Knowledge Base
Spirits Guides
& Education
Cocktail techniques, ingredient deep-dives and the knowledge to build a proper home bar. Written by the founders of an IWSC-medalled rum, not a content team.
All 79 guides, A to Z
- ABV vs proof: 40% ABV is 80 US proof, 70 old UK proof
- Angostura rum: Trinidad rum from the house behind the bitters
- Aperol, Campari and the aperitivo hour: Spritz, Americano and more
- Appleton Estate: Jamaican rum since 1749
- Autumn cocktails: apple, whisky and sloe gin drinks for September to November
- Bar tools worth paying more for, and the ones to buy cheap
- Black Tot Day: 31 July 1970, the Navy’s last rum ration
- Bonfire Night drinks: hot pots, flasks and cold serves for outdoors
- Bourbon or rye: the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Sour and Boulevardier in each
- British craft spirits: how small distilleries came back
- British rum: the UK distilleries making their own rum
- Burns Night drinks: the whisky, the toasts and the cocktails
- Caribbean rum houses: twelve distilleries compared
- Chairman’s Reserve: the rum of St Lucia Distillers
- Christmas drinks: what to serve, batch and pair, hour by hour
- Cocktail terms: 73 bar words explained
- Cocktail weeks and events: London, Negroni Week and Tales
- Collins, fizz, rickey and sling: the gin long drinks compared
- Corporate Christmas gifts: spirits for clients and staff
- Dark rum vs spiced rum: what is the difference?
- Easter drinks and cocktails: brunch fizz, the lunch toast and the garden
- El Dorado rum: Demerara rum and the wooden stills of Guyana
- English whisky: the revival, the distilleries and the new GI
- Flavoured vodka and vanilla vodka: what the label means and how to infuse it
- Foursquare Rum Distillery: Barbados rum with nothing added
- Gifts for cocktail makers: the kit that gets used
- Gin or vodka: the Martini, Gimlet, Collins and Sour in both
- Gin styles compared: London dry, Old Tom, Plymouth, navy strength and genever
- Halloween cocktails: a party punch, drinks that change colour and safe fog
- Hampden Estate: Jamaica’s high-ester pot still distillery
- Havana Club: the Cuban rum, the Bacardi rum and the dispute
- Home bar essentials: what to buy first, and what to skip
- Home bar glassware guide: which cocktail glasses you need
- Hot rum drinks: seven serves for cold nights and Bonfire Night
- How to balance a cocktail: sweet, sour, bitter, spirit
- How to batch cocktails for a party: water, citrus and quantities
- How to choose a rum gift: match it to how they drink
- How to garnish a cocktail: twists, wheels, wedges and sprigs
- How to make cocktails at home: five techniques, the tools and the ratios
- How to make sloe gin at home, and what the label means when you buy it
- How to muddle a cocktail: mint, lime, sugar and fruit
- How to read a rum label: UK rules, age and added sugar
- How to read a whisky label: age, cask strength and single malt
- How to taste rum: glass, pour, nose, sip and water
- How to taste whisky: glass, water, nose and the finish
- Martini, Negroni and the gin and vermouth drinks
- Mount Gay rum: Barbados rum from the estate deeded in 1703
- National Rum Day is 16 August: its origin, and the UK date
- Premium rum: what age, sugar, cask and origin claims mean
- Rhum Barbancourt: Haiti’s cane-juice rum since 1862
- Rhum Clément: Martinique rhum agricole since 1887
- Rhum JM: Martinique rhum agricole from below Mount Pelée
- Rum, rhum or ron: what is the difference?
- Seasonal cocktails: what to drink in every season
- Shaken or stirred? When to shake or stir a cocktail
- Sherry styles explained: fino to Pedro Ximénez, the glass and the food
- Spiced rum botanicals: what vanilla, cinnamon, clove and oak add
- St Andrew's Day drinks: what to pour on 30 November
- St David’s Day drinks: Welsh whisky, mead and gin for 1 March
- St George’s Day drinks: English gin, the G&T, Pimm’s and the Bramble
- St Patrick’s Day drinks: Irish Coffee, Irish whiskey cocktails and green punch
- Summer cocktails: what to make for the garden, barbecue and a hot day
- Triple sec, curaçao, Cointreau and Grand Marnier: the orange liqueurs compared
- UK rum festivals: RumFest, the Rum Show and regional events
- Valentine’s Day drinks: romantic cocktails and Champagne for two
- Vermouth explained: dry, sweet, bianco and how long it keeps
- What does rum taste like? The flavour of each style
- What is a liqueur? Sugar, strength and the law behind the label
- What is gin? How it is made, its styles and the law
- What is rum? What it is made from, how it is made and its types
- What is spiced rum? What it is made from, its taste and types
- What is vodka? What it is made from, how it is made and the law
- What is whisky? Grain, cask, the three-year rule and the styles
- What spirits to stock at home, in the order to buy them
- What to mix with spiced rum: mixers, ratios and serves
- Where is spiced rum made? The rum base, the spicing and the UK
- Whisky highballs: ginger ale, ginger beer, soda and cola
- Winter cocktails: hot, stirred and rich drinks for December to February
- Worthy Park Estate: single-estate Jamaican pot still rum
