UP Extra Dark Reggae Rum Essence 20 ml

UP Extra Dark Reggae Rum Essence 20 ml

Turn up the bass. Extra Dark Reggae is rum with weight at the bottom end – dark, slow and swaying, like a bassline you feel in your ribcage. This is the blackest style in the rum family, the one where the molasses is allowed to speak without anyone asking it to keep its voice down.

The style is loved by two camps. Bartenders use it to give tiki drinks and punch depth and colour, often as a dark layer floating at the top of the glass. And home bakers know that it is exactly this sort of rum that makes rum raisins, fruit cakes and chocolate truffles so much better – the flavour is so powerful that it survives both oven and cream. The essence belongs to the Ultra Premium series.

Colour & Appearance

The finished drink is extra dark – black-brown like glossy molasses, with deep red reflections only when the glass is held up to a lamp. It colours a drink properly and makes beautiful layers over juice.

Nose

The nose is heavy and bittersweet. Blackstrap molasses and burnt sugar hit you first, followed by dark-roast coffee, liquorice and clove. Further in there is overripe banana, dark chocolate and a note of dark treacle loaf.

Palate

The palate is big, dark and dense. The molasses dominates – not merely sweet, but with that slightly bitter, iron-like edge that really dark treacle has. Burnt sugar and caramelised banana give fullness, espresso and dark chocolate pull in the roasted direction, and the liquorice adds a salty-sweet depth. Clove, allspice and a little ginger bring warmth from the mid-palate onwards. The texture feels thick and saturated, and the flavour holds its own against most things you could mix it with.

Finish

The finish is very long. Burnt treacle, coffee and liquorice stay for several minutes, with clove and dark chocolate as a final echo.

How to Use

The essence is mixed with vodka or neutral spirit. 20 ml makes 750 ml of finished spirit that is ready to drink straight away. Instructions are on the label.

Serving Suggestions

• Planter’s punch with lime, sugar syrup, orange juice, bitters and grated nutmeg.
• As a dark float on top of a Mai Tai or a fruity tiki drink.
• With ginger beer and lime in a tall glass.
• Rum raisins – let the raisins steep for a few days and use them in ice cream and baking.
• In fruit cake, chocolate truffles, toffee sauce or fried banana with ice cream.

About the Essence

Extra Dark Reggae is the heaviest and darkest of the shop’s rum essences, a couple of notches deeper than both the classic PR Dark Rum and the smooth Baccara. Choose it when the rum is to be the star of the drink or the dessert.

The essence comes in a long line of sizes – 50 ml, 60 ml, 100 ml, 280 ml, 1000 ml, 5 litres and 25 litres – for everything from the weekend bake to professional production.