If You Love Rum Cocktails, Check Out This Stellar, Black-Owned Distillery
Since our thirsty food & drink editor’s cup runneth over, here’s a space for her to spill the tea on all of the greatest, tastiest, and trendiest sips. There's really only one thing you'll find here ... NO BAD DRINKS!
My Current Drink Crush: Ten To One Dark Rum
Why This Drink Matters: As a Black-owned distillery that you should have on your radar, Caribbean rum brand Ten To One is making a splash in the spirits world. With glowing reviews from the likes of spirits experts over at Esquire, VinePair, and Paste Magazine, we think it's high time we shed some light on this new rum from Trinidadian-born owner Marc Farrell, a former Starbucks exec.
Launched in summer of 2019, Ten To One offers both a white rum and dark rum offering, the latter of which I'll be focusing on here.
If blended dark rums don't do much for you beyond maybe bringing back one too many hangovers of summers past, I urge you to reopen your mind and palate.
A seriously tasty blend of 8-year aged Barbados and Dominican column still rums — combined with Jamaican pot still rum and Trinidadian rum — Ten To One Dark Rum is aged in American white oak, ex-bourbon casks. The beauty is in the blend here according to Farrell, who created these unexpected blends to challenge expectations and "reinvigorate the way people taste, experience, and talk about rum." This is a rum reimagined for the modern drinker who wants a high-quality, yet affordable rum (it retails for under $50), distilled with a great backstory.
The most interesting part of these rums, in fact, is that they represent an intrinsic part of Caribbean culture: the beauty of a blended, yet deeply authentic identity, comprised of multiple influences, history, and traditions. With a blend of rums from Barbados, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, Ten To One Dark Rum encompasses the many flavors and cultural influences of Caribbean culture in one powerful bottle.
It should also be noted that Ten To One Rum is made with no added sugar, color, or artificial flavors, so you can kiss that Mai Tai hangover goodbye.
How We Met: I had heard about Ten To One ahead of its much-anticipated launch last summer, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a bottle of my own. As part of my own commitment to highlight standout Black-owned food and beverage brands as a food journalist, I was excited to try my first taste of the dark rum this summer.
Tasting Notes: Ten To One Dark Rum is definitely a rum meant for whiskey lovers. Both the initial nose and tasting notes are bananas Foster — it's a salty-sweet commingling of fresh bananas, burned brown sugar, and warm vanilla.
This caramelized flavor is undoubtedly due to its aging in ex-bourbon casks, and it provides a nice balanced backbone of smoky flavor against the other slightly sweet rums in the mix.
I'd recommend sipping this sweet, slightly smoky dark rum on the rocks if you're already a rum lover, but it would also taste great mixed in a Dark and Stormy this summer. Try their higher-proof white rum while you're at it, but start with this sweet and savory dark rum.
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