Our latest creation has been a work in progress for just over 2 years, but as the lockdown paused events and temporarily closed our Bothy Experience it gave me the time to look at projects and recipes that never made it to bottling. Excited as we were for their creation, there was never the time...until now!

As you will know we are located in a bothy in rural Angus in Scotland, starting out as farm buildings, crofts and, in our case, a smiddy — or blacksmith’s forge — Scotland’s bothies have long had a deep connection with the land.

It’s where horses came over the years to be shod, and we have been feeding molasses to horses for years so I thought mmm what else did the bothy lads do with molasses? Yes, they made rum!

A local farmer approached me with the very ingredient that I thought paired brilliantly with our rum base, saffron. More expensive than gold, I was intrigued as it seemed such an exotic spice but no, it’s from the crocus flower. In the North East of Scotland, it grows in abundance in certain areas, including poly tunnels a mile from the Bothy!

Ancient civilisations used it for medical remedies and magical potions, and now we’ve added Scottish saffron to our limited-edition, hand-numbered, Scottish spiced rum for a rich, deep flavour. It’s not a magical potion, but it’s pretty special.

We blend distilled and cask-aged rums with spices, including Scottish saffron, batching by hand. The end result is something rather special — a premium, full-strength, 40% abv spiced sweet sipping rum. It’s perfect on ice or in a cocktail and available in a 70cl and 5cl bottle.

Kim