Make no bones about it, you’ve just stumbled upon our favourite from the new Dead Man’s Fingers range… About a decade ago, scientists found out that the centre of the galaxy was filled with ethyl formate, the substance that gives raspberries their flavour and rum its smell. So, if you were able to experience the heart of the Milky Way, it would be something like this Raspberry Rum. This super-innovative Raspberry Rum is a collaboration between Cornwall’s Dead Man’s Fingers and flavourphile Will Borrell, the creator of the much-loved Vestal Vodka. This dream team have worked their fingers to the bone to produce a series of punchy flavoured rums to die for. The flavour here is an enhancement to what was already an exceptional rum. The base is an award-winning, two-year-old Caribbean rum, full of toasty notes, baked cake, roasted nuts, vanilla and clove-y spices. To that, they’ve added tangy raspberry and a twist of citrus. The result reminds us of scrumping raspberries in the sunshine, ice lollies and the red sauce at the Mr Whippy ice cream van. It’s going to revolutionise your summer cocktails; just imagine a Raspberry Mojito filled with mint leaves, lime and fresh raspberries. Alternatively, mix it into a Daiquiri or just drizzle it over ice cream. On second thoughts, we might just keep it all for ourselves. Sorry. We had imagined that a flagon of this rum was prized from the gripping skeletal claws of a drowned Cornish pirate lost to Davy Jones’ Locker. And that the owners of The Rum & Crab Shack in St Ives had painstakingly recreated the elixir between shifts of boiling and broiling seafaring fare. However, it may not have gone down quite that way. The name ‘Dead Man’s Fingers’ is also what those in-the-know call the feathery gills that are removed when dressing a crab. (Now we’re hungry as well as thirsty.) But whether this exceptional rum gets its name from dark magic and sinister skulduggery or simply a macabre culinary term, Dead Man’s Fingers deserves its cult following.