This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Discarded creates rum with banana peel
William Grant & Sons has extended its Discarded line with the launch of a Caribbean rum infused with banana peel.
The “overlooked” banana peel has been used to make the new Discarded rum
The launch of Discarded Banana Peel Rum follows the “success” of the brand’s inaugural product – Discarded Sweet Cascara Vermouth. The vermouth was infused with cascara, the outer fruit of the coffee berry and a waste product in coffee production.
Discarded Spirits Company has used banana peel, an “overlooked ingredient” that is usually binned, to create the new “fruit-forward” rum. The brand uses ex-whisky casks for final maturation.
The banana peel was sourced from a flavour house that uses the fruit but throws away the skins. The peel is recovered to dry out and ferment, before being steeped in alcohol for two weeks to enable “maximum flavour”. Afterwards, the rum and banana peel extracts are combined for another two days to complete the blending process.
After extraction, the banana peel is said to provide a “fresh toffee note with a fruity balance, whilst maintaining the spice and sweetness foundation” from the Caribbean rum.
Discarded Banana Peel Rum can be served neat over ice, in a long apéritif, mixed with ginger ale, or used in rum-based cocktails like a Daiquiri.
According to CGA data cited by the brand, flavoured rum is the second-fastest growing category in the on-trade, behind flavoured gin, growing at 18% year on year.
“It’s exciting to see how consumers and bartenders have engaged with Discarded so far,” said Tom Stannard, global marketing manager, innovation at William Grant & Sons.
“When developing [the] rum, we wanted to maintain the magic of reuse whilst credibly expanding into a new category. The best way to describe the flavour is liquid banana bread, distinctive yet comforting. It’s perfect in a Rum Old Fashioned or a Daiquiri.”
Bottled at 37.5% ABV, Discarded Banana Peel Rum will launch in the UK on-trade in January 2020. It will have an RRP of £25 (US$33) per 500ml.