Customers at Virgin Holidays’ nine V-Room stores around the country will be able to sample a new rum recipe created by the operator based on analysis of holidaymakers’ social media posts.
The rum blend was created using IBM’s super computer Watson, which analysed the posts of 15 million holidaymakers and matched predominant emotions to ingredients and flavours mentioned in more than 5,000 rum recipes and reviews.
The run of 800 bottles of Virgin Holiday Spirit rum will be available to buy from V-Room retail stores, which will also feature fully operational bars during the promotional period so potential customers can try a bespoke cocktail.
Dave Geer, Virgin Holidays interim managing director, said: “Bottling the holiday spirit, and creating a blend informed by joy, excitement, curiosity and confidence perfectly encapsulates the Virgin Holidays experience.
“We’d encourage any rum-lovers out there to pop into any of our V-Room stores over the last week of our sale to try it while stocks last.”
Ian Burrell, the “global rum ambassador” who oversaw the project, added: “The Virgin Holiday Spirit has a subtle vanilla flavour, medium sweetness, hints of coconut and is naturally caressed with cinnamon and allspice.
“It was my first time collaborating with a super computer to create a distinct blend, so we ensured a high level of quality control to deliver a premium palette experience. Tough job but someone has to do it.”
The data analysis found the predominant emotions and words featuring in holidaymakers’ social media posts were: happy, excited, curious, adventurous and relaxed.