Leamington woman launches new rum company - Newbold Spirit

Victoria Black and husband Ian Black, started Newbold Spirit and had their first bottle of Newbold Spiced Rum ready for sale on November 8.

Victoria said: "It was enormously exciting to see a bottle, ready and labelled.

"I was made redundant on the July 2 and by the 4th of July I had registered Newbold Spirit at Companies House. It was only this weekend that someone mentioned the significance of our registration date - Independence Day.

She used work in marketing until she was made redundant over the summer.

"I'm thankful that I was made redundant and got the boot to go and do something that I always wanted to do."

The name of the new rum company has a geographical tie-in on how it all started.

Victoria said: "Newbold Spirit was always a conversation that we had whilst we walked our dog around Newbold Comyn, that went along the lines 'let's give up our jobs, start a rum company and I don't know, go and live in Barbados. We haven't given up our jobs, nor have we run away to the Caribbean, but the feeling persisted and so we created Newbold Spirit and then we set about making our spiced rum dream come true."

Newbold Spirit has worked to source locally as much as possible, which includes the decision to work with the Leamington-based graphic designers at Little Fish Creative - who produced their 'bold' brand image. The Newbold Spirit website is still in development.

Making the Newbold Spiced Rum involved the couple coming up with their own special recipe.

Victoria explained: "Unfortunately you can't make rum in the UK, as we can't grow sugar cane. The rum is made in the Caribbean and then we turn it into spiced rum.

"In order to do this, I visited five different distilleries to find the one I wanted to help us make our spiced rum. The distillers were amazing and it was a process I really enjoyed. It was fascinating to talk to them.

"Before we agreed on a taste - we practised flavours with friends and family, asking them to make mini jars of spiced rum, adding flavouring that they thought was good. This actually worked really well as a process of elimination.

"Finally, to the taste. We wanted a smooth, vanilla (but not overly sweet) taste, with spice and ginger and a back-taste nod to citrus, leaving a slow-glow warmth to the palette. Newbold Spiced Rum can be enjoyed classically mixed with cola or ginger beer, or, turned into a winter warmer hot toddy with spiced cider and apple juice or simply, by itself.

"Can rum have a personality? We think Newbold Spiced Rum has. We wanted Newbold Spiced Rum to be the drink you turn to when you are having a good time: be it drinking our spiced rum in a noisy, crowded bar with friends; toasting smores around a campfire with the family or watching a sunset with someone special.

Newbold Spirit will be at several local markets over the next month, including the Warwick Victorian Evening later this week on Thursday November 28 and The Leamington Lantern Parade on this Sunday December 1. They will be selling spiced rum and cider hot toddies along with large and mini bottles of the Newbold Spirit Spiced Rum.

For more information about Newbold Spirit, including how to buy a bottle contact Victoria Black on [email protected] on Facebook or Instagram @newbold_spirit.