Your favorite Navy style rum

"Velier Royal Navy Style rum" is more a Caroni than a navy blend :) Maybe there will be some evaporation and the blend will change.

Does Pusser's 15yo, which goes down very nicely, count?

Sure, if it's you favorite. There was also a good edition in gunpowder proof. It's still available but hard to find for a good price. https://thefatrumpirate.com/pussers-rum-50th-anniversary-rum

I had a lot of flagons from the last batch the Royal Navy had. Moved most of them on, but did decant one into 6 and a bit bottles @ about 54.3%. TBH it's a pretty good drop.

You mean this one: https://www.whiskyauctioneer.com/lot/156157/royal-navy-imperial-rum-flagon-1-gallon Yes, it's the original Navy Rum. I'm thinking about to buy a bottle. But the price is heavy. https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/12109/black-tot-last-consignment-royal-naval-rum

Isn't that a marvellous coincidence that my flagon is the same ABV as Black Tot !!!!

Black tot last consignment contains probably the same rum as your flagon. They just filled this rum in bottles as you have done. "About all you know going in is that it come from British Royal Navy stocks left over after the final rum ration was issued to the Jolly Jack Tars on Black Tot Day and that it was released in 2010 on the same day." "According to lore, it supposedly contains rums from Barbados, Guyana (of course), Trinidad and a little Jamaica". http://thelonecaner.com/r0237/ I don't know how it tastes, but I think my own blend goes also in that direction.

No probably about it.

I have yet to buy a Navy rum, unless you count OTFD. I do have quite a few high proof Foursquare expressions but I’m not sure those count as Navy rum. Pussers is on my list to try.

I love Navy rum. For me it’s Pussers. The regular British Navy is the standard. Really great stuff. Pussers 15 also good, arguably a tiny bit more complex, but at literally 3 times the price of the regular, just not worth it. Followed by Austrian Empire Navy Rum. Very good!

I'm going to try Pussers Gunpowder in some weeks. I just tried the best navy style rum I ever had: Velier Tiger Shark. Of course it's not cheap, but it's fantastic. I love Demerara flavors in combination with Worthy Park.

I was inspired by the WP in the Velier navy style rum. I created a new great blend. 2 Mount Gay XO 1 Velier Forsyths WPM 2006 1 Artesanal Diamond 2004 (you can also try ElD21) A hint of WPE 2019 SBS (high ester Worthy Park) to get more fruity notes It's Guyana and WP driven and also very tasty.

Oh, yes definitely Silver Seal old Navy Rum, a dream of a Navy Rum, wish I had bought a few more bottles. -Gunroom -Pusser's Gunpowder Proof -O.F.T.D. nice too @vomi1011 "If you have some drops of Caroni left, add them to your 4cl glass." I’m sure it's a joke, you mixing with caroni ??? Drops of Caroni are like gold - my absolute rum love ! :-)

Not all Caroni are great. I have some bottles that are not very good. Sometimes I use a little bit of them for this blend. Luka (Velier) used also some casks for his old navy blend. I'm sure they weren't the best. The Worthy Park WPM Forsyth 2006 and 2019 WPE are worth the same as my Caronis. I use them sometimes also for mixing because the navy blend tastes better for me than each one of them.

Ok. not all Caroni are great or I say not all are so intense like others. I prefer the dirty ones like the Velier, specially the 12 yo with diesel, petrol and burned rubber aromas. But I also like woody ones like Rum Nation or Berry's with fresh chopped wood and wet moss aromas. Funny your mixing thing, I just thought about today while the Mezan Jamaica rating how would it taste paired with the Guianas Mezan. Cool, keep on mixing/blend !!! If the result is satisfying.

My experience of "Navy rooms" is very limited. The only one in my rumbar is “Pusser's 15yo Nelson's blood” in the old bottle with the red label and I like it a lot. So after following this discussion I have to try to find some suitable "Navy rums" to test.

I just rated Pussers Gunpowder proof. And I was surprised how good it is. It has the largest proportion of Guyana rum in a navy blend that I know. That's why it's so tasty for me. If I were a navy soldier I would drink that the whole day. It's not as fruity as the Velier Tiger Shark but I like it's dark molasses based taste.

Pusser's Gunpowder Proof is ranked in the upper 5.7% of all the rums that I have reviewed up to this point. As an added bonus, it is relatively cheap. It is a "rebuy" for me IF I can find another bottle.

Yeah, I'm going to buy at least three bottles of this one. I would love to try the old one from Barbados/Guyana/Trinidad but I think the current one is better. Jamaica + Guyana, what could be better :)

vomi1011: To put it into perspective, you could buy 7 bottles of this Pusser's Gunpowder Proof for less than the price of one bottle of Diplomatico Ambassador. The price of a rum does not always equate to how good it really is, which is why my limit is $120 maximum per bottle. Nothing worse than spending a lot on a rum only to find out that cheaper ones taste much better.

Get ready the new black tot 50th Anniversary will be available in NOVEMBER 2020 https://blacktot.com/our-rums/black-tot-50th-anniversary/ Some more informations about it: https://cocktailwonk.com/2020/07/untangling-modern-navy-rums.html

Poa, surely an outstanding and hyper-delicious rum, but worth the price ? If you can afford it, so why not. Unfortunately, I'm not a manager, bank director or otherwise wealthy. :-) But a very interesting story.

