Captain McCoy Caramel Banana Rum

Captain Bill McCoy was born to a Scottish family in 1877, 12 years after the end of the American Civil War in Syracuse, New York. He initially made his name as a prolific yacht builder after moving with his brother to near Daytona Beach, Florida however as orders dried up and the Great Depression loomed, Bill and his brother were rapidly confronted with poverty. At the same time, prohibition had been in effect for several years, however the ban on alcohol was frequently being flaunted by moonshiners and mafiosos who produced and smuggled poor-quality and often watered down booze to speakeasies across the country. McCoy saw an opportunity to escape poverty through “honest lawbreaking”.

Purchasing his first ship, the Henry L. Marshall, he sailed to the Caribbean (most often to Bimini and Nassau) where he purchased large quantities of high-quality rum and then sailed back to just outside US waters where he would sell his rum outside of the jurisdiction of the US Coast Guard. McCoy became known for never watering down or adulterating his stock leading to the moniker “The Real McCoy”, a turn of phrase that persists to this day. 

McCoy would expand his fleet of ships with the Arethusa (which he renamed Tomoka) and later even more ships ensuring a steady stream of rum could fill the speakeasies of the golden age of cocktails until his eventual arrest and imprisonment. 

Once prohibition ended in 1933 McCoy returned to shipbuilding having gained a reputation as an excellent captain and expert in building and modifying the ships he had used for smuggling.

The Captain McCoy rum liqueur features a light banana and caramel flavour that pairs beautifully with our molasses forward rum to create a delicious drink which is excellent on its own, with cola or in a delicious twist on a classic daiquiri.