Some of these bottles crossed the Atlantic powered by nothing but wind. Others taste of vanilla, cocoa and Christmas itself. Behind 24 little doors, Spirits of Christmas Calendar holds 24 miniature bottles, and no two days pour the same.

Expert's Description

Spirits of Christmas Calendar is a Rum and Spirit Drink Advent Calendar from the Danish bottler A Clean Spirit, holding 24 miniature bottles of 2cl, bottled at 40%.

Inside you'll find 24 different rum and spirit expressions from around the world, 48cl in total. Fourteen of the bottles are genuine rum with less than 20 grams of residual sugar per litre. The rest are Spirit Drinks. Only 756 calendars have been made.

Ron Sostenible takes up the biggest share. It's A Clean Spirit's own brand, made from sugarcane juice in the Dominican Republic. The calendar covers the 8, 12 and 16 year old, plus Triple Cask, Rioja Cask and two Experimental Cask releases with Tokaji and Oloroso. The 12 year old spent 11 years in bourbon casks and a final year in cognac casks, which rounds off the edges. The Rioja Cask is finished in casks that once held Rioja wine.

Terra Verde comes from the same house. A Christmas Spirit is built on Dominican rum from ex-bourbon casks and flavoured with vanilla, caramel and coconut. Terra Verde shows up several times in the calendar, including XO, XOS, Chocolate and Midsummer.

The remaining bottles come from other houses: Planteray XO from the brand formerly known as Plantation, Rum Nation Guatemala XO, the spiced CaneRock, Planteray Stiggins, Slia Mare and Piquero.

Tasting Notes

Nose

There's no common thread to follow. Ron Sostenible 8 year old Triple Cask leans towards figs, dates and raisins with a little orange peel, A Christmas Spirit towards vanilla, caramel and coconut, and Terra Verde Chocolate smells of cocoa. CaneRock is spiced from the first second.

Palate

Sweetness runs through the whole box, just in very different shapes. The older Ron Sostenible bottles are drier, with more oak and baking spice. The flavoured expressions are soft and round. The wine-finished casks bring darker fruit.

Finish

Short and sweet after the lighter bottles, longer and woodier after the older ones. Cocoa and vanilla linger longest in the flavoured ones.

Specifications

Name: Spirits of Christmas Calendar from A Clean Spirit - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2cl
Bottler: A Clean Spirit
Region/Country: From all over the world
Type: Rum and Spirit Drink Advent Calendar
ABV: 40%
Size: 48 CL (24 x 2 cl)
Number of bottles: 756 calendars with 24 miniature bottles each
EAN no.: 5744000820941
Serving suggestion: Neat at room temperature, one glass per door. Start with the lighter ones, so you can taste the difference when you reach the older bottles.

Flavour Profile

Versatile · Sweet · Cask-Driven · Spiced · Cocoa

Did You Know?

The schooner Tres Hombres sails Ron Sostenible from the Dominican Republic to Denmark and docks in Copenhagen. The ship runs on wind alone.

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Picture a sea chest washed up from the Danish West Indies. Weathered wood, dull metal studs and a red gift ribbon tied a little too neatly. Behind the 24 doors there's no gold, only 2 cl of rum at a time, and a small piece of history with each.

Expert's Description

Old St. Croix 24 Treasures 2026 Edition is a Rum-based Spirit Drink Advent Calendar with 24 different blends of 2 cl each, matured on port, sherry and bourbon casks among others, and with strengths from 40 to 60%.

The calendar is built like a treasure chest, and every door hides a miniature bottle picked by the master distiller at Old St. Croix. The blends draw on Central America and the West Indies. These are not 24 different brands but 24 sides of the same house. From the XO Reserve range you get XO Reserve Christmas Edition, XO Legacy Reserve, XO Haakon Royal Reserve, XO Thin Blue Line Reserve, XO Reserve 1888 Copenhagen Medal, XO Port Cask Reserve, XO Superior Cask Reserve, XO Ambre d'Or Reserve, XO Explorer Reserve, XO 175 Years Anniversary Reserve and XO Founders Reserve at 44.8%. Royal Danish Navy appears in five editions: The Frigate Jylland, Naval Cadet, Frogman, Strength and Black Barrel, with Danish Navy The Original alongside.

