Cut Rum

Fledgling rum brand Cut has made its UK debut with a three-strong range of tipples.

It has launched a 37.5% abv spiced rum, a 40% smoked rum and a 75.5% over proof variant into the on trade and specialist retailers, with an eye to extending further into the off trade (RSP: £24.99-£37.99).

The drinks are made from a combination of Jamaican and Trinidadian rums and produced at the Worthy Park distillery in Jamaica. Talks with major supermarkets have taken place, although the brand was not likely to land in the mults until 2019, said co-founder Chris Hare.

It comes as rum has been tipped by the WSTA as a potential successor to the success of craft gin, its sales having boomed over 2018.

Hare added: “As with gin, in terms of legislation, you can do a lot with rum to manipulate flavour profiles, which is encouraging people to experiment more and more.”

But unlike gin, whose production can be accessible and affordable, it was “a lot harder for rum distilleries to pop up, because of how it needs to be made. The challenge is around raw ingredients and the quality of those raw ingredients”.