Don Q Gran Reserva Añejo XO Puerto Rican Rum – Review

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Jul 282025
 
Don Q Gran Reserva Añejo XO Puerto Rican Rum - Review

It’s a peculiarity of the Don Q Gran Reserva Añejo XO, one of the last un-messed with editions of the Serralles Collection issued by the Puerto Rico firm of Destilería Serrallés, that the more specific details of the components aren’t actually on the label – one has to check the website to find out what makes it so special. Though it may just be so in the eyes of the producers, in this case they might actually be on to something. Now, further up the line we start running into various finished editions (like the Vermouth, Cognac, Zinfandel and so [Click here for the full review…]


Key Rums of the World: Destilería Serrallés Don Q Reserva 7YO Rum

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Jul 192025
 
Key Rums of the World: Destilería Serrallés Don Q Reserva 7YO Rum

Five years after its introduction, the Don Q Reserva 7YO rum from Puerto Rico has established itself as something of a quiet underground rum that is not usually recognized for its quality in the online rum fora – most of the time people skip over it to try the slightly older Gran Anejo, for example, or the single barrel release. And yet, it comes up for discussion quite often – rarely by itself, as itself, but usually as a comparator, something looked at with other rums of its kind (like the Bacardi Ocho, for one).  It flies under the radar [Click here for the full review…]


El Dorado Grand Special Reserve 1997 25YO Rum – Review

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Jul 162025
 
El Dorado Grand Special Reserve 1997 25YO Rum - Review

  In my rum drinking life, I have been extraordinarily fortunate to have tasted up and down the pantheon of great and not so great Guyanese rums – blends, single still bottlings, caskers, aged dinosaurs, special editions, the works. These days independent bottlers and single barrel offerings hog the lion’s share of the limelight, the rums of Velier remain grail quests for many, and therefore DDL’s standard offerings (3, 5, 8, 12, 15 and 21 year olds) which put Guyana and the famed wooden stills on the map have lost a little of their lustre. Yet, perhaps because of their [Click here for the full review…]


Below the Salt L’Ardois JaQ “Marc de Canne” Canadian Rum – Review

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Jun 272025
 
Below the Salt L'Ardois JaQ "Marc de Canne" Canadian Rum - Review

For those who trawl the Canadian rum scene and occasionally despair at ever finding a locally made hooch that would blow their hair back and wow their pants off, well, I have a new candidate for you: the very tasty, lightly (very lightly) aged, almost-white stinker of a rum called L’Ardois JaQ, made by a recently opened craft distillery in Nova Scotia run by (and I shit you not) a tug boat captain I met named Gregg Colp, whose business card very appropriately gives his position as “Chief Adept and Bottle Filler” and sort of gives you a flavour for [Click here for the full review…]


Rum Sponge 1998 Caroni 25YO Trinidad Rum – Review

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May 242025
 
Rum Sponge 1998 Caroni 25YO Trinidad Rum - Review

There’s a reason I don’t buy many rums from the relatively recently established indie bottler of the Rum Sponge, and that’s all about the price. It’s not that I can’t afford one here or there, but to get them all is just too much, and leaves me like a smelly over-the-hill mendicant whining for samples from the more generously endowed. In this case, however, a Calgary Book Club whisky lover bought a bottle and brought it along just to have the rowdies try it, and I was able to sample it without denuding my already slim purse. For those who [Click here for the full review…]


Don Q 151 Overproof Puerto Rican Rum – Review

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May 182025
 
Don Q 151 Overproof Puerto Rican Rum - Review

As I remarked in the Don Q gold rum review not too long ago, the Puerto Rican producer, Distileria Serrallés, has three tranches of rums in its portfolio, up and down the value chain. There is the “traditional” range which includes the Gold, the white Cristal … and today’s subject, the overproof 151. These are mixing agents of a little ageing and are quite affordable. Then there are some flavoured offerings I ignore, and after that everything is lumped into the “Serrallés Collection” which has some older offerings, a spiced rum (oddly enough), a single barrel or two and some [Click here for the full review…]