The rest is Family Reserve, Signature and four Non Plus Ultra blends: Ambre d'Or Excellence, La Galante, Very Rare and Black Edition. Orange Grove Elixir is the odd one out, as it's an orange liqueur rather than a rum. The casks tell a story too. Port Cask Reserve is matured in casks that once held port wine, Superior Cask on port and sherry casks, and Non Plus Ultra Black Edition on heavily charred bourbon casks.

The brand goes back to the pharmacist Albert Heinrich Riise, who arrived in the West Indies in 1838. The rum long carried the name A.H. Riise, but today the whole range is called Old St. Croix again. In earlier years the calendar was called 24 Experiences, so 24 Treasures is this year's edition rather than a new series. It is produced by Old St. Croix Spirits ApS in Dragør, Denmark.

Tasting Notes

Nose

With 24 different blends there is no single nose. Port Cask Reserve offers delicate red fruit, and Superior Cask is described as the most nuanced and mature in the XO Reserve series. The rest you discover door by door.

Palate

Thin Blue Line leans dry, with tannins, leather and tobacco. Port Cask is silkier, while Black Barrel brings mocha to the tongue.

Finish

The calendar runs from the silky close of Port Cask to Black Barrel, where the mocha fades out slowly.

Specifications

Name: Old St. Croix 24 Treasures 2026 Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2cl
Producer: Old St. Croix
Region/Country: Central America and the West Indies
Type: Rum-based Spirit Drink Advent Calendar
ABV: 40-60%
Size: 2 CL per bottle, 48 CL in total
Number of bottles in the calendar: 24
Edition: 2026 Edition
EAN no.: 5744005061141
Serving suggestion: Neat at room temperature, one sample at a time. Start with the mildest and save the strongest for last, and add a drop of water to those near 60%.

Flavour Profile

Versatile · Cask-Driven · Fruity · Dry · Mocha

Did You Know?

The box has its own competition. Scan the QR code on the back for a chance to win a Non Plus Ultra Very Rare, and no purchase is needed to take part. That same Very Rare is also in the calendar as a small 2 cl sample behind one of the doors.

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24 doors in dark green card, and behind each one a small bottle from somewhere you have probably never been. Hobart. Colchagua. Hanoi. Quebec. Orkney. Craft Gin Club has gathered small distilleries from five continents and hidden seven of them, so nobody knows what is waiting until the door swings open.

Expert's Description

Craft Gin Club Gin Advent Calendar is a Gin Advent Calendar holding 24 miniature bottles of 5 cl, bottled at between 26 and 46% and drawn from small and mid-sized distilleries in Britain and far beyond.

Seventeen of the gins are named on the box. The other seven are mystery gins, revealed only when the door is opened, and they sit at 40 to 43%. Among the named ones are Cotswolds Cloudy Christmas Gin from Warwickshire at 46%, Kirkjuvagr Yuletide Gin from Orkney, Whitby Distillery's Demeter Edition from North Yorkshire and Salcombe Gin's Start Point The Azores Edition from Devon. Further from British soil you find Forty Spotted Tasmanian Dry Gin from Hobart, Gin Provincia Andes Dry Gin from Colchagua in Chile, Sông Cái's Việt Nam Dry Gin from Hanoi and 3 Lacs Lemon & Sunflower Gin from Quebec.

The styles run wide. Some are classic and fresh, like Sky Wave's White Horse London Dry Gin from Oxfordshire and Great Glen's Light & Zesty Highland Gin from Loch Ness. Some are plainly Christmassy: Forged Spirits Winter Gin from West Yorkshire, St Davids Christmas Edition Gin from Pembrokeshire, Manchester Gin's Under the Tree Gin and Pennington's Lakeland Moon Snowfell Gin from Cumbria. Then there are the ones rooted in a place: The Fynoderee Distillery's Manx Dry Elder Shee Gin from the Isle of Man and Lantic's Morva Gin from Cornwall. Thicket & Thistle Sloe Gin from Hampshire is the weakest in the box at 26%, and the only one leaning towards sweet and velvety rather than dry.

