Just one more to go!




21. Ron Roblo Viejo Extra Añejo

Rum from Venezuela.

Sharp, sweet and fresh smell.

Smooth taste of butterscotch, but not super sugar sweet. A little reminiscent of the Puntacaña I've mentioned before. Aftertaste is boring.

7/10



22. Ron Canuto 7 years

Rum from Ecuador

Smell is very mild. Sweet and some fruits.

Taste is sweet, caramel and some fruits as well. Aftertaste is lasting and warming.

Decent glass of rum. 7.5/10



23. Ron Cihuatan 12 years

Rum from El Salvador.

Very fruity smell, with some spices, like vanilla.

Taste is very varied, sweet, fruity and marmelade-y.

Very unlike anything else I've had, in a positive way. It's not my favourite, but it's funky and different which is something I like. 7.5/10

Merry Christmas

I got six nice rum glasses for Christmas, picture included.


My expectation/slight concern that the final rum in the calendar would be a Danish rum have been put to rest.


24. Ron Abulo XV (15 years) Napoleon Cognac Cask Finish Rum

A name that rolls off the tongue. Rum from Panama, a label I recognize (I have a Abuelo 7 year which is quite nice despite being relatively cheap). This is by far the priciest of the rums, I hope it can live up to the price tag.

Smell is sweet, spice, some dark notes, but also some fresh fruitiness, very rich.

Taste is very good. Oaky and sweet, but complex and smoky, some chocolate, similar to the 7 year. It's a very rich and super well balanced rum. I'm sad there's only 2 cL of it because every sip brings new impressions.
Rich aftertaste that lingers for a while and evolves nicely.

This is a very good rum. 8.5/10

Thanks for sharing your Advent rum journey.

How does Ron del Barrilito stand up?

My pleasure! I don't know - haven't tried it, but you're welcome to talk about it itt.



I'm super drunk today and having the Christmas lunch with my friends I was talking about. Apparently they have a harder time getting accustomed to thr pussers 55%, but they are getting there!

One of my Christmas presents was a bottle of Doorly's XO, from Barbados. Just cracked it open and here are my first impressions:

Color is a coppery gold, very clear. Nose is lovely with a lot of vanilla. Taste is in three phases. It hits the tongue with a nice caramel front. A bit thin, but solid. Then it develops a pretty intense alcohol prickle. Not like Jamaican-levels of intense, but still a surprise after the mellow nose and light first taste. Finally, it fades to a nice vanilla aftertaste, with some of the prickle remaining in the mouth, though all from the middle, not added by the aftertaste.

This one is on the low end of a sipper, or the high end of a mixer, in my opinion. My numbering system is likely a bit more harsh than Vig's. I'd give this a 5, with that being my dividing line between mixers and sippers. 3 is a standard like Bacardi, and I won't drink anything at a 1 or 2, even in a mixed drink.

Speaking of which, if anyone wants a mostly full bottle of Kraken...

Curious what you all suggest for a higher end “mixing rum” that doesn’t feel too overkill or wasteful for making cocktails? Currently I use Flor de cana 5 which I love in cocktails, but would like to branch out a little bit.

I really am not a fan of sipping pretty much any liquor, so it’s always going to get made into something.

Flora de Cana is (as the name would suggest) a rum made from sugar cane, rather than from molasses. All of the cane rums are lighter, and a little "grassy" in flavor. They make good mixers in citrus-heavy cocktails, like Ti Punch, imo. If you want to branch out within the same style, try Barbancourt Five Star.

For cola or non-citrus juice-based cocktails, I prefer a traditional molasses rum. If you're used to cane rums, I wouldn't jump right in to using a dark navy-style rum, like Gosling's Black Seal. I'd pick something moderate like an El Dorado 12.

El Dorado seems to come up a lot in thread so I’ll try that one. I do have goslings black seal, but mostly just use for color in making dark and stormy. My go to rum cocktails are Mai Tai or painkiller.

captain(private stock if feeling frisky) and coke is my staple day drinking go to

Heh. I won one of those as a White Elephant prize from a poker group probably 10 years ago. Still not open.

To be fair, I don't drink liquor much, and when I do, I have better rum (though nothing as nice as the stuff in this thread).

Happy new year's!

I'd recommend the Smith & Cross navy, or maybe the pussers gunpowder (haven't tried that yet, but I plan to). S&C in (tiki) cocktails is great, it's strong but the alcohol taste diminishes a lot more than most cheap rum when mixed, so you don't feel that it's stronger than your average rum, and the taste that lies "beneath" the alcohol is very nice. You also get good mileage because of its strength so you don't need a lot for decent drink, or you can make strong drinks without it being half and half, and it's relatively cheap.


I thought it was amazing for pina colada, ti punch and painkillers when I made those, I made a post further up if you wanna see how it turned out.

Do yourself a favor and give it away unopened. Most of the highly advertised rums are at least drinkable, if not as good as other bottles at the same price point (in order to pay for the marketing, I presume).

Kraken does not fit this mold. It is bad rum with way too much spicing in an attempt to cover up the fact that it's bad rum. This doesn't work.

WTF is wrong with you? If Kraken is as bad as you say (pretty sure I've never tried it,) why would you want to be known as the guy who gives shitty rum? Have some pride, dude.

Not to a friend, obviously.

Give it to a college student, or a bum.

Ron Metusalem Solera 23 Gran Reserva

I mentioned I tried it while it was cold. It's a completely different experience when it's at room temperature.

Firstly, the packaging is masterfully done. Glass shaped with a logo, engraved cork, too. It really is a classy packaging, definitely tops my previous #1 (Ron de Jeremy).

