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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
over 1 year ago
It can be drunk neat, but i think it really shines in as a mixer. Where you can make some unique and wonderful drinks, with the profile from this rum. It has a sweet well rounded and spicy taste, which really punches through in cocktails.
Posted
over 1 year ago
The classic dark and stormy, works wonders. I really only use this one for cocktails and not as a sipper.
Posted
over 3 years ago
I'm a rum drinker for years. Just read a spy thriller where the hero was based in Bermuda and always drank Gosling's Black Seal. I didn't like Meyers so I was skeptical of this dark rum, but if it's good enough for Alex Hawke it might be OK. What a pleasant surprise. I'm an on the rocks guy. This is much better than Meyers. I smiled all the way through a 1.75 bottle. 8 might be a bit high but I want it on my good list for when I forget. I like the taste, it's smooth enough for the rocks and all this at a great price. I'm a firm believer that producing good ru at a low price deserves recognition. There are only 2 rums I give 8s to that are available in 1.75L. The other is Flor de Cana 7
Too many artificial colors and what not. Pass. There are better options for the same money.
Posted
almost 5 years ago
I bought this brand awhile ago after reading about the origins of the "Dark & Stormy". As call rum and good ginger ale is one of my favorites, thought I would give it a go. Not again even if you're buying. I've never tasted motor oil but have to say I think it would be something like this. I'll have to ask Dominic Greene. Also tried their canned ginger ale mixer, don't it's packed with corn fructose.
Posted
almost 9 years ago
This is the rum I use for my dark 'n stormys. It does a great job, but also one I can sip on the rocks if I don't feel like a cocktail. I always have a bottle of this on hand,
Posted
9 years ago
Sugar: 11 gpl. My first review of this rum was from my Rum and Coke days. Having moved away from that stage when this rum was a "headache in a bottle" I recently tried this in a Bermuda Twizzle and everyone loved it. I was not going to buy this rum again as a sipper, but as a mixer it is very good in mixed drinks such as Hurricanes, Mai Tais, Swizzles, etc. At $25 a bottle in Canada it is a great deal.
Posted
9 years ago
The obvious Dark n Stormy mixer, but nice with coke or ginger ale too. Smooth for an inexpensive rum. Plays well with sweeter mixes as well.
edited to add sugar test results- 11g
A very sweet dark. Usually drink this on the rocks with ice however it does fine with soda.
This is a good dark rum and excellent mixer. Obvi must have for Dark'n Stormy. Good starting point for dark rums.
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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!