Wood`s 100 is an excellent overproof navy rum from Guyana and distilled at the diamond distillery using a combination of spirits made in pot and column stills from sugarcane growing on the banks of the river Demerara. The appearance is dark and syrupy and the flavor is unrefined rich demerara with kick and depth. This rum is bursting with good flavors! and a plus in my book – it´s a bit stronger.
Wood`s 100 was awarded ‘Distiller of the Year’ and ‘International Spirits Producer of the Year’ at the 2013 IWSC awards.
It´s been around a long time, more precisely for over a century before it was aqcuired by William Grant and Sons (who also owns the OVD demerara rum) in 2002, but it took me until this year´s UK Rumfest until i finally got to try it. I liked it at first sip – which i knew i would. It`s a down to earth demerara rum, very well suited for tiki drinks.
The nose promises of a flavorful demerara rum, and in the mouth it`s deep, dark and rich, you get burnt sugar and molasses, coffee and spice in a very upfront punch in the face kinda way. And that`s what I also expected from a wooden pot still demerara rum of that strength.
It`s 57% ABV or 114 proof, which is navy strength. It is said that in the old navy days sailors would “prove” the strength of their rum rations by checking that gunpowder doused with rum would still burn (thus verifying that rum was at least 57% ABV.) I once saw a gunpowder test at the Tales of the Cocktail where Lemon Hart 151 made the gunpowder ignite.
The color of it is of course coming from some sort of coloring (caramel) that kinda black doesn`t come from the barrel. If it has sugar added or not I don`t know.
There isn`t very much to find online storywise on this rum so it´s time to make a few drinks, starting with a classic:
3 dots and a dash
0.5 oz Lime Juice
0.5 oz Orange Juice
0.5 oz Honey Mix*
0.25 oz Falernum
0.25 oz Pimento Dram
6 oz Crushed Ice
0.5 oz Wood`s 100 Demerara Rum
1.5 oz Rhum agricole vieux (aged) Rum
Combine everything into a blender and blend at high speed for about 5 seconds. Pour into a tiki mug or a glass and garnish with 3 cherries speared on wood. The garnish is a slight variation from the original recipe where the wood spear is the dash instead of a piece of speared pineapple.
Honey mix – 1 part Honey + 1 part Water, heat to dissolve the honey and then cool to room temp.
Dark and Dusky (A variation on the “Dark and Stormy”)
0.5 oz fresh lime
0.25 oz pimento dram
2 oz Wood`s 100 Demerara Rum
Top up with Ginger Beer
Garnish with 3 black cherries and a black anthurium flower.
Volcano House Hot Buttered Rum (from Jeff Berry`s Grog Log)
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz Maraschino liqueur
3/4 oz sugar
Hot tea
Butter Cloves 1.5 oz Wood`s 100 demerara rum
Pour juice, Maraschino, sugar and rum into a (preheated) mug and fill the rest of the mug with very hot tea. Stir well and then float a small piece of butter. Add a twist of lemon peel and 3-4 cloves.
Hot Tiki Rum Punch (a twist of Hot Rum Punch from Red Jay Bartender’s guide cirka 1934)
1 tsp dark brown sugar to melt in a mug of hot tea
Add 1 oz Wood`s 100 and 1 oz Appleton Extra dark rums
Add 1/2-1 teaspoon spiced butter (after taste)
Spiced butter :
Room temp butter
1 tsp each of ground cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.
small pinch salt
Beat sugar and butter together until thoroughly creamed and fluffy; beat in nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and salt. Store in the fridge until needed.
My conclusion: Wood´s 100 is a great mixer perfect for tiki drinks and other cocktails where you want a little bit of extra kick.
I recently moved to the UK, and I found Wood’s 100 this November. I enjoy sipping it straight for now, since I have not yet entered the world of making my own tiki drinks (building the rum collection first). W100 is now 4 deep and counting in my inventory. I pick it up every now and then when I see it at an off license for less than it sells for at the supermarket. W Grant and Sons also produces Glenfiddich, for people who are also thusly inclined. I now keep that on my bar as well as part of my gratitude for a job well done on W100.
Hot Buttered Rum with snow on the ground makes better sense than most things in society – so many recipes & so many smiles. These two are next on my To-Do List.