A Clackmannanshire town is playing an integral part in its former local newspaper editor’s venture into the world of Scottish Spiced Rum and craft spirits.
Jacobite Mike worked at the Alloa Advertiser between 2012 and 2015, and is one of eight co-founders of the Jacobite Spirit Company.
Its signature product, The 45 Scottish Spiced Rum, is a homegrown, premium drink made using locally-sourced botanicals and sustainable Scottish materials.
In their pursuit of authenticity, Jacobite Spirits have tapped into Alloa’s glass-making expertise and heritage by using bottles made at O-I.
The company has grown throughout the spring and summer by selling The 45 Scottish Spiced Rum directly online and delivering for free throughout the UK.
With bars and pubs closed for the majority of that time, Jacobite Spirits has used social media to bring the new brand to the public’s attention.
As well as selling on the back of The 45 Scottish Spiced Rum’s look and taste - described by Michael as “unique and delicious” - the company tries to keep its followers educated and entertained.
This includes keeping them up to date with rum’s changing place in the drinks industry, as well letting them in on how the team works together to create the rum from the ground up, and telling the story behind the Scottish ingredients and products used to make it.
Among those products are the bottles from Alloa’s O-I. For example, a post on Jacobite Spirits’ Facebook and Instagram pages explained how looking at the bottom of the bottle doesn’t just tell people they’re out of rum, it also contains information on the model, mould and factory it came from.
Michael said: “Craft distilleries display their authenticity by explaining how they are distilled with botanicals and other special ingredients.
“We know that’s important to our customers - they are happy to pay a premium price because they know they are getting something different that has been handmade, rather than a mass-produced brand they can pick up in the supermarket.
“But we also want our rum to be available to everyone. So we try to make our engagement with the public as fun and interesting as possible.
“We post a lot of serving suggestions and cocktail recipes - because who doesn’t want to buy a drink that looks appealing, and tastes unique and delicious?
“What our customers respond to best of all is information about any successes we’ve had as a team and how the drink is brought to them - including things they didn’t know about bottling and the spirits industry.
“That also relates to sustainability, which we put a lot of value on. O-I’s bottles are infinitely recyclable and go a long way towards helping us with that.”