Behind the box is Craft Gin Club, a British gin club based in Corby that sends its members a new craft gin every month. The calendar is that idea in fast-forward: 24 small bottles picked by the club from the distillers it calls its Family of Distillers. In total there are 120 cl of gin in the box.

Tasting Notes

Nose

Citrus dominates. Clementine and warm spice from Cotswolds, pink grapefruit and lemon thyme in the elderflower gin from the Isle of Man, juicy orange at Great Glen. Flowers arrive as elderflower and rose in Morva Gin, and the winter spices are clear in Kirkjuvagr, where frankincense and myrrh meet bright notes of ginger.

Palate

The range is wide. The Tasmanian gin is peppery and green with pepperberry and makrut lime leaves, while Great Glen sets watercress against the orange as a peppery counterweight. Sông Cái leans into spice and fruit from Vietnamese botanicals, Whitby towards flowers, spice and something coastal, and St Davids towards chestnut and fig. Thicket & Thistle is the opposite of dry: rich, fruity and sweet with a soft, velvety body.

Finish

Mostly smooth and rounded. Sky Wave's London Dry Gin is described with a long, balanced finish, while 3 Lacs ends softly after layers of citrus and spice.

Specifications

Name: Craft Gin Club Gin Advent Calendar - Gin Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 5cl
Producer: Craft Gin Club
Region/Country: Gin from around the world
Type: Gin Advent Calendar
ABV: 26-46%
Size: 5 CL per bottle
Number of bottles in the calendar: 24
EAN no.: 5056417801407
Serving suggestion: Gin and tonic over ice with a slice of citrus or lime, one bottle a day. The light Sloe Gin at 26% can also be sipped on its own.

Flavour Profile

Fresh · Citrus · Spicy · Floral · Festive

Did You Know?

Cotswolds Cloudy Christmas Gin turns milky the moment ice or tonic hits the glass. The cause is the high load of botanical oils, which come out of solution when the gin is diluted.

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Every door is its own small journey. One day you land in the Caribbean with warm molasses and brown sugar, the next in Scotland or on Madeira, where rum picks up an entirely different accent. 24 Days of Rum Green Edition gathers that spread in one box, opened one country at a time through December.

Expert's Description

24 Days of Rum Green Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2cl is a rum advent calendar with 24 different rums and rum-based spirits from the Danish spirits house 1423, in miniature bottles at 2cl each and bottled at 43.7%.

The idea is the same as elsewhere in the family: one window a day, one new country, a new style. The journey passes the Caribbean classic Plantation Barbados 5 YO from Barbados, moves on to 1731 Fine & Rare Guatemala Grand Reserva from Guatemala, and takes in two entirely different expressions from Cane Island – one from Trinidad, one from Australia. Naga Siam draws its rum from Thailand, Rhum J.M and Damoiseau represent the French agricole style from Martinique and Guadeloupe respectively, Worthy Park and Chairman's Reserve stand for Jamaica and Saint Lucia respectively, and Novo Fogo brings Brazilian cachaça into the mix. Whistler, usually known for Irish whiskey from Boann Distillery, appears here in a rum expression, while Batavia Arrack from By the Dutch draws on the Javanese arrack tradition. The strength spans just as widely as the geography: from several of the milder bottles at 40% to Pusser's Rum Gunpowder Proof at 54.5% and the calendar's peak, Patridom XO Cask from the Dominican Republic, bottled at a full 65%. Two glasses and a tasting-notes guide are included, making it easy to follow the differences from day to day – and every miniature carries its own QR code with the background story of that particular rum house.

Behind the calendar is 1423, founded in 2008 in Odense by Bintu, Joshua and Glenn under the original name BJG. Shortly before their first rum release, Parminder S. Bhatia joined, and the company became 1423 ApS. In 2012, Thomas Vogensen, a trained accountant, came on board and helped turn the dream into a proper business. 24 Days of Rum launched in 2015, and today 1423 is one of the most respected names in independent rum bottling in Europe. For corporate gifts, the shop takes orders from 6 units upwards at ordre@whisky.dk.

