On Friday 31st July 1970, a centuries-old British naval tradition was brought to an abrupt end. Here, Alexandra Gray de Walden explores the origins of Black Tot Rum.

The last day of July represents a dark day in British naval history – a “black” day, you might say. Since the 17th century, sailors onboard British warships had been issued with a daily ration of alcohol. It started as “small beer”, a much weaker incarnation of the beers we know today, coming in at less than one percent alcohol-by-volume (ABV). As with most traditions from the British Armed Forces, this was for a purely practical rather than romantic reason – the beer would keep better and for longer than water.

Small beers soon evolved into harder spirits which were even better at retaining freshness due to the high alcohol content. The Admiralty had originally chosen brandy but with ever-increasing naval conflicts with France, it was decided it was a poor show of patriotism to continue with that French spirit.

It is widely considered that 1655 is the year in which brandy was swapped out for rum as the Navy’s daily “tot” of choice. Around this time, Britain was extending its reach into the Caribbean. Without wishing to diminish them, the ramifications of colonialism are beyond the scope of this article. But one result of this period, for all its horrors, is the introduction of rum. This local spirit became an obvious choice for daily rations due to its accessibility – and better yet, it had nothing to do with the French.

A sailor’s daily tot had, previously, not been quantified or codified and had been known to reach as much as a gallon a day. Unsurprisingly, this meant regular incidents of inebriated sailors no doubt tripping over anchor lines and hoisting the wrong semaphore flags. Thus, in 1740, an official “recipe” and allocation was created. Each sailor was issued with a quarter-pint of diluted rum per day, issued in two parts. This was instigated by Admiral Edward Vernon, who became affectionately known in the Navy as “Old Grog” due to his grogram (silk and mohair or wool mix) coat. Shortly, these daily rations became known as “grog” and to feel “groggy” followed soon after.

While the daily tot was beginning to die out for certain ranks as early as the 1880s, the Second World War was to signal yet further prohibition on board. These regulations were not issued officially by the Admiralty but instead, instigated in-house by certain Navy branches. For instance, Navy aircrews insisted on a four-hour break “from bottle to throttle”.

Eventually, after being debated in the House of Commons, it was agreed (fairly swiftly) that the days of the Navy tot were over. On Friday 31st July 1970, the last tots were issued and First Sea Lord and Admiral of the Fleet, Michael Le Fanu, marked this black day with a special signal (a written memo, rather like a telegram). “Most farewell messages try, to jerk a tear from the eye. But I say to you lot, ‘Very sad about the tot’ but thank you, good luck and goodbye.” This swansong was made all the more poignant as Le Fanu was terminally ill at this point and died before the end of the year.

Due to the speed at which this ruling had been made, the Navy had a fairly healthy stock of rum flagons remaining. Enter whisky afficionado and entrepreneur Sukhinder Singh. After having the opportunity to taste one of these ex-Navy flagons, he then bought all the remaining ones he could find. He then decided, even more astutely, to bottle them as “Black Tot Last Consignment” – a blend of some of these flagons, bottled to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Black Tot Day in 2010.  

This incredibly limited rum delights with treacle and dark chocolate notes. Despite the age of its component liquids, there are still flavours of ripe black fruits which descend into dark depths of muscovado sugar and walnuts on the palate. A drop of water wakes up bruised banana and liquorice from their slumber.

In 2011, Sukhinder went one better and founded the Black Tot Rum brand. Far from being reliant on one, finite, source of liquid, Black Tot Rum has endeavoured to lead “the evolution of rum blends” and become something of an expert bottler. The 2024 Master Blender’s Reserve is a concoction of some of those famous flagons with a pick of the rum world’s rarest casks. The 2024 release includes a 22-year-old Mount Gay (Barbados), a 26-year-old Caroni (Trinidad) and a 17-year-old Foursquare (Barbados). The result is a decidedly fruit-forward rum with delightful, tropical notes of pineapple, lime and ginger. This is a deft blend of elegantly aged rums with an enticing, treacle-like mouthfeel.

Instead of lamenting the loss of a Royal Navy tradition, we should look instead to the expertise, revival and unbridled passion for rum that the day has brought us in the form of Black Tot Rum.