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Discover, Sip, Repeat: Your Adventure Begins Here
Rockstar Spirits are ever expanding, these incredible rums are intense and flavour led but where did their story start? In this week’s blog we discover more about these delicious tipples.
Rockstar Spirits launched in 2018 it is the lovechild and creation of founder Thomas Hurst. From Manchester, this larger than life character has had a long career in the spirits and drink industry, mostly on the corporate side. This includes work with brands such as William Grant & Sons where he oversaw brands such as Sailor Jerry and Hendricks. He then moved on to LWC Drinks to head the signature brands range.
Moving on from a successful career in spirits, and particularly flavoured rums, he decided to launch Rockstar spirits to be the very best spiced and flavoured rum; also wanting to build on the trend of mixable spirits but also smooth enough to be sippable.
The rum he initially launched was the formidable but delicious Pineapple Grenade, an overproof spiced rum enhanced with salted caramel coming in 65%. Since then the Rockstar range has increased to include the navy strength Banana Bomb and the Captain Webbs Two Swallows, which are a tamer 38%.
Part of the success of the Rockstar range is the base rum that they use for blending, spicing and flavouring. It is sourced from Guyana, the Diamond Distillery in particular. Guyana has a long history of distilling, at one point nearly every sugar plantation had its own still! Diamond Distillery is the last surviving distillery in Guyana and has some unique forms of distillation.
The location of the distillery is also quite unique, it is called Demerara County and is located below sea level. While the open fermentation is taking place the wash is exposed to different environmental factors that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. This gives the rum a sense of terroir imparting flavours and characteristics that are impossible to replicate anywhere else in the world.
Distillation takes place in three different heritage stills, French Savalle, Double Wooden Pot and a Wooden Coffey Still. Rockstar Spirits will use a blend of rum from each of these stills to create a well balanced base in order to build levels of flavour. After they have achieved the correct blend they infuse the rum with a range of spices, fruit and is slightly sweetened with salted caramel.
As mentioned earlier Thomas introduced the Two Swallows range. These rums do not have the hefty percentage that the overproof Grenade and navy strength Bomb serise have, coming in at more approachable 38%. They are flavoured and spiced in a range of styles, including: Banana & Salted Caramel Spiced Rum, Pineapple & Salted Caramel Spiced Rum, Cherry & Salted Caramel Rum, Citrus & Salted Caramel Rum and Orange and Ginger Rum.
The brand really saw a growth after being featured on many TV programmes, Thomas appeared on Dragons Den where he received investment from two of the dragons. It has also been featured on This Morning and went down a treat! Holly Willoughby loved the rum so much she wanted to take a bottle back to her dressing room! We can tell you we had the same reaction when we tried it.
These spirits work beautifully with a range of mixers, obviously Cola is the go to for a lot of people and as you can imagine is amazing with the Cherry & Salted Caramel Rum. We also love mixing them with ginger beer, ginger ale, Ting and lemonade. Where these rums come into their own is when used in cocktails, here are two of our favourites.
Add all of the ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice and shake well. Fine strain into a chilled glass.
In a tall glass muddle the lime wedges, then add the bitters and rum. Fill the glass with ice and top with cola.
We are sure you will love these rums, Rockstar are really pushing the boundaries when it comes to spiced and flavoured rums. Why not pick up a bottle and let us know what you think!
