BarLifeUK were invited to a press briefing at 5 Cavendish Square on Friday, hosted by Bacardi Brown Forman Brands.
A quick glance around the room revealed several bottles, labels turned away from the crowd, holding a dark, caramel-coloured liquid, so it came as no surprise when Marketing Director, Ian Newton, kicked off the presentation by announcing the launch of a spiced rum spirit.
Bacardi Oakheart is a blend of Bacardi Superior and Gold rums, aged in new American oak, that comes in at 35% ABV – hence the moniker ‘spiced spirit drink’ as opposed to spiced rum.
As samples were passed around, we were struck by how much ‘less sweet’ the liquid is, compared to other rums in the category.
Instead of immediately finding all the cavities in your teeth, as some uber-sweet spiced rums do, Oakheart is much more restrained, and BarLifeUK found it to have quite a smokey, peppery character that should encourage bartenders to start using it in cocktails.
When the brand presentation was over, we took our goody-bag-bottle round the corner to Match Bar and Grill, and plonked it on the bar, where bartender Divyesh Chauhan seemed quite keen to have a play with it.
He quickly made a Mule using Oakheart, and after tasting it told us: “Yep, I could smash a few of them in an evening” which is a positive sign for the new brand.
The Smoking Rum
Bacardi Oakheart will be available to the trade this October, and while one of their perfect serves, the Oak & Coke will most likely find more followers in the pub market, the second perfect serve, The Smoking Rum is much more applicable to cocktail bars.
The Smoking Rum combines equal measures of Oakheart, apple juice and ginger beer in a teapot, and uses dry ice to chill the drink and to project some pleasing smoke from the teapot spout.
The drink is then served in branded mini glass tankards. Not every bar will have dry ice to hand of course, and BarLifeUK are pretty sure the drink would work just as well with the old, ‘wet’ variety.
Contact you Bacardi rep if you would like to stock Bacardi Oakheart in October.