Equiano Original Rum

Buttery oak and butterscotch, with notes of liquorice, orange marmalade and heaps of dried berries.

• Distillery: Equiano Rum Co. - Foursquare Distillery
• Type: Dark/Golden Rum
  
• Region: Barbados & Mauritius
  
• Alcohol: 43%
  
• Volume: 700ml
  
• Other: Aged in ex-Bourbon and ex-Cognac casks
• Goes with: Neat or over ice
  

Equiano Rum is the world's first African and Caribbean rum and is named after Olaudah Equiano, a freedom fighter who played a pivotal part in the abolition movement.

Equiano is a collaboration of two distilleries on two different continents, creating something entirely new for the centuries old craft.  The liquid is a blend from one of the best emerging distilleries in Africa, Gray’s distillery in Mauritius, and the world-renowned Bajan distillery - Foursquare. Bringing these two rum purists together has meant that Equiano is a 100% natural rum, with no spices, no additives and no added sugar. All of it's rich and deep flavours come from the ex-Bourbon and ex-Cognac casks which they tropically mature in, making Equiano totally unique.

Equiano rum is a multi award winning premium aged rum, making it one of the best rums in the world right now for the 8-12 year aged category. Makes a great personal or corporate gift. Buy right here in our online liquor store and get delivered nationwide.

Equiano Rum is the delicious result of a collaboration between two fabulous distilleries, marrying liquid from Barbados' Foursquare and Gray's Distillery of Mauritius. The rum from Foursquare is aged in American white oak, while the liquid from Gray's is aged in French limousin oak and Cognac casks. It's then married in ex-bourbon casks and bottled at Foursquare, weighing in at 43% ABV. Two hemispheres meet in one bottle, and it's rather marvellous.

The owners of Foursquare Distillery, the Seale family, can trace its roots on Barbados back to the 1650s, and can reference five generations of rum-making expertise dating back to 1820. The establishment of the Foursquare brand, however, came much later. While the family could lay claim to one of Barbados’ oldest trading houses, Reginald Leon Seale was prohibited, like other traders, from selling rum directly to consumers under the Barbados Excise Law. His method around this issue was to establish a distribution business in Bridgetown in the early 1900s - and this was the birth of the R. L. Seale brand.

R.L. Seale was not the only trader who took this course of action, but he was one of the very few successful ones. This prosperity provided the opportunity for expansion, and from 1962 to 1993, the rum portfolios of ESA Field and Alleyne Arthur, including Old Brigand, Taylor's Falernum and Doorly's were acquired. In order for the multiple brands to be effectively consolidated, a decision was made that ESA Field and Old Brigand would focus on the local market, where they had always done well, while Doorly's would become an export brand.

This was the state of affairs until 1995 when the company, then led by Sir David Seale, gambled on the purchase of a sugar factory whose oldest building dates back to 1636 and was mostly decrepit. His intuition paid off, however, and that site became Foursquare Distillery, Now, it stands as one of the most efficient and modern rum distilleries around, complete with a state-of-the-art bottling plant on site.

• Gold - 2020 International Wine & Spirits Competition
• Gold - 2019 International Spirits Challenge - Non Aged Rum
  
• Silver - 2019 International Wine & Spirit Competition - Dark Rum