Goslings Rum: Dark 'n Stormy®

Over the years Black Seal® Rum has become synonymous with Bermuda. It is an essential ingredient in Bermuda fish chowder, adds the island flavor to the Bermuda Rum Swizzle, and is the tempest in Bermuda's favorite cocktail the Dark 'n Stormy®. Rum

A family Rum business for over two centuries, Gosling's Rum is Bermuda's oldest Rum business house, and is the largest exporter of a Bermuda-Rum made product.

Gosling's Black Seal Rum - "The Spirit of Bermuda".

The history of Black Seal Rum® and the Gosling family began long ago. In the spring of 1806 James Gosling, the oldest son of William Gosling, wine and spirits merchant, set out from England on the ship, Mercury, with £10,000 of merchandise, bound for America. Rum

After ninety-one desperate days on a becalmed sea their charter ran out, and they put in at the nearest port, St. George's, Bermuda. Rather than pressing on for America, James opened a shop on the King's Parade, St. George's in December 1806. - Rum

In 1824 James returned to England and his brother Ambrose rented a shop on Front Street in the new Capitol of Hamilton for £25 a year. The Gosling's have maintained a store at this location for 127 years. -Rum

In 1857 the firm was renamed Gosling Brothers by Ambrose's sons - Rum. Three years later the first oak barrels of rum distillate arrived in Bermuda. Three years later, after much trial and error, the distinctive Bermuda black rum destined to be Black Seal was formulated and offered for Rum sale. They didn't call it Black Seal at first. In fact, up until the First World War it was only sold from the Rum barrel, and most folks brought in their own bottles for a "fill up". Eventually the black rum was sold in champagne bottles, reclaimed from the British Officer's Mess, and the corks sealed with black sealing wax.

Pretty soon people began to ask for the "Black Seal" Rum. Many years later the idea of the little, barrel juggling "Black Seal" Rum was born.

Over the years Black Seal Rumhas become synonymous with Bermuda. Rum It is the essential additive to Bermuda fish chowder, adds the island touch to Bermuda Rum Swizzle, and is the tempest in Bermuda's favorite cocktail -- the Dark 'n Stormy®.

A family Rum business for over two centuries Gosling's Rum is today the only company that blends and bottles in Bermuda, and is the largest exporter of a Bermuda Rum made product.


...Is the story of the New World. On his second journey in 1493, Christopher Columbus brought the first sugar cane to the Caribbean. Cane was grown to meet the burgeoning demand for sugar in Europe. Sugar, and eventually rum, would figure dramatically in the trade between the old world and the new.

Sugar and the sugar economy of the West Indies would ruin men and make men rich, would send governments to war, foster privateering and piracy, and would give rise to the infamous Triangular Trade, so called because of the shape of the three legs of the journey. The first was from Europe to Africa where goods were exchanged for slaves. The second, or the 'middle passage' was the transportation of slaves to the Americas. The third and final leg of the journey was the transport of goods -- sugar, rum, tobacco and cotton -- from the Americas back to Europe. It was, arguably, the engine that drove the world economy at that time.

The by-product of refining the cane into sugar is molasses, and it was the distillation of the molasses that gave the world rum beginning in the 16 th century. Dark, treacly brown molasses mixed with water was fermented into a crude liqueur, and finally distilled into a unique spirit that still retains its mystery and romance.

The romance of rum was no mystery to the "founders" of Bermuda. In 1609, Sir George Somers, on his way to rescue the withering colony at Jamestown, came dramatically aground on the deserted islands of Bermuda. All survived and many took solace in a dram of celebratory rum, or as it was recorded "comfortable waters". Three years later the good ship, Plough, arrived with Bermuda's first true settlers.

In its raw and more potent state the drink first became known as Kill Devil. Seventeenth century detractors described rum as a "hot, hellish and terrible liquor". It was said that the drink could "light ablaze" and "provoke rumbustious behavior". No wonder it was soon known as rumbullion. From there it was but a short leap to -- Rum.

For the seafarer rum, less inclined to spoil than fresh water and sturdier than beer, became the drink of choice. Rum was the drink of Buccaneers and "old salts", and eventually the official drink of the British Royal Navy. Every ship's purser would dole out a daily "tot", an eighth of a pint, for each Tar (as the shipmen were known). Purser's, in seaman's jargon, was reduced to Pusser, just as Boat Swain became Bosun. Today, Pusser's rum is said to emulate the style of rum served on deck.