Bermuda's national drink is set to take the UK by `dark and storm-y' with a massive marketing blitz, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Gosling's Black Seal Rum has teamed up with number one UK distributor Tavern Ltd to launch Bermuda's premier drink in the huge UK market.

Negotiations are also underway with a British soft drinks giant to advertise Black Seal as the coolest drink to be seen with -- and match it up with the UK firm's ginger beer for an authentic taste of Bermuda in Britain.

And Dark `n' Stormy in cans, complete with authentic Barritt's ginger beer, could also be set to hit the UK market with a follow-up punch.

Gosling's executive Malcolm Gosling Jnr. said yesterday that the firm has had a presence in Britain through a pub chain.

But he added: "That was just an agreement until we finalised our distribution system with a much larger, more powerful house which will guarantee distribution from the north of Scotland to the south of England.

"Tavern have taken a good lot of product off our hands and they have distribution throughout the entire country.'' It is understood the marketing approach -- mounted jointly by Tavern and the soft drinks firm -- will push Black Seal as the trendy tipple for the high-spending younger market.

Demand from overseas means the seventh-generation family firm now exports more than half the total production of Black Seal -- a secret blend of rums from the Caribbean.

But Mr. Gosling said: "There's never going to be any shortage here, I promise.'' The news came just after Barritt's-produced ginger beer was launched in the US market -- with the label Gosling's Stormy Ginger Beer.

Black Seal, winner of a prestigious platinum medal at the World Spirits Championships in 1995, first hit the overseas market in the 1980s, when it began to appear in liquor stores in New York.

But a 1990 deal with a Chicago-based distributors meant that Bermuda's rum extraordinaire got nationwide US exposure. Black Seal is also sold in Canada and the name is trademarked in a host of other countries.

And in 1994, it made its debut in the UK in London pubs operated by British brewers Young and Co.

The near-200-year-old firm of Gosling's -- billed as Bermuda's oldest business house -- first started selling under the Black Seal mark around 80 years ago.

But the name, despite the famous logo of a black seal balancing a rum barrel on its nose, originally had nothing to do with marine mammals.

Goslings bottled rum was sold unlabelled in recycled champagne bottles after World War I.

But black sealing wax was used to keep the cork in place. Thirsty customers kept asking for Black Seal -- so the legendary seal logo was born.