The Story of the Real McCoy Rum

The Real McCoy Rum comes from the story of Bill McCoy, the pioneer rum runner of the prohibition era. McCoy was the first person in January of 1920 to fill a boat full of rum down in the Caribbean and sail it up to New York City, acting as a floating liquor store three miles off shore. But McCoy never actually broke the Prohibition law because in 1920 the international boundary was only 3 miles off shore, and he was very careful never to enter US waters. Other rum runners soon copied McCoy and began bringing their own ships full of alcohol up to New York. But they usually watered down or adulterated the alcohol with wicked chemicals like turpentine, wood alcohol and prune juice, which became known as booze, hooch and rot gut. McCoy never did any of that. He maintained a high standard of quality, and that’s why he and his product became known around the world as The Real McCoy. We have three expressions of The Real McCoy Rum, each made as blend of rum produced in a copper pot still and a twin column Coffey still. They are bourbon barrel aged and bottled with no added sweeteners or flavorings in the Barbados Tradition.