Rumpundit » Rum History

Black Tot Day! 31 July 1970-2010 RIP

ian — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:13:11 +0000

Ian Williams, Rumpundit, commiserates Black Tot Day.

Saturday 31 July is the 40^th Anniversary of Black Tot Day when the Royal Navy abandoned the daily grog ration for its sailors. Do hoist a dark rum to mark the occasion. The British decision to abandon a centuries-old tradition of high octane fighting spirit and replace it with high megaton Trident submarines has proven to be a financial and naval disaster. When it waived the rum rules, Britannia abandoned all pretension of ruling the waves!

The first reference to Navy rum was by Samuel Pepys, who although best known for confiding his sex life to his diary, was the civil servant in charge of the Navy. He authorized the Navy in the Caribbean to issue rations of rum to the sailors based in Jamaica.

Soon, however, rum was a major constituent of the Navy’s fuel supply. Admiral Vernon, after whom George Washington’s home Mount Vernon was named, decided that it was better for the health and safety of his ships and crew to mix the rum with water before issuing it, and to issue the half pint in two servings. He was known as “Old Grog” because he wore a waterproof cloak made of “grogram,” a mixed fabric that served before oil-skins and that gave the name to the mixture.

His orders were that the grog was to be mixed in a “scuttled butt.” The idea that scuttlebutt was sailor’s chat around the water cask is a post-Prohibitionist invention. It was the rum barrel that loosened the tongues of the eagerly waiting tars.

Navy regulations insisted that once the grog had been mixed, it had to be served promptly, otherwise it would thrown overboard, because it went “flat.” I’ve experimented with Pussers, still made to the original recipe, and it’s true! While the rum is in a colloidal suspension in the water the droplets of rum hit the tastebuds and taste as strong as normal spirits but once they are dissolved it tastes like watered rum!

The US Navy initially adopted British grog rations but then under influence from the growing whiskey industry, swapped over to what was presented as a more patriotic spirit after 1806. During the Civil War, the US Navy abolished the ration completely, perhaps taking advantage of the connection between abolitionism and prohibitionism, both of them gaining the upper hand with the departure of Confederate personnel. However it was only the ratings who were deprived. It was not until 1913 that officers were coerced into official abstinence.

In contrast, the British Admiralty was frankly scared of the mutinous consequences of depriving ratings of their historical entitlement, and it kept issuing Royal Navy rum, until 1970, when they overcame public nostalgia by breathalyzing the pilot of a nuclear submarine after he had drunk his ration.

In fact, for centuries, the Royal Navy had maintained naval supremacy despite often inferior technology compared with its Spanish and French rivals, because its crews, pressganged or volunteers, outfought their enemies. And looking at it analytically, the major observable difference was the rum ration, which is why wanabee naval powers like Czarist Russia and Japan also served up rum.

British captains and admirals still have the discretion to order “Splice the mainbrace!” for special occasions, however, and naval lore is still steeped in rum, which in Britain was known as “Nelson’s blood,” since allegedly the devoted tars donated their rations to bring the Admiral’s body back from Trafalgar to London.

I checked it out in the Gibraltar library in the contemporary newspapers, and sadly, the Admiral’s body was carried back to London pickled in Spanish Brandy, aguardiente. Perhaps the tars did not want to waste the good stuff… but I have not been able to prove or disprove the story that the coffin was drained by the time it arrived in Britain. The tars might have preferred rum – but any spirit in a drought was long-standing tradition.

This week Sukhinder Singh of Speciality Drinks in London launched Black Tot – an exclusive bottling of Navy Rum over 40 years old – a find for rum-drinkers equivalent to discovering Tutankhamen’s pickled stiff, except the archaeologists never brought the young pharoah back to life, while the old rum has indeed been revived. It was in sealed ceramic flagons allowing its unique biochemistry to play out over almost half a century.

In the Admiralty, the most coveted job was to sit on the committee that each year assessed what proportions of Jamaica, Trinidad and Demerara rums was consistent to maintain the formula, and Speciality’s experts have topped up the work of all of those departed palates to ensure that the bottles live up to expectations.

If you can’t get some, then up spirits on Saturday with any dark rum and shed a tear for bygone glory!

Rum and Burning Fleets!

ian — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:03:22 +0000

Sounds like one not to miss, But Rumpundit will be in Miami!

