The Rolling Stones Relaunch Rum Brand as Love Letter to Jamaica

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The Rolling Stones are re-launching their rum brand with a new focus on a country close to their hearts — and decades-spanning careers.

First unveiled in 2023, the band’s Crossfire Hurricane Rum rum was inspired by the rockers’ longtime association with Jamaica, which has spanned countless recording sessions and performances on the island nation. The name of the rum, meantime, was taken from the opening lyric of the group’s hit song, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”

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Now, less than three years on the market, the Rolling Stones are re-introducing Crossfire Hurricane with a reworked expression that swaps the previous Caribbean rum (a blend of Jamaican, Barbadian and Dominican Republic rums) with a liquid sourced and made entirely in Jamaica. Along with the new juice comes a new logo, branding, and a bottle design that places the Stones’ iconic tongue and lips logo at the centre, surrounded by radiating soundwave-inspired patterns. The re-release elevates Crossfire Hurricane into a “super-premium spirit, celebrating the band’s enduring creative bond with Jamaica,” per the brand.

NEW RELEASE

Crossfire Hurricane Rum

Buy ONLINE AT RESERVE BAR
Buy ONLINE AT CROSSFIRE HURRICANE

This an officially-licensed release from The Rolling Stones, who also tapped well-known rum ambassador Ian Burrell as a co-creator of the new expression. Crossfire Hurricane is also expanding its distribution beyond the U.S., eyeing audiences and accounts in the UK in particular, and across the rest of Europe.

According to the band, part of the impetus for relaunching the rum was to better highlight their long standing love for Jamaica. Produced using a copper pot and column distillation method, from molasses and local sugarcane, Crossfire Hurricane is the first spirits brand to unite rums from four of Jamaica’s most respected distilleries: Hampden Estate, Long Pond, Worthy Park and Clarendon. The result is a 100% Jamaican rum that combines “distinct styles into a single blend that reflects the breadth of the island’s rummaking tradition,” per a release. “Crossfire Hurricane brings together Jamaican provenance, music heritage and modern craft.”

“Jamaica got into everything we did in the early seventies – the music, the rhythm, the pace of life,” the group says in a joint statement. “Jamaica was one of the few places that would let us all in. The island said come in and we recorded ‘Goats Head Soup.’ It’s never let us down since. Crossfire Hurricane is a continuation of that story, more than fifty years on.”

As for how the band members like to drink their new rum? They say the “versatility of the liquid” allows them to enjoy Crossfire Hurricane mixed, neat, as a “spirit-forward” Old Fashioned or yes, as a Tropical Hurricane cocktail too.