The Duppy Share rum blending at the Plough bar and kitchen.

 

Blend  is sort of a dirty word word in the spirit world.

It really shouldn’t be, but it sort of is.Whisky is a great example because whisky is drunk by two types of people. People who know about whisky, and people that think they know about whisky. You can be damn sure it’s the latter group that will order a single malt, not one of those blended craps. After all, you’d never see James Bond ordering anything but a Single Malt.

Well of course not but that’s because A) James Bond is a fictional character and b) his creator was a desk clerk with delusions of grandeur.

Now I’m starting to develop a taste for whisky, mostly due to the fact I know whisky drinkers and they keep convincing me to try them. (Turns out that terrible costcutters own whisky I once drank when I was 16 has precisely no relation to what whisky actually taste likes) but my heart belongs very certainly to rum.

I drink rum in all form it comes in. I mix it, I drink it straight and I am drawn to cocktails that promise a taste of it. I drink anything from golden to navy black and yes, I even drink the Sainsbury’s  own. (Try not to judge me).

And just to rescue my reputation from those admissions, my favourite rum is the El Dorado 12 year old.

Anyway, back to the point.

A couple of months ago I was introduced to the new kid on the block – The Duppy Share. Before we even get to the drink, you need to take a moment to appreciate the story. With whisky about 2-3% evaporates per year during the aging process. They call this the angels’ share. Which makes very little sense to me. What do angels do with whisky? Are angels even allowed to drink?! In the caribbean the heat causes the drink to age more quickly and obviously, more heat means more evaporation, up to 7% a year.  The caribbean mythology is that there are mischievous spirits called duppies who steal the rum and have an epic party and presumably even worse hangovers.

It also happens to be a terribly nice rum. It’s almost like a whisky in it’s oaky style, not heavy in molasses, or over sweet. So naturally when I clocked they were doing an event at the plough, I signed myself up.

The plough is very much a bar rather than a pub (believe me, there is a detailed description of this distinction coming soon). I’m not generally a bar person, I like pubs that I can sit and read a book in ,but I make an exception for the Plough. The Plough is lively enough to make it feel like a friday night every day of the week but never so crowded you can’t grab a seat. It’s the kind of place you go for a few beers to wind up the week, chat to your girl mates and all the things that seemed terrible are now the things you’re giggling over. I like the people there and I like the selection even more. They actually stock the El Dorado 15 (I’ve never worked up the courage to ask the price, I know how much the 12 is at retail) generally excellent spirits and they have a craft beer menu titled “beers to try before you die”. The minute they start stocking Westons or Sandford Orchards ciders, I’m moving in.

Let the blending begin

Rum, to be rum, has to made from sugar cane, above a certain percentage and can only have water or caramel (for colour) added to it.

Duppy is a blended rum. Which I’ve never really thought about before. I don’t usually get past oooo pretty and mmmm tasty. Step in Ryan and Jess to eludicate. Jess explains that this is no whisky tasting which is probably already obvious from the pots of coloured felt tips. (and the rums.) We then get to try a Jamician 5 year old, a Barbados 3 year old, The Duppy Share and a Guyana Navy rum (fun fact- Navy rums are so called because they’re 57% proof which is the exact lowest percentage of alcohol that soaked gunpowder will still ignite and so the only rum allowed onboard ship.)

But as promised there’s no bizarre associations to various flauna, but instead this:

This is the flavour chart of The Duppy Share. Proving that Jess and George co-founders of The Duppy Share actually did some work whilst travelling the Caribbean drinking rum (Seriously guys, any ‘research’ you need- I’m your girl.). Jess explains that The Duppy Share is carefully created to be a mixing rum and a straight rum. Which makes me realise I’ve been terribly unfair to some of the rums in my aqquatance because I keep juding them on how good they are in a cubra libre, but some just aren’t right with lime and coke. Gosling’s is designed to be drunk with ginger beer (they patented Dark ‘N ‘Stormy). Havanna 7 is beautiful with coke, El Dorado  I made the mistakte of drinking with a mixer, but is designed to be a sipping rum.

This all makes sense when you profile several rums because you start to think about what flavour you want and what effects the mixer will have on the overall drink, whether it’ll add to the sweetnest of needs to conteract it . Also, yes, I forgot the colour point on the Navy, hence the mysterious triangle.

So now we’ve mapped four different rums, it’s time to make our own. I analyse my maps trying to look imaginative. My fellow rum students are carefully depicting exact flavour profiles, discussing with Ryan and Jess the careful balancing of different rums to create their blend. They carefully build their drinks, tasting and adjusting. I on the other hand put some Jamaican in The Duppy Share to bring out a bit more sweetness and tropical fruits.

I promised no weird analogies, I know, Jess explained tropical fruits to be anything else that was covered by the other points. Which is a damn sight simpler than ‘tropical fruits’. (How tropical is tropical? Do bananas count or does it need to be harvested from the heart of the amazon at midnight by a tribe that’s only outside contact is trading fruits for corn?)

I like the oakiness (tastes a bit like whisky) of The Duppy Share, and just about everything else. I also like slightly sweeter rums. So I basically make a child of Jamaica and Duppy Share. As it’s a Tuesday, naming it seems fairly obvious.

 

I then realise I’ve accidently opened up a great joke and send the picture to my mum telling her she has a grandchild. Seeing as there was some amount of rum drinking involved in this decision and she still hasn’t  replied, I’m going to go out on a limb and say this wasn’t nearly as funny as I thought.