It turns out you don’t need to be a pirate to enjoy rum, despite what Captain Morgan might say. Like gin the spirit has enjoyed a boom of late, with sales surpassing £1 billion in the UK last year. And despite gin getting all the headlines, rum’s market share is just one percent behind it, confirming Britain’s love for the good stuff. And that, in part, is thanks to a group of British-based businesses creating artisan rums that, like gin, are offering something a little more refined than the standard bottles of Barcardi and Captain Morgan often found behind bars.
The vast majority of these new artisan rums are dark and spiced – good white rum is available, but the most interesting bottles play around with the sugars and spices found in the darker liquids. Katherine Jenner, managing director of Burning Barn Rum, has created two rums – a spiced and the UK’s first smoked rum – and is spearheading this new wave of artisan rum production.
‘It all stemmed from a personal frustration of being a rum drinker,’ she says. ‘My husband and I would walk into a bar or pub and see a huge range of gins on offer, but then the same few bottles of rum over and over again. We thought it would be nice to do something artisanal with it.’
Get in touch
That’s the spirit! The rise of artisan rum