It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…

The fascinating history of Gosling’s Rum and their Dark ‘n’ Stormy rum cocktail.

In 1806 a young Englishman named James Gosling, the eldest son of a wine and spirits merchant in London, set sail with £10,000-worth of wines and spirits on board his chartered ship, The Mercury. His father, William, wanted him to head to the brave new world of the Americas and expand the family business. He sent James to Virginia.

Unfortunately there was very little wind, the ship’s charter ran out well before it could reach its destination, and they deposited James and his cargo in the nearest port, St George’s on the island of Bermuda. Undeterred, and realizing that no-one was trading in wines and spirits there at the time, James opened a liquor store 100 yards from where the ship dropped him off. Later his brother Ambrose came to join him and opened another store in Bermuda’s thriving new capital, Hamilton.

Ambrose’s great-great-great-great grandson, Malcolm Gosling, today’s Vice President and Managing Director of what is now Gosling Brothers Limited, takes up the story.

‘In 1850 the family started experimenting with the aging and blending of many different distillates. They came up with one rum blend that was so unique and tasted like fine aged old rum, so they called it Old Rum. The only way you could buy it was to go into one of our shops with an empty bottle or can or whatever you had and get a fill-up from the barrel. It stayed that way until the late 1920’s when it was decided that people wanted something a little more convenient.’

The family thought that empty champagne bottles would be the strongest vessels to put their rum in, so they went to the best source on Bermuda. They collected the empties from the Officer’s Mess at the nearby British naval base.

The Original Black Seal

‘They’d rinse them out by hand,’ says Gosling, ‘and fill ’em by hand. Then they put a cork in the top and sealed it with black sealing wax. There was no label put on the bottle, it just went up on the shelves of our stores. There it was, for the next 30-35 years people said Give me the one with the black seal.’

Gosling’s Black Seal Rum, later winner of a Platinum Medal at the World Spirits Championships, was christened at last. Once it had a name, and a label, it started to be sold in other Bermuda outlets, and eventually at the airport to duty-free shoppers, but no-one worried too much about the export market.

That’s changed, though, as Malcolm Gosling did what his ancestors before him had done – emigrated to expand the family business overseas. In his case it was from Bermuda to Boston, to see Black Seal and the company’s other products more widely available in the USA and beyond.

Dark ‘n’ Stormy

It’s also Gosling’s mission to let bartenders and customers know that Black Seal is far more versatile than merely being the ingredient in its well-known cocktail, the Dark and Stormy, Bermuda’s favorite drink.

‘The trouble is, you get pigeonholed,’ explains Gosling. ‘Bartenders say: I use that rum for this cocktail and other rums for others. But Black Seal is so versatile it makes a lot of cocktails that call for spirits other than rum taste exceptional.

‘Try a Bloody Gosling by trading vodka with Black Seal in a Bloody Mary. It’s such a unique-tasting and delicious drink that’s starting to take off. Or try it in an Old-Fashioned or a Manhattan. Experiment with it, including in other traditional rum drinks, like the Mojito. When you use Black Seal it adds another element to it. It takes a traditional cocktail and moves it to another level.’

Another challenge facing this 7th-generation Gosling is telling the world that Black Seal is not the only product they make.

‘The Caribbean Journal named Our Gosling’s Family Reserve Old Rum the number one aged rum in the world over an 8-month survey. It’s the same blend of Black Seal Rum with some very subtle changes. We use bourbon barrels and it’s aged much longer. It is such a superb sipping spirit. At comparative tastings if we serve it next to a cognac and ask people which they prefer, no-one ever opts for the cognac.’

But if nothing else Malcolm Gosling has the satisfaction of knowing that he completed a journey that began over 200 years ago. The family business made it to the US shores in the end.