In the old days, damask bottles belonging to sailors were made squat, thick-walled, with a narrow neck and a wide bottom: a vessel with rum had to stand on the table with any pitching. Connoisseurs of these signs will easily recognize a bottle of Pyrat XO Reserve – the most popular product from the Pyrat rum line. Even the name of the drink is stylized in antiquity: this is how the word “pirate” was written in English in the XNUMXth century.
Rum “Pirate” is easy to distinguish by a bright orange ribbon tied around the neck of the bottle. Each bottle (all of them are numbered) has a metal tag with the image of Hotei, a Japanese deity who brings happiness, bestows clairvoyance and patronizes bartenders. The image of Hotei also adorns the label.
History. American billionaire John Paul DeJoria, founder of Patron Spirits, turned 2016 in 72. In numerous interviews, he often repeats that all his life he wanted to make the world a better place, and therefore fate gave him such an opportunity. In his youth, Mr. DeJoria was as poor as a church mouse. He managed to make a close acquaintance with the underworld, serve in the army, travel around the United States, living in an old car and having no other roof over his head.
It wasn’t until 1980 that DeJoria got lucky: with a $750 loan, he and his friend, hairdresser Paul Mitchell, founded a hair care products company. By 1989, the partners were billionaires, and Mr. DeJoria was able to fulfill his lifelong dream – to start producing high-quality alcohol.
Patron tequila, the first brand of The Patron Spirits, was created by the famous blender Francisco Alcaraz, who, at the invitation of DeJoria, took the position of senior distiller of the company. In 1996, Mr. Alcaraz compiled a recipe for an unusual Pyrat rum, which still has no analogues.
The varieties of rum from the Caribbean countries differ significantly from each other. The owner of the company set a task for the blender: to make a premium-class drink that would incorporate the best qualities of rums from various areas.
The Patron Spirits does not have its own rum distillery. Francisco Alcaraz personally selects the best spirits of other companies, manages their mixing and laying barrels in the cellars. It is known that Patron Spirits constantly purchases 2-year-old rum spirits from the Guyanese company Demerara Distillers Ltd, older spirits from the best Caribbean producers.
Fans of rum “Pirate” joke that it will not be possible to drink it secretly from everyone: as soon as you open the bottle, the aroma of orange peel spreads around the room. It is noteworthy that no chemical flavors are used in the manufacture of the drink. The smell of orange Pyrat gets due to the fact that at one of the stages of aging it is aged in barrels from the natural orange liqueur Patron Citronge. Also, bourbon oak barrels and Bordeaux barrels purchased from one of the Limousin wineries are used to age the rum.
At first, Pyrat was manufactured at Anguilla’s facilities. Since 2012, the production of the drink has been moved to Guyana, where The Patron Spirits has acquired several bottling lines from a facility owned by Demerara Distillers.
Types of Rum Pyrat
There are 3 varieties of Pyrat rum with a strength of 40%:
- Pyrat XO Reserve is a rich amber-colored rum, which is a complex blend of rum spirits aged from 2 to 15 years. The drink has a very soft, rich taste with notes of citrus, cinnamon and vanilla. Aftertaste – long, warm;
- Pyrat Pistol is a golden amber rum. It is made using the same technology as Pyrat XO Reserve, but other types of spirits are used. The drink is poured into narrow tall bottles imitating the vessels in which rum was sold in the XNUMXth century. The taste is pleasantly sweet, with hints of citrus, dried apricots and a hint of creamy toffee. There is an astringent bitterness of old oak in the aftertaste;
- Pyrat Cask 1623 is a super premium rum, the color of old amber. It contains spirits aged from 20 to 40 years. The bottles, shaped like camping flasks, are blown by hand. The name of the drink is explained by the fact that since 1623 rum began to be produced in the Caribbean (cask in English means “barrel”). The taste is soft, with a dominant citrus flavor, effectively accentuated by hints of tropical fruits. The aftertaste is soft, velvety.