Captain Morgan is a spiced rum brand somewhat incongruously named after Henry Morgan (1635–1688), the rapacious English privateer who burned cities and tortured civilians throughout the Spanish Main. It was introduced by Seagram’s in 1944 as a brand for the dark, rich rums made at the company’s Long Pond distillery in Jamaica. See Seagram Company Ltd. It has traveled far from those origins. Today, the brand’s ever-expanding product portfolio ranges from Black Spiced and 100 Proof Spiced to Private Stock and Cannon Blast. These are all variations on Captain Morgan Original Spiced: Virgin Islands rum bottled at 35 percent ABV and flavored with a proprietary spice blend, dominated by cinnamon and vanilla. Original Spiced, which Seagram’s created in 1984 (reviving the dormant Captain Morgan brand to do it), was the first and remains the most mixable Captain Morgan expression, especially in cola—the way most consumers drink it—but also in cocktails like the Cable Car (a Sidecar with spiced rum instead of cognac). In 2000 Diageo purchased the brand from Seagram and launched an aggressive marketing campaign that perhaps played some small part in making Captain Morgan the second-biggest-selling rum in the world by 2014, with a 34 percent market share (after Bacardi’s 67 percent). In 2015 Captain Morgan introduced a line of fruit-flavored rums.
Diageo; rum; and Sidecar.Diageo. “Our History.” https://www.diageo.com/en/our-business/our-history/ (accessed April 20, 2021).
Kapner, Susan. “Diageo and Pernod Buy and Divide Up Seagram Beverage Assets.” New York Times, December 20, 2000.
By: Jeff Berry