This West Midlands Rum Is Saving The Sea Turtles One Bottle At A Time
Lost Years was launched during lockdown to help the endangered species.
Not everyday do we wake up feeling good about polishing off a bottle of rum. Maybe we shouldn’t have met our mates on a week-night. Maybe we shouldn’t have had that third Dark ’n’ Stormy. But West Midlands-based rum brand, Lost Years, is making those hangover regrets a little easier to swallow.
Lost Years Rum was launched at the height of lockdown in November 2020 and was founded with a single mission in mind. Save endangered sea turtles. For every drop of rum sold, it pledges a portion of sales to charity and has raised $5,000 already. In less than two years, it is celebrating the milestone of 50,000 baby sea turtles saved following its most recent donation to global partner charity SEE Turtles.
This announcement coincides with National Marine Week – a fortnight in the UK, organised by The Wildlife Trust, that celebrates seas, oceans and their incredible sea life. To coincide, Lost Years has doubled its usual charity donations for each bottle sold until August 8. The brand intends to save more than one million endangered sea turtles over the next few years.
The rum itself is named after the once mysterious early years of a sea turtle’s life. No one knew where they disappeared to during this time in their lifecycle. Researchers, however, have been able to better piece together some of their movements from observation in recent years.
‘It’s wonderful that this brand – the idea for which was hatched on our last family holiday in Jamaica in 2019 – is already making such a difference,’ said Lee Smith, Lost Years founder. ‘The entire reason we started Lost Years Rum was to help as many of these gorgeous little creatures begin their own journey into the lost years.’
The company uses only authentic Caribbean and Latin American rum, with no added colours, flavours, spices or sugar. All money raised goes towards funding community-based conservation projects at key nesting sites across the Caribbean and Latin America too. For more information on Lost Years Rum and its commitment to saving the sea turtles, click here.