Tasting Notes

Nose

There's no single scent to expect in this calendar – strength ranges from 40% to 65%, and you can tell before a drop is poured. Some bottles bring warm molasses, brown sugar and toasted coconut, others fresh sugarcane, citrus and green notes from the French agricole styles, and a couple of the strongest send up a dry, almost peppery spice note alongside freshly cut oak.

Palate

On the palate the spread continues. Some of the 24 are light and soft with a touch of vanilla and tropical fruit, others dry and oak-driven with caramel, tobacco and dark fruit, and the strongest – led by Patridom XO Cask and Pusser's Gunpowder Proof – bite straight back with pepper and spice.

Finish

Short and fresh on some, long and woody on others. The closer you get to the calendar's strongest bottles, the longer the warmth lingers after the last sip.

Specifications

Name: 24 Days of Rum Green Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2cl
Bottler: 1423
Region/Country: Denmark
Type: Rum Advent Calendar
ABV: 43.7%
Size: 48 CL (24 x 2cl)
Edition: Green Edition
EAN No.: 5712718006780
Serving suggestion: Best enjoyed neat at room temperature, one bottle at a time, using the two included glasses.

Flavour Profile

Versatile · Global · Sweet · Spiced · Fruity

Did You Know?

Every new edition of 24 Days of Rum gets its own colour. This edition is dark green with a shiny silver hotfoil on the front of the box – earlier editions have included black and burgundy (Red Edition).

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Some rums tell wildly different stories, even when they come from the same corner of the world. 24 Days of Rum S.B.S. Edition is 24 single casks from 24 different corners of rum's map – each one bottled at the exact moment the cask had the most to say, and never to be found in that precise form again.

Expert's Description

24 Days of Rum S.B.S. Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2cl is a rum advent calendar with 24 different rums in miniature bottles at 2cl each, each from a single cask, with strengths from 46% to 62.8% and an average around 50.7%, and with two glasses in the box.

S.B.S. Edition sets itself apart from the rest of the family. Where Blue, Mocha and Black Edition line up 24 different rum brands side by side, every single window here comes from one individual cask from S.B.S. – 1423's own Single Barrel Selection series. No blending, no added sugar, no filtration – just each cask's own character, from tapping to bottle. The journey runs through Mauritius, Nicaragua, Guyana, Tahiti, four separate Jamaica casks, a Caribbean Blend, India, an Indonesia Blend, Fiji, Denmark, Panama, the Philippines, French Antilles, Scotland, Ecuador, Ghana, Réunion, Colombia, yet another Jamaica cask, Guatemala, Trinidad and Venezuela. The ages range from 4 to 28 years, and the casks themselves from 130 to as much as 250 litres – the smaller the cask, the faster and more forceful the influence of the wood.

Behind the concept is 1423 World Class Spirits from Odense, founded in 2008 by Bintu, Joshua and Glenn under the original name BJG. Shortly before their first rum release, Parminder S. Bhatia joined, and the company became 1423 ApS. In 2012, Thomas Vogensen, a trained accountant, came on board and helped turn the dream into a proper business, and 1423's has since become one of the most respected names in independent rum bottling in Europe – with S.B.S. as their own line of single-cask bottlings. For corporate gifts, the shop takes orders from 6 units upwards at ordre@whisky.dk.

Tasting Notes

Nose

There's no shared scent to expect here – that's the whole point of a set built from single casks. Some lean towards fresh coconut, vanilla pod and green banana, others bring heavy molasses, toasted coconut and caramel, and a few of the strongest casks send up a dry, almost peppery spice note alongside freshly cut oak.

Palate

On the palate the 24 range from light and creamy with toffee and a touch of cocoa to dry and bitter with roasted nuts, tobacco and dark fruit. The highest strengths bite back immediately – pepper, spice and a clear cask structure – while the milder casks bring softer fruit and a rounder sweetness, all without any added sugar.

Finish

Short and spiced on some, long and woody on others, but with the same underlying intensity regardless of which country or cask you land on. Several of the strongest casks keep the warmth going long after the last drop is gone.

