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The James Gosling family business first produced Gosling Black Seal rum in 1806, and it is now the oldest surviving business on the island of Burmuda.
Gosling 'Black Seal' rum received it's name from the black wax originally used to seal the bottles. It is Bermuda's most widely exported product and considered the nation's national drink.
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Posted
2 years ago
Black Seal pretty much has stapled itself as the rum for the drink Dark N Stormy. Alone - meh. In that drink - great.
Posted
2 years ago
It makes a lovely Dark N Stormy, as does 100 other good rums. Taste of instant coffee and mild caramel when mixed with coke as does 100 other rums. Its ok and a safe purchase, rating this better than the average budget rum but not for me.
Update - My previous consumption of most the bottle was done during hot summer days and nights where I felt it to be just ok. Just consumed the rest during a cool period and its better. I would rate the new experience a 6.
Posted
2 years ago
Not expensive compared to other rums, but I would take a demerara rum over this black/blackstrap rum.
Posted
2 years ago
I've only tried this rum in my go-to rum and coke cocktail. That said, compared to other dark rums that I absolutely love in this mixed drink, this one is okay but certainly not my favorite.
Posted
over 2 years ago
Need a entry level black strap rum for your tiki parties? Goslings does the trick. Full of flavour, sweet and spicy!
Posted
over 2 years ago
Rich molasses taste would pair well with rich puddings.
Posted
over 2 years ago
Not a memorable sipper, but decent. Prefer it for the original and only real Dark'n'Stormy.
Posted
over 2 years ago
What to say that hasn’t been said about Goslings? As one of the most famous rums on the market, I suspect avid users of this site who aren’t familiar with this rum are few and far between.
I feel like this is the quintessential workhorse black blended rum. It’s not going to “wow” you and you’re not going to seek it out as a sipper. But it plays well with others and makes some decent mixed drinks on its own.
Initial taste is pretty sweet and aftertaste has a slight bitterness. For me this one has always tasted a bit hotter than it is (it’s only 80 proof), but yet it’s not a “cheap alcohol” burn, either: there’s enough richness to balance it out.
Goslings is a pretty affordable rum for the niche that it covers as a mixer. Plus, you legally cannot make a Dark ‘n Stormy without it. ;)
A bottle of this one is rarely not in my liquor cabinet.
Posted
over 2 years ago
Even thought I have experimented with other rums for my Dark & Stormy's such as the Cruzan Black Strap rum, Gosling's Black Seal is still my favorite. A dark and flavorful rum with a taste of it's own. The Black Seal Ginger Beer is not bad either but I prefer the Bundaburg or Barritts to it.
Posted
over 2 years ago
Is it El Dorado 12? No. Is it Coruba? No. But for what it is—a dark, molasses-forward English style rum that you can consistently get for under $20 a bottle—it's very good at what it does. A solid workhorse rum.
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After trying a half ounce pour of Blackwell's Black Gold Special Reserve at a rum bar a few weeks ago, I read the reviews on here and many compared it to Gosling's Black Seal. This got my curiosity back onto it after more than 30 years. Back then, when I tried my only bottle of Gosling's, I did not have the palate that I have today, so I absolutely hated it.
When I bought my new bottle, I did the right thing and picked up a six pack of Gosling's Ginger Beer to make their authentic signature Dark And Stormy. The recipe from Gosling's web site seemed to have too little rum for my tastes, with 1 part rum to 3 parts ginger beer. So I kept searching through other recipes until one explained that it is all about getting the right balance between the rum and the ginger beer. Agree!!! It was suggested to use 2 parts rum to 3 parts ginger beer. I also added a bit of the optional lime juice. All I can say is that this is one very strange and unique drink that was never popular where I grew up. It strikes me as a wannabe Tiki drink that was created on the wrong side of the world. I had one recently at a favorite beach bar and thought WTF. The same goes for my home made authentic version. My response is still WTF. I also tried the Gosling's recipe, which tries to hide the taste of this rum.
So this all leads to my initial taste of sipping neat from a Glencairn glass. It is NOT a black rum at all. If you want true black rum, try Cruzan Black Strap. It is reddish mahogany in color, and the color almost matches my new bottle of Ron Zacapa XO. It is also semi-dry with 11 gpl of added sugar. The aroma and flavors are totally alien to me, maybe because Bermuda is way the hell out in the middle of the ocean. I don't hate it, but I surely don't love it. I will figure out what to do with the rest of the bottle and ginger beer. Thank goodness that my creative streak runs high. For right now, it starts out with my rating of a 6. I also have the feeling that I will develop a love/hate relationship with this rum. I have also found a better use for this rum in Bermuda Coffee.
If anything, this bottle finally was inspiration to try their ginger beer, which is non-alcoholic. Ever since my days of cruising in rough seas on craft of 110 feet or less, ginger ale was always present to avoid sea sickness. It is also a great mixer for many rums. Well, the flavors of Gosling's Ginger Beer make my favorite ginger ale seem pale in comparison. Now that I found this out, why mess up a good ginger beer by adding this rum?
Update 9 days later: I tried like hell to find the perfect drink for this crap, but it looks like my original judgment from 30 years ago still holds true to this day. I now drop my rating from a 6 to a 4. As bad as this rum is, I have actually come across quite a few rums that are even worse!