For the Love of British Food

This was the call on board a British Naval ship back in the days when everyone got a daily tot of rum. It was issued diluted with water to non-officer ranks  - this mixture was called grog.

The rum ration was abolished over 30 years ago but is still spoken of fondly where I live, close to Portsmouth. There are some ceremonial occasions when the call ‘Splice the Mainbrace’ is used, and a special rum ration is issued - often co-inciding with a Royal visit to a ship or shore establishment.

Although most rum has its origins far from British shores, it has close associations with this country and it happens to be my favourite spirit. That seems a good enough excuse to blog about it!

I started off by a look in the drinks cupboard, I knew I was out of the dark stuff - Woods 100 is one of the nearest things you can still buy at reasonable cost to what was known as ‘navy neaters’, but the main company that supplied the British Navy was Pussers. Their product is blended in Tortola, but is a blend of rums from around the West Indies. When the rum ration went, they got permission from the Admiralty to continue producing and moved to selling their product to the public. A donation to Naval charities is made from the sale of every bottle. More expensive than Woods, but great stuff!

I drained the last drops of my Woods bottle into a spoon to stir into a mid-morning coffee during the recent cold weather, so now, I have a choice. There’s plenty of Mount Gay which is a golden honey coloured rum from Barbados. I can happily drink this all the year round in various guises. I prefer it to Bacardi with cola, and I use it to soak sultanas in before adding to banana cake or muffins.

I could go for Cockspur which is from Antigua. I don’t really know how much rum changes over time, but I bought this in 2000 on my last visit to that lovely island. We visited an old sugar plantation and had a guided tour of the shredder and press where the cane was pulped. Molasses from which most dark rum is made is the dark brown sticky liquid left at the end of the sugar-making process.

The final rum in store is a very special one from Martinique by J. Bally. This was an impulse buy because it was on special offer on a visit to an airport or ferry duty free but don’t recall how long ago - at least 4 years. It has a disarmingly smooth and beguiling spiced caramelly taste and a kick like a stallion. Maybe I’ll save that one - far too good to put IN milky coffee, but as deserving an after dinner drink as the finest single malt whisky. It is termed a Rhum agricole  - rum made from fresh cane juice, rather than from molasses.

I wish I’d remembered it though, when I had the flu before Christmas, it would have been great in a hot toddy. The spices that go into this are usually cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel and  nutmeg. Once again, the guys at Seasoned Pioneers have helped by formulating a mixture of these so you won’t have to mess about and guess how much of each spice to use. I would add a slice of fresh lemon though. You need the vitamin C and the anti-oxidant rich essential oils from the fresh fruit when you are languishing with winter chills. Some recipes for toddy add butter too, but that doesn’t appeal, or even make it with whisky rather than rum. We won’t go there, not in this post anyhow.

I found a couple of good websites in my research for this post - although it doesn’t mention all the brands I do above, these two are excellent sources of info.

http://www.rumreviews.com  and http://www.ministryofrum.com

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