Burning of the Fleet Day Scheduled for May 8th in Essex

From a press release:

Row Boat Races New Addition to River Museum Activities

Essex, CT – They burned our ships and stole our rum! The historic British raid on Essex comes to life in Essex Village and at the Connecticut River Museum on Saturday, May 8. The festivities begin at 2 pm with the annual Burning of the Fleet Commemoration Parade presented by Essex’s own Sailing Masters of 1812 Fife & Drums corps. The parade kicks off at Essex Town Hall where the Sailing Masters will be joined by other regional fife and drums corps. From there, they will march down Main Street to perform a small “muster” and commemoration ceremony at water’s edge. At the conclusion of the parade, the Connecticut River Museum’s lawn will be the scene for re-enactors, colonial weaponry demonstrations, and children’s activities, all telling the story of the 1814 attack that destroyed 28 warships. New to the program this year is a row boat race from Steamboat Dock to Nott Island and back with local organizations fielding teams. The two designated race boats are being loaned out by the Maritime Education Network of Old Saybrook. All lawn activities are free to the public.

At 5 pm, all are invited to join museum staff in the Burning of the Fleet exhibit for a special program of storytelling. Admission will be reduced to $5 per person. A cash bar will also be open for enjoying a glass of rum and other drinks on the dock. The program will end in time for the 8 pm start of the 1st Annual Regency Ball hosted by the Sailing Masters of 1812 at Essex Town Hall.

For more information on these events or other museum programs, call 860-767-8269 or go to www.ctrivermuseum.org. The Connecticut River Museum, located at 67 Main Street on the historic Essex waterfront, is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating the cultural and natural heritage of the Connecticut River through interactive exhibits, river cruises, education programs, special events, and heritage festivals.

Posted by admin on Friday, April 23, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Filed under Essex · Tagged with Burning of the Fleet, Connecticut River Museum

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Thomas Tew Rum revives a corner of R.I.’s triangle trade

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 24, 2009

By Thomas J. Morgan

Journal Staff Writer

Thomas Tew Rum is distilled in Middletown and aged for two years in oak barrels.
Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

For years, rum formed one leg of the infamous triangle trade — Caribbean molasses to Rhode Island, rum to Africa, slaves to the Caribbean, until it died out in the middle of the 19th century.

The Newport Distilling Co. revived the best part of the spirits tradition with Thomas Tew Rum, a golden-dark brew that comes in numbered bottles and performs best savored in the manner of a single malt scotch. Its name derives from a 17th-century Rhode Island pirate. (Read about him on Page E6.)

Brent D. Ryan, president of Newport Distilling and of Coastal Extreme Brewing Co., brewers of Newport Storm beer, has been at it quietly for three years. Ryan says the company “recognized over the years that there was a connection with rum — there were restaurants called the Rhumbline and the Rumrunner. We would talk to people and they’d say, ‘Oh yeah, rum was big here years ago.’ I did some digging.

“Two hundred and fifty years ago Newport was the rum capital of the world, and most of the best rum was being distilled here,” he said.. “We became intrigued with the idea of doing distilling — we found out that a lot of the equipment we had for making beer we could use to ferment molasses.”

The company located a still, and took out the first state distillery license in more than 135 years, Ryan said.

“The last one we could find a record of was the John Dyer Distillery on Dyer Avenue in Providence,” he says. “It closed in 1872, The last one in Newport was the Whitehorne Distillery, run by brothers Samuel and John Whitehorne. They shut down in 1842. In 1769 there were 22 distilleries operating in Newport. That’s a lot of distilleries. We looked at all this and said this is something that really should be done in Rhode Island again.”

The distillery shares a cramped space with the brewery in an industrial complex on Oliphant Lane in Middletown. Ryan hopes to move both operations to expanded quarters in Newport later this year. Plans include a retail shop and an area for visitors — the Middletown location is too restricted to provide tours.

The unmistakable aroma of fermentation salutes the nose at close quarters in the distillery. To one side sits a stack of 54-gallon barrels of French and American oak, most bunged and numbered.

“These are bourbon barrels from Labrot & Graham in Kentucky,” makers of Woodford Reserve bourbon, Ryan says.

By Kentucky law, the company cannot re-use the barrels, so Newport Distillery buys them.

Because the rum further changes the barrels flavor profile, the distillery sells them to home brewers of beer, or uses them for displays.

The creation of any alcoholic drink begins with fermentation. For rum, a molasses-water mix, known as the “wash,” ferments inside Newport Distilling’s still.

