Quite pleased with this new book which seems to make a real research contribution. Should be of interest to anyone into rum, exotic drinks or naval history.
One of the things the book documents is the creation of Mister Fogg Navy Rum: what decisions had to be made and why. The rum is limited edition, but reasonably priced, and—I am told—future editions are on their way that will vary a bit each time around. (This will make good sense once you’ve read the book.)
I haven’t tried anything with the rum, yet, but to sip some (lightly diluted). It’s tasty.
Now that you’ve been through this significant project, I’m quite curious whether you’ve any thoughts about the role of London Dock and Navy Rum, today, beyond that of historic curiosities? In particular, where do they fit into contemporary mixed drinks?
London Dock as a term in common usage seems to mostly be between the 1890s and 1940s. Trader Vic made mention of them in his 1946 book, but seems to limit them to Jamaica rums. But records indicate that Demerara rum was also present in very large volumes. The WI committee reports only reference Jamaica and Demerara rum.
As for consumer “navy rum” of the 1900s, it appears to be just rebranded London dock rum, as I noted in the book. Demerara dominates, but Caroni (Trinidad) also made a stong showing in the “navy rum” space.
Now, in terms of mixology, thus far I’ve seen essentially no references to consumer navy rums being called for in recipes. Especially not the way that OFTD is today. Dave may have evidence to the contrary.
The only older recipe I have in my database that seems to call for navy rum (or “navy rum”) was in the rather obscure 1934 G. F. Steele “My New Cocktail Book”:
My general feeling is that contemporary “navy rum” and “dock rum”, Mister Fogg, or rums in-the-vague-style-of, can be well-suited to mixed drinks, but we’re going to need new recipes designed specifically for them.
That Blood Transfusion recipe sounds like a Proto-Shrunken Skull that I’d happily try.
My take on the new “Navy” blends (as well as OFTD, Hamilton Zonbie, etc c) is that they’re aiming to be single bottle solutions for the Don Beach trifecta:
Jamaica, Demerara, and something lighter to cut it.
Point of reference, I make Navy Grog with 2 oz of OFTD.
