IMG_10407.JPGSvenska Eldvatten, the small Swedish independent bottling company known for their fantastic Rum Swedes series among other things, decided almost four years ago that they wanted to create their own rum blend. After two years of research and development they were finally happy with everything and bottled the result in June 2015 - some sources are secret but at least we know that it contains aged rums from Barbados and Jamaica, with no colouring or sugar added. It's bottled at 50% abv and presented in a beautiful black bottle with minimalistic label design.

Nose: Quite pungent and complex, lots of arrack with a round sweetness of molasses, overripe banana and vanilla mixed with burnt rubber, wood and baking spices, liquorice and just a touch of citrus. Mouth: Starting with a punchy, spicy alcohol burn which evolves into a deep, peppery and funky yet surprisingly dry mix of arrack, liquorice, butterscotch, banana, other ripe tropical fruit and some savoury, almost salty, oily green olives, before a long and satisfying fade of fiery cinnamon, oak, burnt sugar and just the right amount of tobacco - wow!

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Mai Tai
With very limited amount of bottles in our summer cottage liquor cabinet, I had to use an orange curacao I'm not really familiar with. However, this didn't stop me from trying WeiRon in a Mai Tai (60 ml WeiRon (no need to cut it with a Martinique rum), 30 ml lime juice, 15 ml Stiernan curacao orange, 7,5 ml Beachbum Berry's Latitude 29 orgeat - shake with crushed ice, pour unstrained into a double old fashioned-glass, add more crushed ice and garnish with spent lime shell and a sprig of mint) and because of the high abv and bold, rather dry, character of the rum, it really shines through and together with the added sweet, sour and weak elements it makes for a smashing cocktail indeed.

WeiRon is highly recommended, both on its own and in cocktails calling for a punchy and well balanced dark rum, and is available at Systembolaget here in Sweden - and maybe elsewhere too.