The still, a gleaming copper kettle, resembles an old-fashioned potbelly stove with a short pipe sticking out of the top — true to its shape it’s actually known as a pot still. Its 105 gallons of wash simmers away happily as Ryan works.

The other style of still is called a column still, a taller version used for larger quantities, a Gulliver versus a Lilliputian.

“We do it on a batch process,” Ryan says. “A column still is a continuous process. A pot still makes a heavier, more flavorful product. The column still makes a more neutral spirit and is more efficient. The big names — Bacardi, Jim Beam, Cuervo — use the continuous column.”

When the wash reaches 10-percent alcohol, Ryan says, the distilling process springs to life.

“The idea is to separate the alcohol from the wash,” he says. “Ethanol boils at 78C. Water boils at 100C, so ethanol vapors work their way up the short column. Then the vapors go to a condenser.”

The condenser cools the vapor back to liquid form. The result: A stream of clear liquid arcs from the condenser into a container the shape and size of a fire extinguisher. The aroma of rum is powerful here.

A technician sinks a hydrometer into the distillate to test the alcohol content. It’s much like the gadget used to determine the specific gravity of car-battery acid.

“The finished product is 42 percent alcohol,” Ryan explains. That’s 84 proof. The rum is aged for about two years, or until Ryan is satisfied with the taste.

“We do single-barrel rum,” he said, meaning that no blending takes place. “When the barrel is finished aging, we package it without blending. It’s a very small-scale way of making spirit.”

The bottles are filled via a rotary device and are hand-labeled, corked and sealed.

“After we cork the bottles we dip them upside down in that deep fryer,” Ryan says. “That’s melted wax in there.”

With such a small operation, each barrel can have its own characteristics, and some barrels age earlier than others. To determine whether a barrel is ready for bottling, testing is required. That’s testing as in tasting.

Ryan is the taste-tester.

“It’s a tough job,” he says, “but somebody has to do it.”

Details: Thomas Tew Rum is available in many Rhode Island liquor stores and some bars and restaurants.

Recipe: Champagne Punch1

CHAMPAGNE PUNCH

Ice (in block form, or use large chunks)

6 ounces fresh orange juice

2 ounces fresh lime juice

2 ounces fresh lemon juice

4 ounces simple syrup

6 ounces light rum

6 ounces dark rum

One 750 ml bottle brut Champagne, chilled

Orange, lime and lemon slices for garnish

Put the block of ice in a large punch bowl. If using ice chunks, fill the bowl just under halfway.

Add the juices and simple syrup. With a large spoon or ladle, stir 10 times (whichever direction you choose —the curse doesn’t get specific on stirring).

Add the rums. With the same large spoon or ladle, stir 10 more times.

Add the Champagne and stir very gently. Add lots of orange, lime and lemon slices.

Ladle into punch glasses, white wine glasses or historic goblets, working to get a little fruit in each receptacle. Serve immediately.

Serves 10.

From Wine Cocktails by A.J. Rathburn

Recipe: Skinny Rum Punch1

SKINNY RUM PUNCH

1 ounce white rum

2 ounces light orange juice

1 ounce lime juice

1/2 ounce lime juice

1/2 ounce dark rum

Add white rum and the juices to a highball or other cocktail glass with ice, then pour the dark rum on top and let it flow through the cocktail for effect.

From Skinnytinis by Teresa Marie Howes.

Recipe: The Beachbum1

THE BEACHBUM

1 ounce light rum

1 ounce dark rum

1/2 ounce apricot brandy

1/2 ounce almond syrup

3/4 ounces lime juice

1 ounce pineapple juice

Shake with ice and strain into ice-filled Collins glass. Garnish with cherry / orange flag.

From Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide

Recipe: Bahama Mama1

BAHAMA MAMA

1/2 ounce dark rum

1/2 ounce coconut liqueur

1/4 ounce 151-proof rum

1/4 ounce coffee liqueur

1/2 lemon juice

4 ounces pineapple juice

Combine all ingredients and pour into ice-filled highball glass. Garnish with a strawberry or a maraschino cherry.

From Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide

Recipe: Bajito1

BAJITO

4 fresh mint leaves

4 fresh basil leaves

5 slices fresh lime

1 tablespoon superfine sugar (or simple syrup)

3 ounces dark rum

In shaker glass muddle mint and basil with lime slices and sugar or syrup. Top with ice and them rum. Shake well and strain into ice-filled old-fashioned glass. Garnish with a basil leaf.

To make simple syrup, combine equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan, and stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Store in fridge.

From Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide

tmorgan@projo.com