Today I am concluding my trip through the Appleton Estate Rum line-up which was triggered by special tasting event in Edmonton hosted by Joy Spence, Master Blender for Appleton Estate Rum. At the event, the guests were not only walked though the main range of Appleton Rums (the Signature VX Blend, the Appleton Reserve, and the Rare 12 Year Old) we were also allowed to sample Joy’s stunning new Appleton Estate Joy Anniversary Blend which commemorates her 20th Anniversary as Master Blender of Appleton Estate Rum (see review here).
Appleton Estate Reserve Rum is the only rum in Appleton’s main range which has not undergone a re-branding. I am not sure why not, although perhaps it has something to do with Joy’s revelation to me that the Appleton Reserve Rum is her preferred rum for personal enjoyment. She loves all the Appleton Rums; but if she were to be stranded on a desert island with just one, the Reserve would be her rum of choice. Based upon this it is a reasonable conjecture that Appleton Estate sees no reason to tweak this particular rum blend, not even for the sake of a re-branding.
Although the Appleton Reserve Rum has apparently not changed in any material fashion since my first review seven years ago, I nevertheless took this opportunity to revisit the brand. Here is a link to my newly written review:
Review: Appleton Estate Reserve Rum
Please enjoy the review which concludes with Joy Spence’s favourite cocktail which she revealed to me in an interview in 2012. Although Joy’s Bio now calls the serving, “The Joy” (I suspect the Campari Marketing Team at work), I prefer the original name I gave the mixed drink when I first published it five years ago, The Spence Cocktail.
This past winter (on January 31, 2017), I took a little tour east of Edmonton along the Yellowhead Highway to the 
When I arrived, I found that Rob and Barb had developed a spirit which hearkened back to a time before prohibition. This is a spirit which was first produced when a small rural population (who had immigrated from Europe) carried on a centuries old tradition of small pot distillation. Before prohibition, (with very few police to patrol the vast prairie) the tradition prospered. However first prohibition, and then government taxation, drove the spirit underground where it almost vanished. Fortunately for us today, distillers, Rob and his wife Barb have (through their steadfast research and commitment) brought back a spirit steeped in the agricultural heritage of Alberta.
I have been revisiting some of those early cocktails with the idea that perhaps some of them should be polished up, and perhaps some should be dropped from my cocktail section entirely. However, after reviewing these early servings, I realized that every once in a while in those early days of my blog, I got it right. And that is the definitely the case with the recipe I am sharing today.
On March 23rd, 2017 I attended to a very special tasting event hosted by Joy Spence, Master Blender for Appleton Estate Rum. Although the focus of the event was to introduce everyone to the new Appleton Estate Joy Anniversary Blend (
Wisniak na Rumie is a Cherry flavoured liqueur produced by 
The Rum Howler Blog 