Gosling's Black Seal Rum

This is an ever present in our drinks cupboard. A nice smooth rum for either sipping straight or having in a long drink. Price is very attractive too.

Silly label aside this powerful early 19th recipe has remained unchanged for centuries because it does not need to. Originally served in Champagne Bottles with a black wax seal …hence the name this iconic Rum from Bermuda is a revelation. Not quite as strong as a naval rum eg Pussers it has an excellent flavour and colour. I bought it from Waitrose for £28 as opposed to other Rums which were £40 with the idea of making a dark and stormy (this is the only rum to use as the cocktail is invented by the Gosling brothers) but would go equally well with ice and grapefruit or in a more complex Carew cocktail, also for pepping up my homemade Christmas pudding and mulled cider.

In actuality it ended up mostly as sipping rum and was one of the highlight flavours over Christmas as we did not have much alcohol this season.

Flavour - more Demerara than thick molasses in flavour, fruit cake, dried Christmas fruits think mejool dates, figs, stewed apricots may be with a hint of crystallised ginger and orange peel spice.

Extremely moorish. Feels like you are literally drinking history. Fully deserves its medalle d’or

Only moan …sort out your branding get a champagne style bottle and seal it with black wax seal as before, get rid of the silly pun and the cartoon label and make this look grown up product and authentic old fashioned - your USP is its amazing flavour and 220 year old recipe, the Gosling Bros will sell far more and be green reusing - recycling bottles again !


You can imagine this being swigged by pirates !

The one to go to for Dark &Stormy

simply the best

And with good reason. It's dark/black rum the way it was meant to be!
Burnt sugar, butterscotch/caramel & molasses, maybe a whiff of vanilla, & that challenging, (slightly medicinal?) taste you can't quite identify, but don't DISlike, either, Gosling's Black Seal delivers that heavy rum quality you want (IF that's what you want!) in every sip. Good on ice, good in Coke - with or without lime, good in eggnog, or good as a straight, neat quick shot & even good as a sipper if you truly appreciate its best qualities like I do. (Lots of folks out there love a Dark 'n' Stormy made with this rum, too!)

I’m in Ireland & I love Goslings for my Dark & Stormy with Fever Tree Ginger Beer & the Juice of half a Lime & plenty of Ice. Fabulous Tom.

It’s just delicious and very drinkable! Especially on its own or as a black and stormy. A good reason to buy another!

Got this specifically for dark and stormy, and it delivered. Not up there with my good sipping rums, but I didn’t expect it to.
I will have this in the hip flask next time I’m camping.

Straight on the rocks. It’s incredible on the palate.

This was the drink that made me a life-long rum aficionado after I was introduced to it when we lived in Bermuda. An excellent drink with a fiery ginger beer (to make the famous "Dark & Stormy") or with in a cocktail of fruit juices, ice and a few drops of angostura bitter ("rum swizzle")! Great to see that it is available in UK!