Worthy Park 109 Rum

Fans of Navy-style rums looking to add a bit of oomph and funk to their cocktails will be 109% happy with this beauty.

Worthy Park 109 was originally going to be called “Gunpowder Proof”, but another rum brand allegedly got a bit shirty about that, so this Jamaican rum was named after its proof instead, which is double its alcohol by volume, 54.5%. 109 is a molasses-based rum crafted using a copper pot still and coloured with caramel to give that dark and enticing hue. Two components go into it: a low-ester rum matured in ex-Bourbon barrels for three years and an unaged, high-ester rum that brings the funk. Despite that punchy ABV, it’s not as fiery as you might expect, but rather smooth, super complex and deeply intriguing. Expect a melange of dark chocolate, salted caramel, banana bread, pineapple, prunes, treacle, black tea, freshly roasted coffee, fig rolls, tobacco, polished antique furniture, raisins, cola bottles and blackcurrants. We love Worthy Park 109 mixed with ginger beer and we can think of few rums better for making a Zombie with.

Worthy Park Estate is rum royalty. Connoisseurs will be familiar with the name from independent bottlings and from The Duppy Share (where it is blended with spirit from another Harvey Nichols favourite, Foursquare). Established in 1670, the unbelievably verdant land the estate sits on – located slap bang in the middle of Jamaica and guarded by mountains – was ‘gifted’ to Lieutenant Francis Price by Oliver Cromwell when colonisation of Jamaica passed from the Spanish to the English. They began sugar cultivation fifty years later and rum production started in 1741, long before any other existing distillery on the island. Although distilling ceased for a while, Worthy Park Estate built a state-of-the-art distillery in 2005 and the exquisite new rum they’re producing is now coming of age, as 109 proves.