Must Buy Dept: Pusser's Holiday Offering

[Capn Jimbo]

You must buy this one. I'm fackin serious...


Retirement is cool with one tiny little issue. You reach the top of your skills and earnings then bango! You retire and find you are now having to live on perhaps one-fourth of your previous income, and you become terrified at even small intrusions into your precious savings which now have to last either 15 minutes or until you're 95. The result?

If I spend money now, it has to be important and that means JaRiMi's collectibles and the like. It has to matter. This one does, and what is it?


Pusser's Holiday Package

There are two really big chains in South Florida: Total Wine and Spirits and ABC. Oh, and Crown Beverages to a lesser degree. Now I know all of you Pussers lovers have drooled over the incredible (and expensive) Pussers ceramic decanters but few of us have actually ponied up the shekels for one of these collectibles.

You now have a rare opportunity.

ABC is right now offering a Pusser's Holiday Box which includes a 750 of Pusser's Blue Label and - amazing! - also includes a Pusser's "Nelson's Blood" porcelain flask, complete with cork and a naval brassl screw-on cap/measurer that is every bit as attractive and well done as their decanters. Handsome and quite practical too. Of course I bought one, how could I not? And the best part?

Just $20, well under the regular price of the Blue Label alone. If you don't run to ABC and buy one of these you have no business pretending to love rum. You have been advised...

[Capn Jimbo]

Seriously...


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. . . . . . .
(Featuring the Royal Navy traditional toasts)

Do NOT miss this one!

[bearmark]

My buddy just got one of these at lunch today from Segel's in Plano, TX for $26. He was so excited about the flask! I'll have to go check it out now that I've been warned.

[Hassouni]

Excuse my inexcusable ignorance, but what is Nelson's Blood?

(And yeah I know the myth about Admiral Nelson being preserved in a barrel of rum and all that)

[Capn Jimbo]

Per Pusser's website...

"Nelson's Blood - the Story of Naval Rum" is a humorous, yet scholarly, social history of the Royal Navy, linked to the story of Pusser's Rum. It focuses on the life of British seamen from 1655, the year rum was first issued to the ranks, to 1970, when the rum issue terminated.

Known as "Nelson's Blood" rum was introduced to the service in the West Indies as a substitute for beer. A watered-down version, first offered in 1740 by Admiral Edward Vernon (Old Grogram to his sailors) rapidly acquired the sobriquet "grog," and was enjoyed for more than two centuries. But the popular daily issue of Pusser's Rum was finally deemed inappropriate for a modern navy whose complex equipment require a steady hand and a clear mind, and thus its daily issue was abolished.

So it was that on July 31, 1970, a day that would become known as "Black Tot Day", the last drop of Nelson's Blood was drunk. A cherished tradition was finally abandoned in the interest of safety and efficiency. Going forward, the seamen on board British warships would once again be back to beer where it all began.

The secrets for producing Pusser's Rum were placed in the hands of Charles Tobias (founder of Pusser's Ltd.) who convinced the Admiralty of its commercial value, so that Pusser's Rum is now sold commercially to the public with royalties going to the Royal Navy Sailor's Fund. "

(Credit: Pussers: http://www.pussers.com/t-nelsons-blood-story.aspx )

Although this version may be very mildly debated, it's close enough to the truth insofar as its relationship to the Royal Navy and Pussers. It also led to the Royal Navy's referring to "sucking the monkey, bleeding the monkey, or tapping the admiral" which referred to the occasional practice of drilling a small hole in a barrel of the rum stores and using a straw to borrow a bit more rum than the twice and day ration.