I think it will be in the 80-150€ range, like Velier blends. They choosed good rums for this navy blend. "Black Tot 50th Anniversary Rum: A custom blend, quite different than Elixir’s normal Black Tot blend. The label has been hailed as a model of transparency, listing every component rum and its percentage in the blend. This rum is bottled at navy issuing strength: 54.5% ABV. It will be available in the U.S. It will undoubtedly be more than $50."

That would be nice in this price range, I think it's far more. But yes, surprise, surprise.

vomi1011: Thanks for the two excellent articles on Black Tot Rums and the confusion that often goes along with them. The last article mentioned that Pusser's Blue Label became available in 2010. Sorry, but this is clearly wrong! I have been buying Pusser's Blue Label off and on since the late eighties. Maybe they meant that the new company took over in 2010. I have since migrated to their Gunpowder Proof IF I can find any more bottles. As for their overly sugared 15 Year, I am glad that it is now gone from their lineup (or modified in a different bottle).. I think that the allure of sampling true Black Tot has a lot to do with history and not the taste of the rum. At $1000 per bottle for the original, they can keep it! Also, there is some dispute as to where the original actually wound up, so buyer beware! The 50th Anniversary Black Tot does indeed look like a premium blended rum, even though it has only 0.6% of the "original" version. However, if anyone truly believes that the British Navy went out of their way to blend such a complex rum for their sailor's daily rations, then I have a steamboat to sell them in the middle of the desert! Their daily rations were probably only a step above Bacardi. If it becomes available for $120 US or less in November AND I can get a hold of a bottle of Pusser's Gunpowder Proof, I will gladly buy both and do a taste test side by side test for this site. However, I am already thinking that fools and their money will soon part, so this is all nothing but a marketing scheme.

So Black Tot 50th Anniversary is a 9yo rum. I guess that it's quite clever that they list the breakdown of the blend, as well as being quite interesting. But no one has ever accused Raj and Sukhinder of not being very clever.

The Velier Tiger Shark is 14 years old compared to this one. So I hope it will be released below the price of € 100. Their black tot blend is not bad for just a 5y old rum. I would prefer more Demerara rum in the taste, but it did pretty well against the twice as expensive Silver Seal Old Navy rum. The nice thing about the 50th Anniversary is the proportion of Demerara rum of 63% and that's mostly the old rum. If I would blend a navy rum I would also use Demerara rum in 2/3 proportion. That's why I'm very interested in this rum.

Black Tot 50th is available now: https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/55082/black-tot-50th-anniversary-rum 5000 bottles at a price of 110 Pound.

Smith & Cross - $28 a bottle and one of the very best rums around. It's not a beginners rum for sure, but if you like Jamaican rums, this is as good as it gets at Navy Strength. And you don't have to break the bank to get it either.

Yes S&C is very good, also the Pussers Gunpowder is great, but I wanna break the bank to sip this beautiful juice :) I think it's a great blend and worth the money.

Have to chime in on velier Tiger Shark being a strong contender for best navy styled rum.

@vomi good news, thanks! So, I have to find a bottle of Black Tot 50th here, price sounds ok.

It will be soon available in german online shops, it's already on the way. I am curious whether it will be offered cheaper in Germany. It's also available on whisky.fr but for 142€. There is also a tasting set with the black tot 50th. But too expensive for me. https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/55801/black-tot-50th-anniversary-miniature-gift-set @martin Jeah, Tiger Shark is the best one for now. But lets see ;)

https://therumbarrel.co.uk/2020/11/28/review-black-tot-50th-anniversary https://thefatrumpirate.com/black-tot-50th-anniversary-rum There are two reviews and both are very satisfied with this blend. 👌

My personal favorites are the Pussers Gunpowder Proof and Smith & Cross. I love the Pussers15 but I don't really consider that to be a Navy rum because of the proof.

I would say Smith & Cross if it was a navy style rum, but it isn't right? It is a very different beast just bottled at navy strenght. My only other experiences are Pusser's red label (boring, boring and way too sweet) and Pusser's gunpowder which is sort of ok I guess but in the end I still feel like drinking immature rum (with still too much sugar) and for the money I can do a lot better. In all honesty I shy away from navy style rums just because of my experiences with Pusser's. Any tips for a non-sugared navy rums in the reasonably priced category to give the style one more chance?

You can try this one. https://thefatrumpirate.com/black-tot-rum-finest-caribbean Gunpowder should have around 7g sugar, not that much. It's strong but the taste is not immature. Maybe you don't like the dark molasses taste.

@ vomi1011 Thanks for the suggestion, at least the hydrometer gives it 0-5gpl which is a step forward in my book. So I might give it a try. Dark rums are not a problem at all, but sofar I am not much of a fan of Guyana rums and I think that is the main issue here, apart from the added sugar. So maybe I should get me a dry demerara from Mezan or so first, just to get a better feel for these rums.

Demerara rums from Guyana are different, the taste depends on the mark. Maybe you would like the Port Mourant style (it's bright and spicy, not very sweet, it was produced at Uitvlugt).