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New rum takes on Sailor Jerry
A new spiced rum is looking to fill the gap its creators believe was left in the market following the recipe change to the Sailor Jerry brand.
UK distributor and brand owner LWC Drinks has launched Admiral Vernon’s “Old J”, a product developed by a former employee of First Drinks, which owns Sailor Jerry.
Promising “a secret blend of seven spices, including sweet vanilla and Persian lime,” Old J aims to satisfy the online backlash which followed the relaunch of Sailor Jerry two years ago.
Explaining the idea behind the creation of Old J, Tom Hurst, brand manager for LWC Drinks, observed: “There was a big campaign on social networks to bring back the old [Sailor Jerry] recipe at the time with 26,666 likes on petition page on Facebook before the page was frozen.
“In 2012 I left First Drinks to join LWC and my first project was to develop a new product to exploit this big space in the golden rum category.”
With an RRP of £16.49, the product is currently available from a number of off-trade outlets and will be on show at Rumfest this October.
Meanwhile a spokesperson from First Drinks stressed “Sailor Jerry continues to perform well”, remarking: “We have maintained our number two position over the last two years and are confident of continued success.”
Citing data from market research firm TGI, the company observed: “The number of drinkers enjoying Sailor Jerry are up +8% year on year and we will continue investing in the brand to ensure prolonged growth.”
Having tried Old J recently from the drinkshop after being an keen drinker of the old recipe Sailor Jerry, I can confirm that it does nail the old recipe Sailor Jerry and in some ways surpasses it. It should definately be tried by those, who like myselfwere really disappointed that Sailor Jerry changed. It kept me away from a bottle of Zacapa 23 at the weekend…its THAT good.
First Drinks are kidding themselves if they think that their ‘new’ recipe Sailor Jerry is worth drinking. I’m not sure where they get their figures but to be honest they mean nothing without context and in my opinion ‘new’ Jerry is a foul attempt at a rum, it’s just a generic ‘alcohol’ taste, not even distinguishable as rum. Thankfully someone has seen the gap left in the market and capitalized on it at last!
Spiced Rum attracts a young, savy, image conscious consumer. Its predominantly on trade driven, I would put OL J behind my bar, its looks like they made it in someones shed, and there pricing is a disgrace. This is a garuanteed dog!!
i Started drinking old SJ back in 2009 from Wetherspoons and it was so nice million times better than Morgans spice
got my mate hooked and for the last 3 years have been drinking nothing but spiced rums. However since SJ changed the taste it became wack. Then we had to change to Morgans spices which was even souless and wack for the past few years, till we got to taste Lambs Spice a new and underrated player in the spiced market.
So after copious amounts of Mspice, Havana club,Mount gay,Kraken wray & nephew el darado, we have settled on Lambs spice for our Friday night poker sessions. Ps Never put more than 2 to 3 cubes of ice in you drink and always mix with pepsi and not coke. Tonight is the christening of My first bottle of “old J” next week will be “4 squares”
This got me excited until I saw this stuff has only 35% alcohol content…. so hardly a replacement for the original recipe sailor jerry rum. I think i’ll give it a miss.
Sweet… Loved the old Sailor Jerry recipe and the killed it when they made their changes but this is spot on and a lot cheaper then buying the old SJ online for £80 a bottle
I have been buying sj for a long time not only for the rum but the tattoos. I have noticed that sj has changed the glue on the flat pints, its impossible to remove the tattoo on the back label. Disappointed not being able to collect anymore of the cool tats.