Smith and Cross has been fly­ing off my shelves late­ly. I must admit I’ve been join­ing my patrons in its con­sump­tion. And at the same time join­ing a his­toric tra­di­tion that traces its linage all the way back to 1788 as one of Eng­land’s old­est pro­duc­ers of sug­ars and spir­its. Thank you Hay­man Dis­tillers and David Won­drich for bring­ing back this mar­velous spir­it. If you’re in the mar­ket for a new rum I high­ly rec­om­mend giv­ing Smith and Cross a chance and this is why.

Upon open­ing the bot­tle you get the pow­er­ful aro­ma of exot­ic fruit and spice. Imme­di­ate­ly you real­ize this isn’t your ordi­nary rum. As soon as I open the bot­tle patron’s from across the room perk up. The smell is mes­mer­iz­ing, tak­ing you to a trop­i­cal paradise.

The wild yeast, indige­nous of Jamaica, is respon­si­ble for this rum’s heav­ier body and fla­vor. As you’ll notice on the bot­tle, this rum only con­tains Wed­der­burn and Plum­mer pot still dis­til­lates and is aged for 3 years in white oak. Take cau­tion with this rum because it rings in at a whop­ping 114 proof.

This is a treat for bar­tenders who want to recre­ate old recipes like  the Planter’s Punch and oth­er tiki style clas­sics that call for gold Jamaican rum. Recent­ly I’ve been using Smith and Cross in a recipe cre­at­ed by one of my favorite bars The Franklin Mort­gage and Invest­ment Com­pa­ny in Philadel­phia. The cock­tail is called The Six Inch Gold Blade. It’s a won­der­ful mar­riage of bit­ter, sweet and smokey and an excel­lent exe­cu­tion fea­tur­ing Smith and Cross Rum.