View source for Pusser's

{{Short description|Brand of rum}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2009}}
[[File:Derelict British Navy Pusser's Rum.jpg|thumb|A derelict sign promoting Pusser's Rum]]
'''Pusser's Rum''' is a brand name of [[rum]] produced by Pusser's Rum Ltd., based in the [[British Virgin Islands]]. Nine years after the [[Royal Navy]] discontinued the daily [[rum ration]] in 1970, the company was founded to produce the rum from the original Royal Navy recipe,<ref name="postcourier" /> using a blend of five [[West Indies|West Indian]] rums.
==History==
"Pusser" is Royal Navy slang for a [[purser]], a ship's [[supply officer]], now called a [[Logistics]] Officer. Thus the word came to connote "one hundred per cent Service," as in "pusser's issue." "Pusser's issue" applies to anything supplied by the [[Royal Navy]], such as a "pusser's grip", a [[canvas]] bag that sailors may use instead of a suitcase (it folds flat and is thus easy to stow on board ship).
The Royal Navy issued the last tot (ration) to "the fleet" on 31 July 1970. Since then, this has been known in Royal Naval Slang as "[[Black Tot Day]]."<ref>Rick Jolly, ''Jackspeak: A Guide to British Naval Slang & Usage'', FoSAMMA (2000), {{ISBN|0-9514305-2-1}}</ref> The remaining rum stocks were put up for auction. They were bought by Brian Cornford, shipped to [[Gibraltar]] and held in a secure [[bonded warehouse]]. As each visiting Royal Navy ship visited Gibraltar, it was the task of Cornford and his general manager, John Kania, to supply individual, wax-dated, corked, wicker-covered [[Carboy|demijohns]] containing full strength (approx 110 [[Alcoholic proof|proof]]) to the ships. When the individual gallon jars were finally sold, the large wooden barrels were tapped. It was found that over the years some of the contents in each wood barrel [[angel's share|had evaporated]], lowering the alcohol concentration somewhat. The barrelled rum was decanted into litre bottles and sold primarily to RN, [[RAF]] and [[British Army|Army]] messes and selected local pubs.
Some of this rum still pops up in premium [[auction house]]s. Because of the wax seal the alcohol concentration is similar to when it was bottled. It attracts high prices both because it is aged spirits, and because of its historical significance. {{citation needed|date=February 2020}}
In 1979, nearly a decade after the [[Royal Navy]] abandoned the custom of the daily tot of rum, company founder Charles Tobias obtained the rights to blending information associated with the naval rum ration and formed the company to produce the spirit according to the original [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] recipe, a blend of five [[West Indies|West Indian]] rums without colouring agents.<ref name="postcourier">{{cite web|last1=Wise|first1=Warren|title=Pusser's Rum moves corporate headquarters to North Charleston|url=http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130306/PC05/130309604/pusser-x2019-s-rum-moves-corporate-headquarters-to-north-charleston|website=The Post and Courier|publisher=Evening Post Industries|accessdate=22 June 2016|date=6 Mar 2013}}</ref>
In 1989, Pusser's Rum Ltd. filed a US trademark for the name and recipe for the [[Painkiller (cocktail)|Painkiller]], a cocktail from the Virgin Islands made with rum, cream of coconut, pineapple juice, and orange juice. When a [[Tiki bar]] named Painkiller opened in the [[Lower East Side]] of New York City in May 2011, Pusser's sent a [[Cease and desist|cease and desist order]] to owners Giuseppe Gonzalez and Richard Boccato, both for the bar's name and for selling Painkiller cocktails made with rums other than Pusser's.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Martineau|first=Chantal|date=2010-08-31|title=The Era of Copyrighted Cocktails?|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/08/the-era-of-copyrighted-cocktails/62153/|access-date=2022-01-25|website=The Atlantic|language=en}}</ref> Gonzalez and Boccato reached an out-of-court settlement with Pusser's, which included them renaming the bar to PKNY. In response to the news, numerous bartenders organized a boycott against Pusser's.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Painkiller's Supporters Launch Boycott of Pusser's Rum {{!}} The Lo-Down : News from the Lower East Side|url=https://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2011/06/painkillers-supporters-launch-boycott-of-pussers-rum.html|access-date=2022-01-25|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Philanthropy==
As part of the agreement with the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] granting Tobias the right to produce Pusser's Rum to the original specification, the Royal Navy Sailors’ Fund, a naval charity more commonly called the ‘Tot’ Fund, receives a substantial donation from the worldwide sales of the rum on an ongoing basis.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Curtis|first1=Wayne|title=And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails|date=4 Feb 2009|publisher=Crown/Archetype|page=61|isbn=9780307512857|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TrExKFNmKFcC&q=charles+tobias+royal+navy+sailor%27s+fund&pg=PA61|accessdate=22 June 2016}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Grog]]
* [[Painkiller (cocktail)]]
* [[Splice the mainbrace]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.pussersrum.com Pusser's Rum: Official site]
*[https://www.pussers.com/ Pusser's British West Indies : Official Website]
[[Category:Rum brands]]
[[Category:Sugar industry of the British Virgin Islands]]
[[Category:Food and drink introduced in 1979]]
[[Category:1979 establishments in the British Virgin Islands]]