There are few things that my better half, and Mass Movement Uber Boss Emma agree on. While we share the common beliefs that Jay Bentley and John Taylor are two of the most underrated bass players to have ever tuned up and turned it up, coffee is the bringer of life and nectar of the Gods, George Lucas should have known that aliens had no place in the pulptastic Indiana Jones universe, Stephen King is the greatest living American author and that the Hollywood Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest are among the finest thrill rides ever devised by an Imagineer.

However, as far as most of the other little pleasures that make day-to-day existence brighter and better, we usually agree to disagree. At least we used to before Barti Rum sent a bottle of their Spiced beverage to Mass Movement HQ.

Sure, we both acknowledged that Moosehead brews the best lager in the world and that by hook or by crook we’ll get them to sponsor the podcast one day and that Old Forester and Maker’s Mark have mastered the distiller’s art and elevated it to a level beyond the ken of mere mortals, but that was about it before we split and shared a couple of glasses of Barti’s Spiced leviathan

Em isn’t usually a rum drinker, but within moments of her first sip, she declared it to be “the best rum I’ve ever tasted” and she isn’t wrong. That first sip, it made me a Barti convert and fanboy too. Why? Maybe it’s the sweet aroma of toffee and vanilla that overwhelms and submerges your senses in pleasure before it hits your mouth, or maybe it’s the rich caramel heat that refuses to let go or the faint hint of salt that lingers ong thanks to the seaweed that Barti use in the distillation process that infuses the rum and gives it a sense of place and purpose. Or maybe it’s a combination of all of those things. 

Whatever it is, there’s no escaping the fact that Barti have crafted a drink that makes you dream of swashbuckling adventure, sailing the seven seas, and living the devil may care high life of a pirate. Okay, so maybe it doesn’t make you want to be a pirate, but it does embody a sense of escapism and endless possibility, that’ll help transport your imagination to places hitherto unexplored in your mental landscape. Barti have upped the rum game and made a believer out of me…  Tim Cundle