Yorkshire Honey Rum: Where Caribbean Spirit Meets Moorland Heather

A rum sweetened with Yorkshire heather honey is not something you expect to work. Then you taste it and wonder why nobody did it sooner.

Honey rum is having a moment. The category has grown rapidly as drinkers look for spirits that sit somewhere between a full-strength rum and a dessert liqueur, something smooth enough to sip neat but with enough character to hold its own in a cocktail. Most of what you find on the shelf uses generic honey, often pasteurised and blended from multiple sources, added more for sweetness than for flavour.

Then there is Wicstun Distillery's honey rum, which takes a completely different approach. The honey is Yorkshire heather honey, sourced locally and chosen specifically for its deep, floral character. The rum is Caribbean white rum, selected for its clean base that lets the honey shine. The combination produces something that tastes distinctly of both Yorkshire and the Caribbean, which should not work on paper but absolutely does in the glass.

What Makes Heather Honey Different

Not all honey is the same. The flavour, colour, and texture of honey depend entirely on which flowers the bees have been visiting, and heather honey is one of the most distinctive varieties in the UK.

Heather grows across the North Yorkshire Moors in vast carpets of purple that bloom in late summer. The bees that forage on heather produce a honey that is darker, thicker, and more intensely flavoured than the standard clover or wildflower honey you find in supermarkets. It has a slightly bitter edge, an almost treacly depth, and a lingering floral sweetness that is completely different from the one-dimensional sugar-bomb quality of mass-produced honey.

When this honey is infused into rum, those qualities transfer directly into the spirit. The bitterness prevents the rum from becoming too sweet. The depth gives it a complexity that you can actually think about while drinking, rather than just registering as pleasant and forgetting. And the floral character adds a softness that makes the spirit remarkably easy to sip on its own.

How It Is Made

The process starts with a carefully selected Caribbean white rum that provides a clean, smooth base. The Yorkshire heather honey is then infused into the rum at the Wicstun distillery in Market Weighton, where the infusion time and ratio are controlled to achieve the right balance between the honey's sweetness and the rum's natural warmth.

Getting that balance right is the challenge. Too much honey and the rum becomes a liqueur, losing its identity as a spirit. Too little and the honey becomes a background note that barely registers. Wicstun's version sits in the sweet spot where you can taste both the rum and the honey as distinct but complementary flavours, neither one overwhelming the other.

Everything is done by hand in small batches. The same approach the distillery applies to the gin range and the vodka range extends to the rum. Each batch is tasted and adjusted before bottling, and the batch size is small enough that the distiller has direct control over the final product. You can learn more about the overall approach on the process page.

How to Drink Honey Rum

Neat

This is the best way to appreciate what the honey brings to the rum. Pour a measure into a tumbler at room temperature or with a single ice cube. Let it sit for a minute. The nose should give you the heather honey immediately, sweet and floral with that characteristic depth. On the palate, the rum's warmth comes first, followed by the honey's sweetness, and the finish is long and slightly bitter in a way that makes you want another sip. It is an after-dinner drink that replaces port or brandy comfortably.

With Apple Juice

Honey and apple is a combination that has worked for centuries and it works just as well in a glass as it does on a cheese board. Pour 50ml honey rum over ice in a tall glass and top with cloudy apple juice. The tartness of the apple balances the honey's sweetness, and the rum provides a gentle warmth underneath. Add a cinnamon stick for an autumnal feel or a slice of fresh apple for something lighter.

Hot Toddy

A honey rum hot toddy is the ultimate cold weather drink. Combine 50ml honey rum with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a teaspoon of honey (yes, more honey, it works), and boiling water in a heatproof glass or mug. Stir until the honey dissolves. Add a cinnamon stick and a few cloves if you have them. Drink it slowly, preferably under a blanket. This is also a genuinely effective remedy when you feel a cold coming on, though we are legally obliged to not make medical claims about rum.

In a Rum Old Fashioned

The honey rum makes a brilliant old fashioned without needing any sugar at all. The honey provides all the sweetness the cocktail requires. Put 50ml honey rum in a rocks glass with two dashes of Angostura bitters and a large ice cube. Stir for 30 seconds. Garnish with an orange peel, expressing the oils over the surface before dropping it in. The honey's floral quality gives this old fashioned a character that a sugar-based version does not have.

Drizzled Over Ice Cream

Not technically a cocktail, but pouring a measure of honey rum over good vanilla ice cream is one of the simplest and most satisfying desserts you can make. The rum melts a thin layer of the ice cream, the honey sweetness combines with the vanilla, and the alcohol provides a warmth that cuts through the cold. It takes ten seconds to prepare and tastes like you spent an hour on it.

A Note on Veganism

Honey is an animal product, which means the honey rum is the one product in the Wicstun rum range that is not vegan-friendly. The rest of the range, including the Caribbean dark rum and the spiced rum, is fully vegan. If you follow a vegan diet, those are the rums to go for. The distillery is transparent about this distinction and it is clearly marked on the product information.

Where to Buy

Wicstun's honey rum is available through the online shop with free delivery on orders over £50. It sits within the broader rum range alongside the Caribbean dark rum and the spiced dark rum, and all three are worth trying if you are exploring the category.

To taste before you buy, book a distillery tour at the Market Weighton site. The honey rum is included in the tasting alongside the full range of gins, rums, and vodkas. Tours last about 90 minutes and are led by founder Jago Packer.

The distillery is at Unit 1, Lambert Enterprise Park, York Road, Market Weighton, YO43 3RJ, about 30 minutes from York or Hull. If you are visiting the Yorkshire Wolds for a walk or a day out, the distillery pairs perfectly with a morning on the hills and a pub lunch at the Goodmanham Arms.

Yorkshire heather honey and Caribbean rum should not work together. But when both ingredients are good enough and the person combining them knows what they are doing, the result is something that feels entirely natural. Like it was always meant to exist. It just needed someone in a small distillery in Market Weighton to figure it out.