Celebrating the history of Navy rum, Black Tot Rum has launched the limited edition Master Blender’s Reserve. The second annual limited release from Black Tot will be launched on Black Tot Day, Saturday 31st July. This year’s recipe includes Australian rum to mark the 100th anniversary of the last rum ration given to Australian Navy sailors when serving on British ships.

Master Blender’s Reserve has been created by head blender Oliver Chilton to showcase the art of rum blending pioneered by the British Royal Navy. The bottle label details every rum that has been used in the blend, allowing drinkers to fully understand the liquid they are enjoying.

Bottled at navy strength, 54.5%, the new limited edition blend is non-chill filtered and has no added sugar. It’s a fruity and complex blend that’s perfect for sipping neat. Only 6,000 bottles of Master Blender’s Reserve have been made.

To create the new blend, Oliver took a third of last year’s Black Tot 50th Anniversary blend as a base and re-casked it into ex-sherry butts and barrels, mirroring the perpetual blending process that was used by the Navy to create the rum given to sailors. He added layers of fruit-driven flavours using different styles of rum aged between nine and 24 years from Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica and, for the first time in the Black Tot range, Australia. The blend also incorporates some of the original British Royal Navy rum blend itself.

Oliver comments: “Master Blender’s Reserve takes inspiration from the Royal Navy tradition of perpetual blending, adding new rums to old, each year moulding and developing the rum style and flavour. For 2021, we have aimed to find a tropical citrus quality that we hope people will be able to share with friends and loved ones around the world.’’

Black Tot Master Blender’s Reserve will be available to purchase from The Whisky Exchange and Master of Malt from 31 July 2021 for an RRP of £120.