Specifications

Name: 24 Days of Rum S.B.S. Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2cl
Producer: 1423 World Class Spirits
Region/Country: Rum from all over the world
Type: Rum Advent Calendar
ABV: 46-62.8% (cask strength, varies from cask to cask – average 50.7%)
Size: 2 CL per bottle
Number of bottles in the calendar: 24
Non-chill filtered: Yes
Edition: S.B.S. Edition
Serving suggestion: Best enjoyed neat at room temperature, one cask at a time – start with the mildest casks, and save the strongest, near-cask-strength expressions for last. A few drops of water can be added to the strongest to good effect.

Flavour Profile

Bold · Cask-Driven · Global · Raw · Versatile

Did You Know?

Some of the casks in this calendar hold just 130 litres – less than a quarter of a standard bourbon barrel. The smaller the cask, the greater the surface area the rum has against the wood relative to its own volume, so the smallest casks in S.B.S. Edition have picked up a far faster and more pronounced wood influence than the larger ones.

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Rum speaks in many accents. One day it's warm molasses and Caribbean sun, the next it's spice from across Asia or the cellar-cool character of a European take on the category. 24 Days of Rum Blue Edition gathers 24 of those voices in one box, opened one country at a time through December.

Expert's Description

24 Days of Rum Blue Edition is a rum tasting calendar from the Danish spirits house 1423, made up of 24 miniature bottles at 2cl each from 24 different countries and bottled at 42.5%. The idea is simple: open a new bottle each day in December and travel to a new country – from classic Caribbean and Latin American sugarcane and molasses rums to takes on the category from Asia and Europe, plus a few rum-based spirits along the way that borrow rum's sweetness without quite being rum. Every miniature carries its own label and a QR code that opens the background story of that particular rum house, so the box works as much as a travel guide as a tasting kit. Two glasses and a tasting-notes guide are included, making it easier to put words to the differences from one day to the next.

1423 started as a group of friends who actually bonded over whisky, until rum caught their attention at a Danish spirits fair around the turn of the millennium. What began as curiosity has grown into a Danish spirits house with its own cask warehouse, built around selecting and maturing rum from all over the world – and side projects like this calendar are where that breadth gets poured into one box.

Tasting Notes

Nose

There's no single scent to expect here – that's the whole point. Some bottles bring warm molasses and brown sugar, others fresh sugarcane and citrus, and a handful lean toward spice and smoke, closer to rum-based spirits than classic rum.

Palate

The same spread carries through to the glass. Some of the 24 are light and soft with a touch of vanilla, others dry and oak-driven with caramel and dried fruit, and a few bring a spiced, almost peppery edge.

Finish

Short and fresh at one end of the box, long and woody at the other – the finish is the clearest reminder of just how differently rum can turn out, even when it all starts from the same sugarcane.

Specifications

Name: 24 Days of Rum Blue Edition
Bottler: 1423
Region/Country: Denmark
Type: Rum Advent Calendar
ABV: 42.5%
Size: 48 CL (24 x 2cl)
Edition: Blue Edition
EAN No.: 5712718007824
Serving suggestion: Best tasted neat at room temperature, one bottle at a time, using the two included glasses – save the bolder rums for later in the calendar.

Flavour Profile

Versatile · Exotic · Global · Fruity · Spiced

Did You Know?

The name 1423 actually comes from a mistake. When the team bottled their first rum – a Barbados-Trinidad blend – in November 2008, a note on the bottle got mistaken for a name. The mix-up stuck, and the whole spirits house has been called 1423 ever since.

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A mocha-brown box, 24 doors and a world that reaches well beyond the Caribbean. Uganda, South Africa, India and Fiji grow sugar cane too, and they are what makes December interesting here. Two glasses sit in the box, because this calendar is built for two.

The expert's description

24 Days of Rum Mocha Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2 cl is a rum advent calendar holding 24 different rums in 2 cl miniature bottles at strengths from 38% to 54%, averaging around 41%, with two Spey Dram glasses in the box.

The Mocha Edition sets itself apart first and foremost through its line-up. Where rum means the Caribbean to most people, this edition pulls towards Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Uganda, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Fiji and Mexico stand alongside classics from Martinique, El Salvador, Trinidad and Belize, and it is exactly that mix which makes the calendar hard to second-guess.

The styles are as scattered as the countries. There is rum distilled from fresh cane juice in India, a Mexican rum with twenty years behind it, spiced rum from Scotland and a couple of rum-based spirit drinks, one of them built on orange. Because strength swings from 38% to 54%, both weight and punch shift noticeably from one day to the next.

