Life

Take flight and spice up winter with a tasty new rum

Butterfly Cane Rum
Butterfly Cane Rum Butterfly Cane Rum

THE popularity of rum cocktails

is pushing vodka from the top

spot for the first time since the 1960s, according to supermarkets and drinks firms.

A craze for cocktails has helped the drink to become the UK’s fastest growing spirit, according to data from Tesco. It said sales have jumped more than 22 per cent – far higher than any other spirit – over the last few years.

And it has replaced Champagne in the Office for National Statistics ‘shopping basket’ of goods that consumers typically buy.

The spirit hasn’t been in such high demand since the 1960s when rum and coke was the drink of choice.

Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane byproducts, such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels.

The majority of the world’s rum production occurs in the Caribbean and Latin America. Rum comes in various grades: light rums are commonly used in cocktails, whereas ‘golden’ and ‘dark’ rums are traditionally consumed straight or neat, on the rocks, or used for cooking, but are now more often taken with mixers.

Butterfly Cane Rum is an entirely new product, a premium-quality, three-year-old rum matured in oak barrels by Angostura-manufacturer Fernandes Family Distillers in Trinidad to hit the taste profiles now popular in the rum category. Based on the Boucher Road in Belfast, supplier and distributor Botl Wine & Spirit Merchants is the sole owner of the new brand targeting the burgeoning demand for rum among 18 to 30 year olds.

The brand name is inspired by nature, with the pure cane sugar grown in Trinidad and harvested when the native species of butterfly, known locally as the Scarlet Peacock, lands on the crop, feeding off the ripe sap.

The new brand is available as a 37.5 per cent ABV, three-year-old golden rum alongside a spiced variant, which is infused with a mix of spices and vanilla to offer the perfect balance of rich deep taste and spiced warmth at 35 per cent ABV. The Spiced Rum has intense vanilla and toffee on the nose with a long spicey finish – it is a perfect balance of deep rich taste and spiced warmth. Fans of rum will love this new drink.

Butterfly Cane Rum is £15.99 and Butterfly Cane Spiced Rum is £13.49 at Tesco and other independent off sales.