Bacardi Superior White Rum – Review

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Apr 272025
 
Bacardi Superior White Rum - Review

Bacardi’s white “Superior” rum is paradoxically both one of the most popular, best selling rums in the world, as well as one of the most sneered at.  Any time we extol the magnificence of the unaged Jamaicans, clairins, grogues, agricoles or charandas, it is very likely that the lightly aged, filtered Bacardi product comes in for mention, rarely in any kind of positive light. At best it excites a sort of monumental indifference. Yeah, we drink it but…. The Superior is one of those rums that made the name of Bacardi. At the time of its initial introduction in 1862, rums [Click here for the full review…]


Amrut Two Indies Dark Rum (India) – Review

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Apr 212025
 
Amrut Two Indies Dark Rum (India) - Review

You’d think that after a bit more ageing and less components to squabble together, the lacklustre performance of the underwhelming White would be somewhat redeemed, but naah, there isn’t much to report here either. Amrut continues to chase the mass market at the expense of something (anything) more upscale, and I guess we’ll have to accept that and move on. Just to recap the background, Amrut Distillers is an Indian-founded and Indian-run spirits company which, unlike several other Indian spirits combines, did not originate from a British run colonial enterprise, and has always been completely local. They have been making [Click here for the full review…]


That Boutique-y Rum Co. Ten Cane 2009 14YO Trinidad Rum (Batch #1) – Review

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Apr 182025
 
That Boutique-y Rum Co. Ten Cane 2009 14YO Trinidad Rum (Batch #1) - Review

Ten Cane rums don’t seem to be disappearing from the indie bottling scene any time soon, given the variety of small companies who put out small bottling runs from the now closed LVMH-created Trini-located micro-distillery every year or two.  We have seen expressions from The Duchess, TBRC, Rom Deluxe, Rum Artesanal, Kill Devil, Berlin’s Rum Club, Valinche & Mallet, BBR, Cave Guldive, L’Espirit, Holmes Cay, Rum Shark, Whisky & Rum, Familia Ricci, Blackadder, and, oh, quite a few others, some more than once. Here, from That Boutique-y Rum Company from England, we have an interesting one that was made in [Click here for the full review…]


Compagnie des Indes Trinidad 2012-2021 “Ten Cane” 9YO Rum – Review

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Apr 142025
 
Compagnie des Indes Trinidad 2012-2021 "Ten Cane" 9YO Rum - Review

The rumisphere is littered with the detritus of small companies and experiments that started off well and then just gave up and died at the side of the road.  The original and the new Renegade company, Toucan, Nine Leaves, all those small British merchant bottlers from decades past, they all bear witness to efforts that sadly could not be sustained, leaving us poorer than before. It’s usually economics, of course, but here with the Ten Cane brand, one would have thought the deeper pockets of the parent company might have allowed it to find its feet and establish a better [Click here for the full review…]


Shakara 12 YO Thailand Rum – Review

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Apr 072025
 
Shakara 12 YO Thailand Rum - Review

Even now, all these years after the Demeraras, Caronis, Indian Ocean series, Hampdens and Habitation series, Velier continues to be able to pull out a new rabbit from the hat every now and then, something we have not quite seen in this way before. There were the last Nine Leaves expressions from last year, the Amrut from a few years back, the new Habitation Velier Nepalese rum that popped up a few months ago – and last year, at Whisky Live, they debuted the Shakara 12YO rum from Thailand. Now Thailand generally does not loom large in the pantheon of [Click here for the full review…]


Rivers Royale “Slightly Overproof” Grenadian White Rum – Review

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Apr 032025
 
Rivers Royale "Slightly Overproof" Grenadian White Rum - Review

We have looked at rums from Rivers Antoine before, although admittedly that was just the regularly available 69% version, which I’ve tried several times.  Now, Rivers Antoine is a very old rum making estate on Grenada — they date back to 1785, were certainly in existence since two decades before that, and have only grudgingly upgraded their facilities in all that time —  and is perhaps unique in that they not only grow their own sugar cane with which they press and render to “honey” make their rums, but the press is run by a water wheel (made in 1840), [Click here for the full review…]


