursue this buccaneer a bit longer and you’ll soon find honeyed notes start to develop. Stick your muzzle in deeper and a touch of vanilla emerges, sailing alongside a murmur of cake spice. But if we're honest (and we like to be honest here), at this point in the review it would be pretty fair to say that we doubted whether this grog was going to deliver what we want in a rum. It had a light body and at first seemed less complex than others we’d tried before. A fair point we say, but soon we discovered that it was a very misguided point at that. This fella is keeping something up its haggard sleeve.

And that something is the taste. BAM! As soon as this launched it’s unruly way on to our tongue, this wayward sea rover delivered all its tasty, golden treasure quicker than it’d steal your wife! Man, if this rum is anything then it’s unpredictable. The aroma might be restrained but boy, it holds back its precious fortune, waiting to unleash its full golden glory all over your unsuspecting mouth. Streams of butterscotch and brown sugar topple their way onto your tongue, delivering a bountiful wallop of nectarous goodness and a vanilla hit that will make you feel like you’ve just fallen into the Walls ice cream factory.

At this point in the review, it would be fair to say we found ourselves rolling head over heels with this grog faster than an executed rabbit! This rum is seriously alluring. One taste of this bad boy and it will entice you quicker than a poetic Frenchman holding a one-way ticket to paradise! And soon you’ll find those honey-sweet tones develop into a good fiery hit of spice - nutmeg and maybe a tiny whisper of cinnamon too – delivering at last that punch, that rebellious pummel of alcoholic enjoyment we so longed for. It’s doesn’t hang around for long either, this is one flighty bastard! But then what else do you expect from a pirate, eh?

So, what do we like so much about this rum? Well that’s easy, it’s unpredictability. We like to be challenged and we like to be proven wrong, and this rum certainly did just that. It definitely delivered what we look for in a rum; smoothness, potency and a toothsome sweetness, and it did it with sheer, unforeseen wonderment. It’s such a tasty, rambunctious little bleeder that will have a permanent spot on our shelf, for sure. How can you lap it up? Well, drink this grog with some good ginger beer, loads of ice and a healthy muddling of lime. We like it neat, but to be fair we like most booze neat, so give that a try, you might even be proven wrong yourself.

Pick yourself up a bottle from Master of Malt.

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