And from the Rest of the World...
We are loving the rum from outside the Caribbean too... here are some of our recent discoveries and faves...
We have a soft spot for Inner Circle rums... Inner Circle Rum was never meant to be a commercial product. The directors of The Colonial Sugar Refinery (CSR) simply wanted to produce the best rum possible for themselves and their key clients – and no expense was spared. They decided to use old-fashioned pot stills rather than continuous distillation and to age the drink for more than two years in oak (typically in old casks previously used for bourbon). Inner Circle’s superior flavour was the result.
CSR was founded in 1855 and established refineries in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. It built the Harwood Distillery in 1873 on the Clarence River in northern New South Wales and started domestic rum production. In 1890, CSR opened a distillery in Fiji and in 1901 in Pyrmont (in Sydney’s inner western suburbs).
The Pyrmont distillery produced the highest quality rum, using sugar cane from Australia and Fiji, and pot stills. Inner Circle Rum was based on the distilling methods used in the early 1900s in Pyrmont and, much later, was entered into Spirit Shows, winning its first gold medal at the Sydney Agricultural Show in 1950. But the product was kept for the exclusive consumption of the CSR board of directors and the inner circle of CSR management.
The ritual of presenting a bottle, once a year, to CSR’s best clients created a demand that would ultimately force the company to put Inner Circle onto the market. Inner Circle Rum immediately developed a cult following. It was originally released in three strengths: Underproof, Overproof and 33 Overproof Full Strength, with a different coloured circle indicating each.
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