Black Tot Rum releases the most recent version of its award-winning restricted collection – Grasp Blender’s Reserve 2025. Included in every bottling is a ‘perpetual mix‘, a proportion of rum put aside from the earlier 12 months’s launch, with further components, so the ultimate mix is totally different each time. This 12 months, the guts of the mix is Guyanese rum accompanying different conventional navy rum elements: Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad, together with a single cask from Trinidad’s Caroni ghost distillery. Additionnaly, to have fun 5 years of the Grasp Blender’s Reserve, it additionally comprises a bonus ration of the unique Black Tot fiftieth Anniversary, which has been additional maturing in an ex-sherry butt since 2020.
Black Tot – The British Navy’s Loss Is Rum Connoisseurs’ Acquire The story begins on 31 July 1970 – eternally often known as Black Tot Day… the final time Royal Navy sailors acquired their each day ration, or ‘tot’ of rum – a practice that went again over 200 years. Black Tot Rum started its journey in 2010, after Sukhinder Singh (co-founder of The Whisky Alternate and Elixir Distillers), acquired stoneware flagons crammed with the final consignment of Royal Navy Rum. After sampling them, Sukhinder was mesmerised by the depth of flavour, in addition to the legacy and mystique of those liquids. Elixir bottled a few of these flagons as Black Tot Final Consignment, now thought to be a historic rum bottling, to mark the fortieth anniversary of Black Tot Day.
5 Years on from Black Tot fiftieth Anniversary
Extra of those flagons featured within the mix of Black Tot fiftieth Anniversary, launched on 31 July 2020, and there is a component of this ‘final consignment’ rum within the annual Black Tot Grasp Blender’s Reserve launched each July since.
Over time, the Black Tot assortment has expanded to incorporate a core vary of Black Tot Best Caribbean and Black Tot Historic Solera.
All Black Tot releases are notable for the whole transparency across the origin, age and proportion of the weather within the blends.
The Perpetual Mix – Impressed by Custom
Black Tot Grasp Blender’s Reserve is a mix of a number of the most interesting rums round, every of which might be extremely revered if bottled individually. Nevertheless, Elixir Distillers’ Grasp Blender Oliver Chilton has built-in and balanced them to create one thing higher than the sum of its elements. In doing so, he’s paying homage to Navy Rum custom…
Elixir makes use of the Black Tot ‘perpetual mix’ approach – a contemporary tackle the fractional mixing technique initially used to retailer British Royal Navy rum on the Royal Victoria Victualling Yard in Deptford. The massive vats, situated subsequent to the Thames, had been emptied into flagons for transport around the globe. Nevertheless, the outlet pipes had been at one-third top, so, at the same time as new rum was added, it mingled with liquid that had blended and matured for years and even a long time – growing a vastly advanced flavour.
To have fun this time-honoured customized, every launch of Grasp Blender’s Reserve is mixed with a proportion of the earlier 12 months’s version, which additionally included a portion of the 12 months earlier than that, and so forth, again past the primary version in 2021, to its precursor, Black Tot fiftieth Anniversary from 2020. The mix additionally consists of rum from the final remaining Navy flagons.
Shared DNA however an evolving flavour profile
“We went again to the start of our journey, layering various, wealthy, heavy flavours in a really conventional, naval rum fashion. On this case, we have now not solely a nod to 2024, but additionally a tip of the hat to one in all our originals, the fiftieth Anniversary bottling.”
Black Tot Grasp Blender Oliver Chilton
Whereas each launch of Black Tot Grasp Blender’s Reserve echoes the decision of historical past, every additionally has a person character. The 2025 version is constructed round a backbone of aged Guyanese rum, with its wealthy Demerara sugar, tropical fruit and spice notes and conventional strategies similar to the usage of wood stills. The fiftieth Anniversary bottling itself was additionally led by rum from Guyana.
The mix is balanced by rum from Jamaica’s Worthy Park, and the complexity of an 18-year-old expression from Foursquare in Barbados, amongst others. So as to add distinctive depth, this 12 months’s mix boasts the inclusion of a uncommon cask from the legendary Trinidadian distillery, Caroni, which closed in 2002.
“It’s a privilege to get to work with these extremely high-quality rums when creating every version of Grasp Blenders Reserve. With each iteration we study extra about mixing rum, and the way we will take inspiration from strategies from the previous to create our future.”
Black Tot Grasp Blender Oliver Chilton
Tasting Notes
Black Tot Grasp Blender’s Reserve 2025 is an distinctive, subtle, and strong spirit. It has notes of black liquorice, darkish chocolate, and over-ripe banana on the nostril. On the palate, there are particulars of Valencia orange juice, anise, and dry cinnamon, dusted with the mint and fennel attribute of its age – adopted by a lovely grapefruit and acacia honey end.
As all the time, a completely clear breakdown of the mix elements is obtainable on the again label and on Black Tot Rum’s web site. As with all of the Black Tot vary, it’s non chill[1]filtered, and there’s no sugar or flavouring added. The total character and pure sweetness come solely from the rums inside the mix, which is bottled at navy energy (54.5% ABV).
This 12 months’s Black Tot Grasp Blender’s Reserve is proscribed to three,000 bottles (70cl, 54.5% ABV). It is going to be accessible globally from July. The Beneficial Retail Value is £145.
