J.Wray&Nephew's DAGGER Dark Jamaica Rum

Another bunch of dagger recipes from an early recipe booklet being sold on eBay:

Just found the upload that Swanky posted about the Daggar rum postcard record

Thanks Swanky for that...it was cool to hear !!

Posted on 07/14/2012 REPLY

Well, it took me a while, but here it is... sort of:

Dagger Rum Postcard record

Why sort of? Well, my stupid $25 USB turntable has a preset stop point for the center of the record and this record goes beyond it. That is why it abruptly stops!

[ Edited by PineappleWhip on 2023-05-12 11:09:51 ]

[ Edited by PineappleWhip on 2023-05-12 11:10:21 ]

OK. My good deed for the year, with context.

A while back - I can't recall exactly where, maybe his blog? Maybe the KB thread here? - I ran into a discussion by the mighty Jim "Hurricane" Hayward on blending rums to replicate the extinct Kohala Bay, an integral component in so many Mai-Kai Restaurant recipes. The upshot was that 4:1:1 (Coruba : Appleton Estate Signature : W&N126; all being J. Wray products) made for a SUPER close* approximation.

Jim then made a casual comment that perhaps we should rather be trying to replicate the even more extinct Appleton Dagger/Punch, rather than KB, which at 97° was closest to what Mariano Licudine used to craft those recipes originally. A tiny little light went off in my head. My mom collected miniature liquor bottles at one point, so I went to her house. After a good rummage, I found a couple of Appleton Punch minis.

With that as my control group, and the KB Clone Blend framework above, I started tinkering with a blend, also adding Blackwell (another JW&N rum) to the experiment. And I tinkered and tinkered and now, at long last, I reveal what (again, to my palate) really hits the Appleton Punch/Dagger spot. Here** is what I used to make a 750ml bottle of Dagger/Punch; I even cobbled together a tribute label, which was surprisingly easy. 275ml W&N126 200ml Coruba 150ml Blackwell 125ml Appleton Estate Signature

• To my palate 3:2:1 is a bit closer, but that's not the subject of this afternoon's symposium. ** Slightly rounded off for ease of measurement, but pretty much still lands within a couple of decimal points to the original 97ish proof.

[ Edited by jokeiii on 2023-08-13 10:40:33 ]

If you want to see the Appleton Punch clone in cocktail action, my pal Andrew tried it with the Smuggler's Cove Planter s Punch: https://youtu.be/cqCWwVsWoD8

Very cool! I wonder how this would taste in a Mai Tai. Is the Dagger supposed to be in any way similar to the Wray & Nephew 17 or 15 year old rums Vic originally used in the Mai Tai?