The practice of lobbing fruit and spices into barrels of rum is nothing new. Distillers have been blending their rums with all kinds of adjuncts for centuries ? whether to help thirsty sailors ward off scurvy, or to mask off-flavours of their dodgy grog. Until recently, spiced rum has been the poor relation to its pure, barrel-aged cousins, seen as a party drink rather than something for the connoisseur.