With two Spey Dram glasses and a tasting notes folder in the box, the calendar is made to be shared and to be written down as you go. The running order stays hidden, but the full list of all 24 bottles sits under the Description tab. For corporate gifting the shop takes orders from six calendars upwards at ordre@whisky.dk.

Tasting notes

Nose

Dried fruit and coconut first, with vanilla and pale caramel behind. The African and Asian bottles pull in another direction with green cane juice, ripe banana and a trace of spice, and a couple of doors smell clearly of orange peel.

Palate

The breadth shows up most on the tongue. The aged rums are round and cask-sweet with raisin, dried apricot and toasted oak, while the Indian cane juice rum is tight and juicy with sweetness straight from the cane. The spiced bottling lays cinnamon and nutmeg over the top, and the strongest at around 54% deliver real pressure.

Finish

From short and fresh to long and dry. The oldest hang on with dark syrup, tobacco and dry wood, while the youngest let go faster on cane and citrus peel.

Specifications

Name: 24 Days of Rum Mocha Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2 cl
Producer: 1423 World Class Spirits
Region/Country: Rum from around the world
Type: Rum Advent Calendar
ABV: 38-54%
Size: 2 CL per bottle
Number of bottles in the calendar: 24
Edition: Mocha Edition
Serving suggestion: Neat at room temperature, ideally two glasses side by side so two days can be tasted against each other

Flavour profile

Dried Fruit · Vanilla · Coconut · Spiced · Cane-fresh

Did you know?

The Mocha in the name refers to the colour of the box, not to coffee. There is neither coffee nor mocha in any of the 24 bottles. The concept itself comes from the Danish company 1423 World Class Spirits, so the rums of the world arrive in a box put together in Denmark.

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Twenty-five doors, twenty-five distilleries, and no two of them alike. One holds dry juniper from a Welsh coastline, the next something spiced from the highlands of Vietnam. December turns into a route you drink your way along, one day at a time.

The expert's description

Gin Advent Calendar - Gin Calendar filled with 25 different gins of 5 cl is an advent calendar holding 25 different gins in 5 cl miniature bottles at strengths between 40% and 45%.

The format is the whole point. 5 cl is a generous measure rather than a taster, so every door stretches to a proper Gin and Tonic with a garnish chosen for the bottle of the day. There is room to taste the gin neat first and then watch what the tonic does to it.

The spread is wide. Distilleries from Wales, Cornwall, Yorkshire, the Isle of Man, Orkney, Ireland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Monaco, Tasmania and Vietnam all turn up. Some bottles are bone dry and juniper-led, others are outright Christmas releases built on baking spice, fig, apple, orange and cocoa. Several are special editions that do not sit on the shelf all year.

The running order stays a secret, but the full list of all 25 gins sits under the Description tab for anyone who cannot wait until 1 December. For corporate gifting the shop takes orders from six calendars upwards at ordre@whisky.dk.

Tasting notes

Nose

Juniper runs through the lot, but rarely the same way two days running. Some doors smell sharply of citrus peel and fresh herbs, others of baked apple, dried fig and warm spice. One arrives with orange and cocoa.

Palate

The range is broad. The dry gins are tight and peppery with juniper right at the front, while the winter releases are rounder and fuller, with fruit sweetness and a baking-spice floor. Strength moves between 40% and 45%, and the difference is easy to feel from one day to the next.

Finish

From short and dry to long and spiced. The classics sign off cleanly on juniper and citrus, while the Christmas gins hang on with baking spice and orange peel.

Specifications

Name: Gin Advent Calendar - Gin Calendar filled with 25 different gins of 5 cl
Region/Country: Gin from around the world
Type: Gin Advent Calendar
ABV: 40-45%
Size: 5 CL per bottle
Number of bottles in the calendar: 25
Serving suggestion: Neat in a tulip glass, or with Tonic Water and a garnish matched to the gin of the day

Flavour profile

Juniper-dry · Citrus · Spiced · Fruity · Christmas Spice

Did you know?

The calendar carries 25 doors rather than the 24 that are standard in Denmark. The last one therefore waits for Christmas Day, when most other advent calendars have long since been emptied.

