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 is celebrating its 2nd anniversary after launching at the height of lockdown in November 2020 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 more than $5,000 already. In these two years, it is has saved over 55,000 baby sea turtles following recent donations to global partner charity SEE Turtles.
To celebrate its 2nd birthday, Lost Years Rum has launched its debut range of spiced rums. Its new Wandering Turtle collection consists of an unusual silver spiced rum made with single origin rum from Antigua, which is then flavoured with coconuts, blood orange, mandarins, limes, vanilla and exotic spices. The second flavour combines golden rums from Jamaica, Venezuela, and Nicaragua with a unique blend of pineapples and tropical spices.
The brand 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.