Coming up in this video I’ve got a quick review of this, this is Hoxton banana flavoured rum. This is my first flavoured rum. I've been doing spiced rums up until now and you could argue that spiced rums are flavoured rums, but spices are all kind of revolved around the same sort of similar lines. You know, all those traditional kinds of Caribbean spices. This one is rum flavoured up with banana.
BUY HOXTON BANANA RUM
Now as I’ve noticed with a lot of these spiced rums & flavoured rums I’ve been doing on my channel, they're a bit livelier than gin, because they've got some cracking stories on the back of the bottles. Gin doesn't really have that Gins dull and boring. Rums the fun. So, let me read what the back of this bottle says. So natural banana flavoured rum spirit drink, it is a proper forty percent and so 80 proof if you're watching this in the States, and so it's not one of these liqueurs or anything like that. Is proper rum, now here we go... Breaking all the conventions of flavour and combining ingredients and imagination Hoxton banana rum is lovingly curated by East London drinks maverick Gerry Calabrese using the finest ethically sourced natural ingredients to obtain a unique drinking experience made with fresh and dried bananas, macerated with a blend of the finest hand selected rums for up to five weeks. Alright so not kind of a marketing story, but a bit of background and kind of, you know the whole banana thing makes you kind of buy into it and think oh that sounds tasty.
Now a little background on Gerry Calabrese. Gerry is the guy that's out at the Hoxton Pony, kind of Bar and nightclub in Shoreditch area of London, and he's the guy, he's to my recollection, he's the guy who sort of created the first weird flavour gin all the way back in 2011. So, some eight years ago. If you don't know what the gin is it's a grapefruit and coconut flavoured gin. So quirky wacky, wild, kind of like a Marmite flavour, you either love it or hate it. I have to say for me I really like it. It's kind of a Malibu flavoured gin if you like, but for me it doesn't really go down too well on my tastings my gin tasting nights, people want proper flavour gin, so I would say the gin is more of a cocktail ingredient and I think much of what I’ve read about this, I haven't tried this yet but I think this is going to be the same.
Now as with the last spiced rum flavours that I did, the two swallows they talked about the provenance of their base rums as well this is kind of similar. We don't get the distilleries that and the where the rums come from. But we have got the countries. We've got a blend of pot and column still rums in here and we've got a blend of English rums and Spanish rums as well. So, three countries or islands whatever you want to call them, and we've got in there we've got Barbados, which is obviously the English style of rum, we've got the Dominican Republic which is a Spanish style of rum. And we've got a Nicaraguan rum as well which is another Spanish style of rum.
All right let's go ahead and smell it also I’ve down is sort of taking the little foil off there I haven't capped the bottle yet. So just pop that to one side. I've never tasted this. I've never smelt it. I've got no idea what to expect. I'm hoping for a vibrant banana flavoured rum. So, we'll see. All right there we go certainly get that, it's a big bold banana of aromas on the nose there. I also get, I don't like to really use this because it's hard to explain it, but if you're rum lover, you'll know exactly what I mean. You get the real kind of rum funk going on with this. Real kind of massive rum funk. It's lovely smelling rum. Right let's pop a little bit in our tasting glass. If anything, now in the glass, the aroma of the funk sort comes out a bit more the banana kind of dulls down into the background. But I really can't wait to taste this so quick ice cube in there swirl it around. I just like to try my rums just with a little bit of ice, add that tiny bit of dilution.
Right here we go so the first thing to note on this, it's a real subtle hint of banana it's not a banana flavoured liqueur. It's not out-and-out up in your face banana. It’s got very big sort of tropical notes there and the banana just kind of subtly comes in the back. The finish is dry. It's not liked the spiced rums have been trying it's not like that at all. Really dry finish on the palate. And you just kind of get that lingering banana on your lips and just on the side to your throat just down there. That is lovely. I was thinking, totally expecting it to be a lot sweeter than what it is, but in a sense, this is a proper rum that's just kind of got that flavoured, a sort banana thing. It’s very reminiscent for me, and a completely different way to plantation siggins fancy pineapple rum, people think that's going to be an out-and-out flavoured pineapple rum and it's not it's a proper rum with a sort of subtle hint of pineapple going through this is the same. I can't wait to try this with mixers what I’ve got is just set up over there. I've got all my mixes ready to go so I'm just going to go off camera and when I come back, I'm gonna tell you what my favourite mixes for this.
Right I'm back I’ve just tried as you can see, I’ve had a good play around for this for the last half an hour or so. Really interesting this one. Really interesting and we'll start with coke. As I’ve tried with coke, I did try it with these two as well, these are my two favourite signature cokes. Honestly, it was drinkable. Really nice, but it for me I think probably banana flavour for me, it's not a rum and coke rum. Alright so while it works. Some people are going to like it. For me I didn't really enjoy it too much. Next up I'm going to go straight there, because I thought, out of all the mixes that I tried, this is Schweppes Muscovado dark spirit mixer. I thought this if you're going to make a highball, just a very simple serve, the Muscovado and the banana I just thought what an absolute treat and by far and away hands-down the best sort mixer for me. The ginger beers and a ginger Ale's, I tried all these we tried the old Jamaica as well. I've run out a fever tree a ginger beer, so I didn't get to the fever tree. But you know pleasant enough. Really nice. But because that lacks a kind of sweetness that the spice rums have got, you know what it doesn't really work for me.
There but here's something I want to share with you as well, because I had a sneaky suspicion that this would work as more of a cocktail rum than anything else. Now the two cocktails that really spring to mind, that I haven't tried, I think this would be amazing in a banana daiquiri. I really do think that'll be superb. The other obvious one because of the tropical notes and the banana in there is kind of a flip on that Pina Colada as well. So, they're the kind of two and cocktails that would probably be go to, whether you’re at home or you're in pubs and bars. Banana daiquiri and a Pina colada with that as the base rum. Because that has got the rum kick to it, but I wanted to try something with, and I have mentioned a couple of times in these videos now. I'm getting to that age where fizzy things don't really agree with me. So, I’ve kind of got my punch grog kind of thing going on and what I’ve created is a banana punch.
BUY HOXTON BANANA RUM
Now this is very simple. Okay. Sounds bizarre or may sound bizarre to a lot of you, but all this is, is 15 mil of fresh lime juice, 30 mil of sugar syrup, 50 mil of the rum and then I’ve got a dash of Angostura bitters. But then I’ve got a 75 mil of just bottled plain, or you could use the tap water, not fizzy water. Just still water. And I’ve made a punch and as you can see, I’ve had a little sip. I haven't garnished it. Normally with punches like this I would do kind of a grated nutmeg on there, but this is amazing. I really like this. I could drink that literally all day long and the thing that, that kind of recipe does, the lime and the sugar and the bitters, it just accentuates the banana, so for me that actually turns it into more of a banana rum that what it actually is. Because also I get on the aftertaste is the kind of it's the banana and those tropical notes flowing through. Really love that. So, I’ll run you through that recipe very quickly again. 15 mil of fresh lime juice and 30 ml of sugar syrup. 50 mil of the banana rum. A dash of Angostura bitters which you get in most supermarkets. And 75 mil of still water and I’ve just stirred around. No shaking or anything like that just stirred it round, and you would, I would normally grate, dust some grated nutmeg over there as well. Stunning.
So, as a cocktail rum I think that is lovely. That's my go-to for what I love to drink at home. Now still got a low calorie you just got the rum in there. But I tell you if you're looking to mix that. It's magical with Schweppes Muscovado dark spirit mixer, most supermarkets. Hoxton banana rum. Love it!