Bombarda's bottle is a glass cannon. Not a cannon motif on a label, not a cannon embossed on the shoulder — the bottle itself is the gun: a heavy barrel, a reinforced base, the weight sitting low in your hand the way a real piece of ordnance sits on a carriage.
It took a long time to get right, and it came before the rum was finished.
Why the bottle came first
Most spirits brands develop the liquid, then commission packaging to sell it. We went the other way round, and not out of vanity.
The whole idea arrived on an island. In 2019 I was at the Dry Tortugas with my son and daughter, seventy miles west of Key West, walking the walls of Fort Jefferson where the Rodman guns are still sitting where the army left them. I came home thinking about those cannons, and about my father, a Navy veteran who taught me that history is worth knowing.
If the rums were going to be named for the guns that decided the age of sail — the Drake, the Falconet, the Culverin — then the bottle had to be one. A cannon on a label is decoration. A bottle you pick up and immediately understand is something else.
The full Fort Jefferson story is here.
August 2020: the first prototype
The first 3D prototype landed in August 2020.
Getting from a drawing to a bottle that can actually be manufactured is where most ambitious packaging dies. A spirits bottle has to survive a filling line, stack on a pallet, stand up on a back bar, pour cleanly, and take a label — and a cannon shape fights every one of those requirements. Barrels taper. Bases need to be wide enough not to topple. Glass distributes weight in ways a rendering does not care about.
It came back right. A perfect bottle, worthy of only the finest liquid — which meant the rum inside now had to earn it.
How the cannons are made
Our glass cannons have been produced since 2020 at Sklárny Moravia, a glassworks in Úsobrno in the Czech Republic — a region that has been making glass for centuries and knows how to handle a difficult mould.
They are made in 750ml and 700ml: 750 for the United States, 700 for European and duty free markets, which is why you may have seen both.
The first cannons were clear glass, some finished in matte black. From 2022 we added bottles in black enamel — which is where The Falconet Midnight Battle Edition gets the black bottle that cruise passengers recognise before they remember the name.
Look at the base of any Bombarda bottle and you will find BOMBARDA embossed into the glass. Not printed, not on a sticker. In it.
One bottle per ship
The standing range shares the cannon form. The Ship of the Line private cask releases get their own treatment, because each one is named for a specific vessel with a specific story.
Capitana — designed and decorated to tell the story of the Capitana El Rubí, flagship of the 1733 Nueva España fleet, wrecked on the reefs of the Florida Keys and resting still off Plantation Key.
Sovereign XO 22 — a gold cannon, for a 22 year Enmore still rum named after the ship the Dutch called the Golden Devil. 924 bottles, and no more.
What a bottle is actually for
A bottle does two jobs. It gets picked up in a shop, and it stays out on a shelf afterwards.
The second job is the one most brands ignore. A rum bottle spends a few weeks being poured and then years being looked at, or else it goes in the recycling the day it empties. We would rather ours stayed — which is also why our handmade garrison carriages exist. A cannon wants a carriage. Stand the bottle in one and it stops being packaging.
None of which would matter if the liquid were ordinary. Every Bombarda expression is blended with no added sugar, no caramel colorant and no artificial ingredients, and none are chill filtered. The bottle sets an expectation; the rum has to meet it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Bombarda bottle shaped like a real cannon?
Yes. The bottle is modelled on a naval cannon barrel, with a weighted base and BOMBARDA embossed into the glass. Every rum in the range is named for a historical cannon type or a famous ship of the line.
Where is the Bombarda bottle made?
The glass cannons have been produced since 2020 at Sklárny Moravia in Úsobrno, Czech Republic, in 750ml and 700ml formats.
Why does Bombarda come in both 750ml and 700ml?
750ml is the standard bottle size in the United States. 700ml is standard across Europe and in duty free, including cruise ship duty free shops. Same rum, same cannon, different market standard.
Why is the Falconet bottle black?
From 2022 we began producing bottles in black enamel. The Falconet Midnight Battle Edition uses it, which is why it is often recognised simply as "the black cannon bottle" — particularly by people who first met it at sea.
Can I reuse the bottle?
People do, constantly. It is the most common thing we hear. A garrison carriage fits any standard 750ml bottle, so the display keeps working long after the rum is gone.
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