And Two Swallows Cherry Spiced Rum Review
I've been looking forward to filming this video this one. This is Two Swallows Spiced Rum Review. Candied Fruits with Salted Caramel. And the brand-spanking-new Cherry with Salted Caramel.
These Two Swallows Rums, they are the baby brothers of the grenades that I featured previously. They were two other rums out of the rock star spirits stable, aka Thomas Hurst, aka the guy I’ve talked about quite a lot in these videos recently. The old J founder, and then he went on to launch these guys. These are kind of the newest rums out of the stables. The grapefruit grenade is also new as well, but these are the kind of sixty-five percent ABV rums these a much more accessible 38% spiced rums.
Buy Two Swallows Spiced Rums Online
So why two swallows and why captain Webb? You can see him on the label there. Well I love a marketing story don't we all love a marketing story. So, I'm gonna read you the back of the bottle because these marketing stories are brilliant. Thomas G Hurst the multi award-winning spiced rum creator has made two swallows in tribute to his famous Victorian ancestor captain Matthew Webb. It's my surname by the way. It's not barman in case you didn't realize that. That's my surname, Webb. Perhaps we're related.
The naval captain a rose to fame in 1875 when he became the first man to swim the English Channel but drowned in 1883 while swimming in the Whirlpool Rapids at Niagara Falls. In naval tradition, when a sailor drowns, the two swallows on their tattoos will carry their souls up to heaven. So, there we go, we love a little marketing story. There we can see the two swallows on the label. We can see captain Webb there in the corner. Perhaps he is my ancestor too. Perhaps, Hursty, perhaps we are related.
The reason I'm so excited to try these, I’ve, tried this I think, I can't remember when, I think it was March and it was the northern Bar Show. I think that's when I first tried at that one. That is brand spanking new. But I absolutely love it. He's just in my opinion, is a genius with the flavour combinations. I mean grapefruit and honeycomb. That is absolutely banging with coke. I mean who'd have thought that and then the pineapple grenade with salted caramel which is my favourite is the Schweppes Muscovado makes it just amazing. But I know Tom wanted to create to spiced rums that were just amazing and go to accessible rums to drink with coke. So, I'm not gonna do a free-for-all mixer review with all these mixes. I'm not going to try that. I'm gonna try this with coke live on video.
Now if you'd like the sound of these rums and you want to buy them. The cherry, I’ve been waiting, it is now out there it's everywhere online; Amazon, my wholesalers master of malt, the drinkshop.com, that's where I get them from and price wise, will be anything between £18 and £20 to £24 pounds, so a bit cheaper than they're about £30 for the grenades, so a lot cheaper I’ll pop links in the show notes of where you can get them from.
But if you are new to the whole world of Rockstar Spirits, their rums, as I mentioned the reason why I kind of like them, they do talk about the provenance of where the rums come from. They are loud and proud with their base spirit. Their base spirit is the diamond distillery in Guyana. One of my favourite all-time rums El Dorado, especially in 12-year-old absolutely love El Dorado. Kind of that sort of demerara, or slightly sort of thick sugary taste that absolutely love that so, and I still haven't looked, I should do, but I think they're somehow connected to Pepsi as well. Diamond distilleries somehow, it's connected to, making Pepsi, so I absolutely love the base spirits. As I say not many other rums will go loud and proud of where, spiced rums I should say, will go loud and proud of where and they get their base rum from. These guys diamond distillery in Guyana cracking award-winning rums and just you can tell in the final product.
So, let’s talk about the first spiced rum. I think it came out at the start of 2019. Not sure when it was, 2018 tail-end, but certainly 2019 is when I became aware of it. And basically, the Rum from the diamond distillery is brought back to the UK, Manchester, and is spiced up with traditional kind of spices in there, it's got cinnamon, cloves, probably a bit of nutmeg, vanilla, and then, and ginger, obviously ginger... And then they add the candied fruits the lemons and oranges, maybe some limes in there, and then they add caramel and then a touch of rock salt just to kind of balance the flavour out. Then apparently with the cherry one, the cherry is done in exactly the same way, so you got those traditional spices, but instead of the candied fruit that goes into that one, they replace it with cherry and then obviously the caramel and the rock salt and balances it all out. Now I'm super excited that I’ve never tried that. The bottle is still sealed there. As I say, I tried out fleetingly about six months ago and so I haven't had a bottle. Haven't tried it properly. Haven't had a drink with it. It was tried neat. Certainly, haven't tried it with coke and as I’ve said they launched these to try and create the perfect sort of spiced rum and coke drink.
