The Rum Barrel Blog

The 5th edition of the Rum Show happened on the 18th and 19th of July at the same location, Glaziers Hall near London Bridge. I joined the trade session that took place on Friday between 12PM and 4PM and a little bit of the evening session for the public which happened between 5:30PM and 9:30PM. I was unable to go on Saturday for the 12PM and 6PM session due to work duties, but I’ve managed to try most of the things I was interested in.

My first stop was of course the Outlier Distilling stand where I had to catch up with Ian, the creator of the rum, and I also got to try his new release, Mistral – this is a 4 year old rum aged in ex-Bourbon barrels and finished in the barrel used to make their Millions of Peaches. I could really taste the influence of the finish and it was really interesting. Next it was the neighboring Ninefold stand and all I can say is that we should all look forward to their next release later in the year… Scottish oak rum anyone? Continuing on with British rums and their future releases, DropWorks is playing around with some barrels, including a chestnut wood barrel (wink wink!).

After all of that I went to Cuba’s Havana Club where I got to see their revamped Seleccion De Maestros and 15 Year Old, most importantly I got to sample one of my favourite findings at the show – a Single Cask Havana Club made exclusively for The Whisky Exchange. Speaking of interesting, the El Dorado Port Mourant High Ester was also a great find (y’all know I’m a sucker for PM). Continuing on Guyanese rums, the Tamosi Haubariria, a 31 Year Old Enmore distillate, was absolutely stunning as well.

Next I went to say “hi” to Billy from The Whisky Exchange where I had a couple of tots of their Transcontinental Australia (Beenleigh) and their Renaissance Deuxieme Cru Classe Finish and they didn’t disappoint.

Now it wouldn’t be a rum event if I didn’t go to the Black Tot stand and say hi to Mitch and his team. He was more than happy to share some of the Black Tot Master Blender’s Reserve 2025 and I’ll just say we are in for a treat once again.

I couldn’t miss out on the new releases from my favourite Barbados rum brands – Foursquare Convocation and Mount Gay Cognac Cask Expressions were both amazing, but I really want to try them again with a fresh palate.

Speaking of new releases, Velier has dabbled in working with rum from Thailand resulting in a new bottling called Shakara. Also Worthy Park has a new overproof white rum on the market made both from molasses and cane juice, which is very unique for modern times Jamaica – exciting times ahead!

I haven’t mentioned all the rums I tried, but I do confirm there was no bad tot I’ve experienced at this year’s Rum Show. It was a full day filled with a lot of cane spirits and good chat, so it was a pleasure as always. I do recommend it for any rum lover.

Given I have been taking a break from the rum world, it was great to see everyone and catch up with some people as well as with what is happening on the rum market nowadays.

Here are the rest of the photos I took:

Cheers!