Coruba Change?

I have seen the new Coruba bottle design starting to hit the liquor stores however I have not tried the new package yet. Over at the Ministry Of Rum website a user reports that he believes that the blend has been changed as well. He reports that it tastes rather watered down and bland:

http://www.ministryofrum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4245

Anyone try the new Coruba packaging yet? If so, notice any difference??

A little monkey told me that Coruba supposedly now has 2 products: Dark and "extra-Dark." If this is true, I am hoping the "extra" is what we'd be looking for.

I'll report back if I hear any more - anyone else out there in the know?

I just sent a note off to Kobrand Corporation using their website contact page to see if they would shed some light on what is happening to Coruba Dark. I'll let you know if they get back to me.

The new bottles were over at Argonaut, and then gone, and now they're back to the old bottles.
Maybe I should pick up a few more of the old ones and horde them away?

OK, I guess I better head to my liquor store and buy up some Coruba inventory, before the new stuff rotates in. I suspect they will have only the old bottles on the shelves, considering how dusty they've always been, when I buy. But, gee,... St. James. Lemon Hart, and now, Coruba - will the hoarding never end?

Dear Gnomon,

Thank you for your email. The recipe and taste of Coruba Dark has not changed. Earlier this year, 4 new Coruba flavors were introduced - Coconut, Spiced, Pineapple and Mango. The packaging for Coruba Dark was changed to be in line with the newly introduced flavors, however nothing has changed to the rum inside the bottle.

Hope this clears up any confusion and thanks again for your inquiry.

Best,

Gregory Levine
Brand Manager - Spirits
One Manhattanville Road, 4th Floor
Purchase, NY 10577
Phone: 914-253-7787
Fax: 914-253-7906
[email protected]
http://www.kobrandwineandspirits.com
Fine Spirits & Wines Since 1944

Gnomon,

Thanks for posting their response. That's quite a relief to hear-Coruba is an essential ingrediant in my mixology. Plus I plain like the stuff! :wink:

It's a staple for me as well. Glad to find out that no one is messing with it...at the moment.

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it is a well known fact that over the years the Jamaicans have slowly been weakening those heavy-bodied flavors that originally made these rums famous.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.

On 2016-10-10 20:07, RumScrummager wrote:
...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... In fact, Coruba today now contains a higher percentage of column still rum than it did five years ago. ...

It seems Ed Hamilton would corroborate this as he states on his website, " Following the acquisition of Myers’s by Diageo that product lost its character. Similarly, Coruba contains more column still rum that it did five years ago and lost much of its appeal to the mixology community."

I have found the Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black Rum to be a good substitute for what Coruba used to be.