Post #769357 by RumScrummager on Mon, Oct 10, 2016 8:07 PM

Despite what any sales rep will tell you (whether intentional or not), it is a well known fact that over the years the Jamaicans have slowly been weakening those heavy-bodied flavors that originally made these rums famous. I have bottlings of 1980s and 1990s Coruba dark which are more intense and funky in taste. In fact, Coruba today now contains a higher percentage of column still rum than it did five years ago. Like so many brands there were more iterations of Coruba than anyone can count. Many happen without any fanfare or label change. Honestly, a sales rep is the LAST person to know this kind of detailed information.

Once a brand portfolio is sold off, as was the case with Coruba (whose parent company J. Wray & Nephew, Ltd sold out to Italian Gruppo Campari back in 2012 for US$ 414.8m) the new owners either discontinue or re-launch certain products. Remember, there is no sentiment in business. The Gruppo Campari acquisition focused on the brand's core portfolio - that is, Appleton Estate (32%), Wray & Nephew white overproof (22.3%), and Coruba, which only accounts for a miserable 7.7%. The other 37.9% is composed of 'other' brands.

The only upside to these types of acquisitions is that greedy shareholders (who are already millionaires many times over) are well-positioned to successfully exploit a brand's attributes for future international expansion - in this case, of a growing and premiumising rum category across all major usage sectors; this is why we are slowly seeing more Coruba bottles on liquor store shelves; this is why Appleton Estate now have a 50-year old rum; this is why we now have J.Wray™ Jamaica Gold and Silver rum, with a distinctive new look and name, which has replaced Appleton Special and Appleton White in the USA.

Hopefully, the pencil-pushers over at Campari will listen to people's demands and try to increase that abysmal 7.7% margin. Coruba is not only one of the most important mixing rums for Tiki, but it has also stood the test of time - it has outlived many other of it's own Jamaican rival brands, including the previously well-known One Dagger, Two Dagger, and Three Dagger rums which ended in the 1950s.

BTW - Coruba dark is distilled and imported from Jamaica, but is not distributed commercially in Jamaica. Same with the now-defunct Kohala Bay, which was distilled by the National Rum Pool. In short, the Jamaicans have gotten lazy and are more concerned with bulk import rather than being grounded in the traditions of the past.