Forget the Caribbean, we have all the rum we need in Cornwall and Devon
When you think rum you probably think of the Caribbean: Jamaica, Barbados, perhaps Martinique. But you could also look a little closer to home. Cornish and Devonian rums are officially among the best in the world after Hattiers Eminence and Rosemullion Chocolate rums won gold medals at the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC), the Olympics of high quality liquids.
Former Doctor Who props man Phillip Everett-Lyons set up the H.B. Evelyo Distillery on Haye Farm in the South Hams of Devon and, in 2017, started making Hattiers rum, named after his eldest daughter. Its award-winning Eminence rum is blended from rums from Australia, Trinidad and Jamaica while its Egremont Premium Reserve comprises different aged rums from Barbados, Dominican Republic, Panama and Guatemala. To give it a flavour of the south of England, Dartmoor water is added.
“I went through 13 sources of water before finding the right one,” says Everett-Lyons. “It’s drawn from a well in the village of Beesands, treated only with UV and filtration, and we never use reverse osmosis on the water as we don’t need to. We’ve the granite of Dartmoor to thank for that.”
Cornish rainwater is also the secret ingredient in the rum by former chemists Andy and Liz Bradbury, whose white and dark rums are fermented, distilled and aged in Mawnan Smith, close to the Helston River in south Cornwall.
The gold medal winners face competition from new St Austell-based independent drinks company Upbeat Spirits, which makes 8Track, a bespoke blend of Guyana and Barbados rums infused with sustainably sourced Seville oranges, vanilla, cloves, ginger and cinnamon.
Other notable Cornish rectifiers, spicers and rumsters include Dead Man’s Fingers; Jack Shannon and Harvey Thomas’s Cape Cornwall Distillery; George and Angela Malde’s Rock Rum; The Cornish Distilling Co in Norton Barton, which produces Mooncurser and Morvenna; and Elle Deamus’s Fal River Distillery at Mabe Burnthouse, which makes Petrel rum.
Devon boasts the Kingsbridge-based Devon Rum Company and Two Drifters Distillery, which produces an overproof spiced pineapple run.
So if you’re grudgingly giving up the white sands of the Caribbean this summer for a long drive to Land’s End, at least you can console yourself with some first grade booze.