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A black box makes sense in the darkest month of the year. Behind the doors sits heavy molasses rum from Guyana next to fresh cane juice from Guadeloupe, and somewhere in the run there is one bottled at navy strength. You can change your mind about rum several times over 24 days.

The expert's description

24 Days of Rum Black Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2 cl is a rum advent calendar holding 24 different rums in 2 cl miniature bottles at strengths from 38% to 54.5%, with two glasses in the box.

The concept comes from 1423 World Class Spirits, a Danish company that has turned the rum calendar into a fixed part of December for rum drinkers in a good many countries. The selection follows one rule: as many origins as possible within 24 doors. The two glasses are included so the rum can be tasted properly from 1 December rather than poured into whatever tumbler is nearest.

Geography is the real content here. There is heavy molasses-based rum from Jamaica and Guyana, aged Spanish style bottlings from Panama, Peru, Guatemala and El Salvador, and rhum agricole pressed from fresh cane juice in Martinique, Guadeloupe and Réunion. Further afield come bottles from Mauritius, Indonesia, Brazil, Australia and Cambodia, where Kampot pepper has been steeped into the rum. One is distilled on Orkney, an island known for something rather different from sugar cane.

A couple of the doors hold rum-based spirit drinks rather than straight rum, and that is deliberate: the calendar is meant to show the edges of the category as well as its centre. The running order stays hidden, but the full list of all 24 bottles sits under the FAQ tab. 

Tasting notes

Nose

Molasses and dark brown sugar form the base note throughout, but the French bottles break the pattern with green cane, olive and something earthy. Along the way banana, coconut and dried apricot turn up, and on one day there is a clear smell of freshly cracked pepper.

Palate

From tight and dry to round and cask-sweet. The aged Central American rums are soft with vanilla, caramel and toasted oak, while the Jamaican and Guyanese ones are sharper-edged with liquorice, dark fruit and an oily weight. The agricole bottles cut through with acidity and cane juice, and the 54.5% of the navy bottling registers from the first sip.

Finish

Length varies as much as the styles do. The lightest let go quickly on cane and citrus, while the heavy ones hang on with tobacco, dark chocolate and spiced wood.

Specifications

Name: 24 Days of Rum Black Edition - Rum Advent Calendar filled with 24 x 2 cl
Producer: 1423 World Class Spirits
Region/Country: Rum from around the world
Type: Rum Advent Calendar
ABV: 38-54.5%
Size: 2 CL per bottle
Number of bottles in the calendar: 24
Edition: Black Edition
Serving suggestion: Neat at room temperature in a small glass, with a single drop of water if needed

Flavour profile

Molasses · Dried Fruit · Spiced · Cane-fresh · Cask-aged

Did you know?

Each of the 24 miniature bottles carries its own label, drawn to mirror the producer's original bottle. Nothing is tasted blind, and from 1 December the rum of the day can be looked up and rated by rum drinkers worldwide at 24daysofrum.com.

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Twenty-four doors, one for each day leading up to Christmas Eve, and behind every one waits the same small bottle in yellow paper that has followed the Underberg family since 1846.

Expert description

Underberg Miniature Christmas Calendar is a German bitter at 44% ABV, packed into an advent calendar with 24 of the classic 2 cl bottles, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Eve. The recipe is the same secret blend of herbs from 43 countries the family-owned house has brewed since 1846. The calendar ships with a leather belt for storing the bottles, a playful detail that makes this calendar more than just a box of chocolate.

Tasting notes

Nose

Intensely herbal and bitter, with root and spice tones.

Palate

Powerful and bitter with a hint of citrus.

Finish

Dry and long-lasting herbal bitterness.

Specifications

Name: Underberg Miniature Christmas Calendar
Distillery: Underberg
Country/Region: Germany, Rheinberg
Type: German Bitter
ABV: 44%
Size: 24 x 2 CL
Serving suggestion: Open one bottle a day in December and drink it chilled as a digestif.

Flavour profile

Herbal bitter · Spiced · Intense

Did you know?

The leather belt included with the calendar is designed to carry the Underberg bottles, so you can bring your daily digestif with you throughout December.

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