Pusser's Rum
The Royal Navy's rum, bottled to the Admiralty blend, and the only spirit that can legally make a Painkiller.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Dense and dry for a dark rum: molasses and oak with a woody, faintly medicinal edge that comes from the pot still rather than from sugar.
Storage & Handling
Upright, away from light. Indefinite once opened.
Usage
The Painkiller first, where the trademark requires it. Beyond that it is a heavy, characterful rum for tiki drinks that need weight, for punches where a lighter rum would disappear, and anywhere a recipe calls for a Navy rum and means it.
Pusser is naval slang for the purser, the officer who ran a ship's stores, and the rum took the nickname of the man who issued it. The Royal Navy served a daily rum ration for something over three centuries, and ended it on 31 July 1970, a date the fleet marked as Black Tot Day. Sailors wore black armbands. Some held burials at sea for the tot.
Pusser's Rum was established in 1979 to bottle the Admiralty blend commercially, and pays a royalty to a Royal Navy sailors' charity, which is an unusually direct line between a bottle on a shelf and the institution that made it famous. The blend is pot-still and unsweetened, which is why it reads drier and woodier than most dark rums of comparable colour.
The Painkiller is generally credited to the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands, so named because there is no dock and customers swim ashore. Pusser's registered the name as a trademark and has enforced it, most visibly against a New York bar trading under the same name in 2011. The upshot is the same as with the Dark 'n' Stormy: the drink is a specification rather than a suggestion, and made with anything else it is a good rum punch with a different name.
Top Tips
- The Painkiller trademark names Pusser's specifically, so a version built on another rum is a different drink under a different name.
- Gunpowder Proof at 54.5% is worth having for punches, where the extra strength survives dilution that flattens a standard bottling.
- It is drier than most dark rums, so recipes written for a sweeter bottle may need a touch more syrup rather than less.
Possible Substitutions
- For a Painkiller there is no substitution: the name is trademarked to this rum.
- In other drinks, a dark pot-still rum of similar weight gets closest, though most are sweeter.
Production Method
A blend in the style issued to the Royal Navy for three centuries: pot-still rum from the Caribbean, aged in oak, with no sugar or flavouring added after distillation. Bottled at standard strength and at the higher Gunpowder Proof that recalls the strength a sailor could test against gunpowder.
Common Questions
Why must a Painkiller use Pusser's?
Because the name is a registered trademark held by Pusser's and the company has enforced it in court. The cocktail is defined as their rum with pineapple, orange and cream of coconut. Built on another rum it is a fine drink and not a Painkiller.
What was the Navy rum ration?
A daily measure issued to Royal Navy sailors for roughly three centuries, ended on 31 July 1970. The fleet called that day Black Tot Day, and it was marked with black armbands and, on some ships, mock burials at sea for the last tot.
What is Gunpowder Proof?
The higher-strength bottling at 54.5%, named for the old test in which rum was poured on gunpowder and lit: if it burned, the spirit was strong enough not to have been watered. Useful in punches, where standard strength dilutes away.