The smell is pretty much the same as when it's cold. Super delicious, rich and full of various dark notes. It's a very complete smell, it really has all you could ask for from a dark rum.
In a lot of rum, the sugar is what brings the taste, but sugar brings no smell. Because this isn't overly sugary, the smell is even stronger than some of the other great rums that are sugary.

The taste, compared to when it was cold, is so much more rich and powerful. It's such a rich taste that I barely notice the "lack" of sugar. It's still very sweet, but not in the sugar sweet way.

It's an entirely different experience now compared to when it was cold. It's much more complex, but also very round. It evolves in the mouth before it's even swallowed, it is one of the most varied and nuanced tastes I've tried, while it remains on the dark side. It has some slight similarities to the dos maderas/quorhom. Definitely one of the deepest tastes I've tried.

The aftertaste remains in the mouth like a rich, cocoa-like well-rounded sensation, that seems to linger almost indefinitely, while some other, less defined notes also appear, which gives it depth. There's various dark rum notes.

This is a *really* good rum. I normally prefer rums that are just a little bit sweeter so that it also has the sugary feeling, but this is definitely something I like a lot. It offers so much, it's like it downplays the sugar to give everything else a bigger part in the tasting and smelling experience and it works really well. It is one of my absolute favourite rums on the nose, if not my #1 - it is so powerful. Overall I rate it at 8.5/10.

The reason this doesn't score even higher is that the price, relative for my budget, towards the steep side. It is 20% pricier than the El Dorado 15 and maderas 5+5, and the same as the Quorhum 30*. It really is exceptionally delicious, and if you find sugary rums are a little too sweet for your taste, this could genuinely be a 10/10 for you.
I would definitely recommend it to anyone who are interested in rum.


*I got it at a discount like I mentioned, but I'm going by retail price for rating purpose.



The picture in the glass is Dos Maderas 5+5. I forgot to get a picture while I was drinking the Metusalem.

Have we reached a consensus of what is the best drinking rum with coke yet that isn't aged 8yrs+?

Also I must ask the question whether you prefer to drink your rum with coke or Pepsi or whether you don't have a preference for either?

Always Coke, never Pepsi. As for "best,it depends what you're in the mood for. If I'm going to mix with Coke I don't want to waste a zipper. Captain Morgan's Private Reserve is fine.

Is that top shelf Captain Morgan's?

Toppish shelf. Not amazing, but fine for mixing with Coke. And while I don't want to waste a zipper either, that was autocorrect messing with me. It should have said I don't want to waste a sipper, as in a rum that I would drink neat.

I was at the bowling alley, and ordered a 'rum n coke' (just like that). Bartender asks, "Is Pepsi OK?" "Barely" is my quick response, as we both chuckle...

Hopefully I won't be banished from this thread but it may alarm some of you I drink mine with Pepsi. I can drink both and certainly when I'm out it is coke as that is usually what the bars offer but at home it is mostly Pepsi.

Edit: which I must say is difficult sometimes to hide that fact around my brother-in-law who religiously drinks coke as being a former coke sales rep.

meh, whatever you're into. I just don't care for how Pepsi's aftertaste seems to fight with rum's. Coke's blends better, ime. With rum is pretty much the only time I drink cola, so I don't have a cola wars agenda.

Hello hello

Life has been quiet on the rum side of things recently, I've been trying to eliminate some of the fuller, cheaper bottles I've had laying around for a while.

I happened to run into a bottle of Plantation Black Cask rum a friend was using for making rum and coke. I haven't tried rum and coke with plantation rum but I don't think it's something I'd be a big fan of, at least not this one as it's already sickly caramel sweet, I think it'd be too much dor me with coke.

This rum isn't one I'm a huge fan of. It's kinda like a mix between the different plantation rums I've had (admittedly not many), but without the sharpness and edge that makes them discernable, and with a ton of sweetness instead. It has a lot of cinnamon as well, typical plantation, but it's lacks the clear taste of the other plantations I've had; they were either very spicy and not sweet, or sweet but not excessively, this one is kinda nauseating. It's too much with how sweet it is, I don't really like to drink it, the aftertaste is not good either. Smell is pretty eh, not bad, not good. 5/10

I've also been getting to know the St Lucia Chairman's Reserve better. It has really grown on me, I enjoy it very much. It's a different experience than many other rums, it's more whiskeylike, but I think I said that already when I reviewed it initially. It honestly tastes like a high quality product even though it's cheap. Super good rum, and will probably be the first I recommend to people who love whisky that want to get into rum.

There's one more rum I've had the mixed pleasure of getting to know better. It has not been an entirely great experience. The El Dorado 8. It's much different from the 12 and 15, in fact it most of all reminds me of the Pussers Gunpowder proof, except without the strength and sharpness. Both are made in Guyana, so it does make some sense they'd be similar.
But this rum is just not very good. It's drinkable, and can probably work well in drinks, but it's not one I enjoy drinking on its own. Both this and the pussers has some taste essence I can only describe as "seawater and docks", but it works for the Pusser because of the power and explosiveness of the rum which just means its part of an impactful experience. But with the dorado 8, it falls kinda flat, the taste isn't enjoyable without anything else. It's a rum I can drink if I want to drink rum, but not one that I like a lot, and I imagine it will take a long while before I am done with the bottle I have.

For drinking straight I'd choose another rum at that cost (like the chairman's reserve) or pay a little extra for the 12 or 15. It's not a terrible rum by any means (and it's cheap), it's just not good, either. 6.5/10

Thanks for the warning about the El Dorado 8. I have the 15 in my collection, and would likely have replaced it with the same, but might have gone for the 8 if it was all that was available at the time. I wouldn't expect it to be as good, but I'm surprised to hear that the difference is that extreme.