So, first off, I'm gonna start with the candied fruits in salted caramel one. Have a little smell and then we're gonna have a little taste. So, let's crack it and go. Right Wow. Some great smells coming off. They're kind of a complex aroma on there. Get bags of vanilla and the caramel comes through afterwards but then just right in the background you get that sort of subtle hint of citrus. That is lovely to smell. Right let's taste it just put a little glug in there. Right let's give it a little swirl anything different. I reckon if you put it in a glass, I reckon I can smell it the sort of lime the citrus really comes off there a lot more now kind of. Just so many different aromas going on there. Smells lovely. I can't wait to taste this. Right.... Wow! That is surprising. On the nose right as soon as you get out there you get a caramel a little bit of vanilla and a citrus. In the mouth the first thing you notice, it's quite... Let's go posh, it's quite viscous. It's quite sort of thick in in kind of texture. But I tell you when that goes down the aftertaste it just opens you get all those kinds of spices and even now, the longer it lingers down the throat, I get so many more different spices. I've got clove. I've got cinnamon in there. Got a real kick of ginger at the end. But that is just beautifully balanced out with the sort of citrus in there. Oh, that is amazing. Really love that. And I think the thing is well, even, so I did old J a few days ago and I noticed with that there was no sort of alcoholic kick at all, it's only 35 percent ABV. This is only slightly stronger 38% so it is legally and technically a spiced rum. But that ABV difference, you do get the sort of alcohol kick, but I think that really kind of helps to bring all those spices forward. That is just lovely.
Right let's put that to one side. Let's move on to the cherry one now. So, we can do the same. Cherry, as crack this, never tried, smell or anything. This is brand spanking new. There we go. Well on the nose again, all those different aromas. But the big, obviously the big aroma that comes out is cherry. Really does kind of remind me, you know, those red maraschino cherries that you get in cocktails in sort of 80s and 90s, and we're bringing it back now. That was what it really reminds me of. Those kind of maraschino cherries. But there is a lot of spice and a lot of caramel in there as well. Can't wait to taste this. Right let's do it. So, we've got a nice kind of bronzy colour in there actually. A kind of little bit difference to the bottle. Right let's pop another Ice Cube in there. Give it a swirl again. Again, sort of those Cherry Notes with a subtle hint of, maybe the spice dies down a little bit. But those subtle hints of caramel in there. Right here we go I cannot wait to try this cherry. Cherry cokes. Amazing right. Wow. He has done it again. That is just... I was expecting it to taste completely the opposite to how it does taste. What I was expecting was big bold cherry notes. Kind of like a cherry liqueur. Kind of like a cherry brandy, like cherry just hitting you and it isn’t. It's a very well balanced. Subtle hint of cherry. The spice probably more, whereas that one was kind of, you tasted to sort of nutmeg in, and the cinnamon, and the cloves. That for me, is kind of more reminiscent of, more peppery, kind of flavour in there, but you do get the hints of spice, bit of ginger. I want to say honey as well. Maybe I'm getting a bit of honey on that. But that's just stunningly balanced. Absolutely amazingly balanced.
Right what I'm going to do now, because he wanted to create, I think I'm gonna do a separate video with these, with the mixes. I'm gonna leave that, I'm gonna have a good play with all these mixes. But what I want to do now while I'm filming, so I’ve never tasted it. He wanted to create the perfect rums to go with coke. So that is what I'm going to taste now. We should have enough in there. I've got a nicely chilled can. I always use Coke Zero and I know their social media have been rolling out these with the coke signature ones as well, this spicy and the woody. I'm just going plain coke for the time being. I'll play about with those in a separate video. I don't want to drown it too much. Here we go bit more. Right so let's go first one this is the candied fruits.
Buy Two Swallows Spiced Rums Online
I tell you what. That... Quite happily... I said I film this couple of weeks ago I said the Chairman’s reserve spiced rum was probably my favourite rum and coke to date. I think that might have just eclipsed it. That is amazing. Love that. It doesn't need, sometimes I'd put a wedge of lime in my rum and coke, just to give it that citrus burst. It doesn't need it at all. I can't put that down. That's lovely. Wow. That's nice. That was nice.
Right this is the cherry with normal coke. Again, the coke, I'd say, that’s weird. The coke really brings out the sort of subtle hint of cherry even more. That is a very lovely and subtle Cherry Coke. Love that. I'm not brilliant at explaining things, what that does, you kind of, it's the spiced rums, you've got a 38 % ABV spiced rum, but the kind of, spices that are really in there, the ginger really comes through. The sort peppery notes on that one, really come through. The kind of cinnamon in there and the cloves in that one, they are just amazing spice rums.
Right, if you love your spice rums. I don't care what you drink, if you're a Sailor Jerry fan, if you're captain Morgan's fan, if you're a Kraken, Old J, whatever spice rums you drink... Dead man's fingers, let's not forget dead man's fingers, I’ve still got a real soft spot for dead man's fingers, if you're kind of any sort of spiced rum fan, get online, get a bottle of each of these and let me know what you think. Because I really think that this will change your perception of spiced rums going into 2020. I think spiced rum is going to be a huge. These will change your perceptions of what spiced rums should taste like.