The Tidal Rum photographed for P&OC by Alun Callender, commissioned by Sunday

New to cruising Food and drink Caribbean

Island Spirit: Get to know Golden Tide

A blend of the finest Caribbean rums and Jersey botanicals, Golden Tide rum is an ode to sun, sea and sustainability.

6 min 07 Aug 2023

Editorial Team

Author

We have partnered with award-winning The Tidal Rum to create an island-inspired rum for Arvia's Caribbean adventures. Our unique blend celebrates the sea and captures that sense of adventure and heart-skipping excitement that a holiday on Arvia brings.

Contents

The Jersey tide is on its way in as we walk along the sea-weathered rocks, ambling towards a tangle of green fronds and flowers jutting from the cracks between the stones. To the uninitiated, it wouldn’t look like much, but to local forager Kazz Padidar, it’s the start of something beautiful.

The greenery in question is rock samphire, a botanical used in the creation of Golden Tide, an exclusive island inspired rum created by The Tidal Rum in collaboration with P&O Cruises for Arvia’s Caribbean holidays. It brings together the finest rums of the Caribbean with coastal botanicals from British islands, and today we’re on the hunt for those botanicals on a long, sandy stretch of beach on the northwestern coast of Jersey, an island Kazz calls ‘a forager’s paradise’.

Kazz Padidar

The Tidal Rum was founded in Jersey by Harry Coulthard and Ben Clyde-Smith in 2015. They both spent their childhoods by the sea (Harry in Scotland, Ben in Jersey) and the ocean remains fundamental to their way of life – so much so that while waiting for our shoot to start, they take advantage of the warm, sunny day and dive into the waves for a quick swim.

‘We were lucky to be brought up by the coast and around large tidal ranges and the incredible places and botanicals that geography creates, and we wanted to draw on that lifestyle to develop The Tidal Rum,’ says Ben. So when the opportunity arose to create a new rum in collaboration with P&O Cruises, the pairing simply made sense.

‘It’s a brilliant partnership, P&O Cruises has this longstanding relationship with the sea. Both our brands are closely aligned in our love for the ocean, and our customers love the ocean, too.’

The spirit of travel is another thread that links the two brands, as Harry explains: ‘We wanted to celebrate the true spirit of Caribbean rum and add a British element that really brings it together. Rum has a rich pedigree of adventures at sea, and I think people experience it differently on holiday, when they’re out at sea.’

In tasting Golden Tide, that spirit of exploration and adventure shines through. You can treat yourself to a tipple in the many bars and lounges onboard Arvia. Golden Tide is crafted around a five-year aged rum from Barbados, one of the key destinations and an overnight call on many of Arvia’s Caribbean holidays. It’s blended with a collection of six botanicals from the coast and the shore of Jersey, foraged at low tide. From the sea, there’s purple or red dulse, which imparts salty, sweet notes and a smoky aftertaste, similar to bacon; sea spaghetti, with a mild and nutty flavour; and spiral wrack, a seaweed with a salty, succulent, olive-like taste.

From the shore, there’s the aforementioned rock samphire, characterised by its carrot-like, citrus, aromatic and bold notes; wood-sorrel or common sorrel, with a sharp citrus, tangy and tart apple taste; and nettles, which provide a rich, earthy, spinach-like flavour.

The Tidal Rum founders Ben Clyde-Smith and Harry Coulthard

As the sun begins to set over the beach, the air still warm, the sea glittering in the fading light as locals stroll along the white sands, we really could be in the Caribbean. But the connection is more than visual.

‘There’s a strong affinity between Jersey and the Caribbean,’ muses Ben. ‘They’re both made up of true island communities. Our people have that island spirit in their blood.’

‘We want people to understand where the rum comes from, how the flavours can be diverse and complex, and how the different rums and the blend add distinctive flavour aspects. Different botanicals enhance certain aspects and bring out savoury notes. We want people who might not have been rum drinkers to become one once they finish their holiday.’