Our recipe is based on the tradition of sailors improving the flavor of their on-board rum rations. (The first nation to abolish issuing sailors daily rum was the U.S., which did so in 1862. New Zealand upheld the practice until 1990). Generally there were two ways to take the edge off rum. One was to age the liquid in wooden casks, which sailors rarely bothered with. The other way was to blend in spices. This is what most sailors did and it's what we do.