In 2016, the Morning Advertiser, a trade journal for the British pub trade, published an article defying the attitude at the time, which held that gin was the spirit du jour. What the Advertiser had observed was a value sales increase of 41% between 2010 and 2015 of rum, specifically dark and spiced.
By the end of that year, the drinks press was writing about rum’s “complex picture of growth” as some of the established brands stayed flat or even declined. What was changing, commentators suggested, was that the category...