Last of Royal Navy's rum for sale

It has been exactly 40 years since the last daily ration of rum was handed out to members of the Royal Navy.

On July 31, 1970, on what was known as "Black Tot Day, the tradition going back some 300 years ended, with sailors wearing black armbands and conducting mock funerals to bid farewell to the rations.

That did not mean, however, that the rum was all gone. A small supply from E.D. & F. Man & Co, official rum merchants to the Navy since 1784, was stored in wicker-clad stone veessels and went untouched except for state occasions.

Now the remaining 6,000 bottles, each in a dark wooden case with a copper cup measuring the official "half gill" measure, are going on sale at £600 ($940 U.S.) each at the HMS Belfast anchored on the River Thames in London.

[Go here for the story of the Royal Navy's rum ration, known as "grog."]

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Beam sends six-grain spirit to limited outlets

Jim Beam is known mostly for the consistency of its standard version of bourbon. That's one reason it is such a favorite with cocktail makers for such classics as the Manhattan.

Now, the Brown-Forman company that owns the brand has come up with a new six-grain expression called Jim Beam Signature. It is being tried at the moment as a product available only through what is known as "travel retail" -- in other word, European duty-free shops -- at 29.99 euros per bottle.

It is made from a blend of spirits distilled from corn, barley, wheat, triticale, rye and brown rice. (And, no, "Start Trek" fans, triticale is not the same grain used in the immortal episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." That was quadro-triticale.)

The limited-production spirit -- 13,800 bottles of the six-year-old, 89-proof spirit, to be precise -- is, says a gramatically-challenged company statement, "a result of us mingling different bourbons together. Each were made from a standard bourbon recipe (high percentage of single grains). For instance, we distilled a high wheat, small grain bourbon; a high triticale, small grain bourbon; and a high brown rice, small grain bourbon. Each were barreled separately then mingled together prior to bottling."

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