St. Lucia Distillers Denros “Strong” Double Strength Rum – Review

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Mar 282025
 
St. Lucia Distillers Denros "Strong" Double Strength Rum - Review

The label of this rum has several variations, but all of them have the word “Strong” in bold red capitals right up front, just to grab the attention, warn the unwary and make sure the timid don’t set fire to themselves with an involuntary flatus. Although when you consider the wannabe beefcake power of 80% ABV, you could reasonably wonder who except a cigar-chomping, glute-flexin’ badass (or brain dead reviewer with access to too many rums and a few screws loose) would even try to drink such a product neat…and for what reason? In the evolution of very strong rums, [Click here for the full review…]


SMWS Barbados 1986-2001 15YO “Rockley Still” Rum – Review

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Mar 192025
 
SMWS Barbados 1986-2001 15YO "Rockley Still" Rum - Review

If one were discussing rum, I suppose you could call the SMWS among the first of the modern independent bottlers, alongside Samaroli, Moon Imports, Velier, Rum Nation and Renegade (and not a few whisky companies like Cadenhead, Gordon & MacPhail and AD Rattray). The expense of their bottlings, their relative scarcity – the subscription model discourages casual punters looking for cheap deals on single cask offerings which are never found in stores – the striking bottle appearance, and their amusing numbering system have certainly given them a visual and mental cachet few others can match. However, my feeling has always [Click here for the full review…]


Distillerie de la Meuse Rhum Ste. Lucie des Antilles (1941)

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Mar 152025
 
Distillerie de la Meuse Rhum Ste. Lucie des Antilles (1941)

Rumaniacs Review #R-164 | #1111 Everything about this rum is strange. It carries no strength notation. It is from a distillery I have never heard before. And it is from a period of time when we have almost no data at all – not distillery, not the still, not the stock source, its provanance or travels through time, nothing. As if that isn’t enough, consider this: it is made in France; it claims to be from the Antilles; it has a 1968 Italian tax strip on the top, and the cap itself has a notation that it was bottled in [Click here for the full review…]


Minhas Distillery “Corsairs” White Rum (Barbados/Canada) – Review

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Jan 192025
 
Minhas Distillery "Corsairs" White Rum (Barbados/Canada) - Review

On the basis of the label, you could be forgiven for thinking this rum is something of a steal at under Can$25. Proof is rated at 44.9% – unusual for white rums in this country, so that’s good. “Product of Barbados” – nice, sure to excite interest. Clear white – intriguing. Is there hope for us here? Nope. This is where details and knowing what to look for, matter. What is the source of the distillate (juice or molasses – best not to assume)? Is it aged or unaged (not an unusual question even for whites), and if aged, how [Click here for the full review…]


Carroll’s Distillery “Cormorant” Black Rum (Canada) – Review

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Jan 172025
 
Carroll's Distillery "Cormorant" Black Rum (Canada) - Review

Today we conclude our quick run through of the rums made by Carroll’s Distillery in New Brunswick, by addressing the “Cormorant” “black” rum. For all that it implies, it’s a medium bodied rum, more dark brown than black, from a pot still, slightly more aged than those rums we have looked at so far, and costing a shade more (Can$36). And while it started out generating indifference, I did warm up to it over time. As before, Carroll’s uses Crosby Fancy  molasses, and a seven day fermentation, after which the wash is run twice through the the pot still, and [Click here for the full review…]


Carroll’s Distillery “Sanderling” Aged Rum (Canada) – Review

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Jan 132025
 
Carroll's Distillery "Sanderling" Aged Rum (Canada) - Review

Today we continue our quick run through of another of the rums from Carroll’s Distillery in New Brunswick, by addressing the “Sanderling” lightly aged rum. This rum, now called “Sandpiper” on the website, thought it’s the same rum, essentially shares the production profile of the unaged white rum “Gannet” which we looked at before. Using Crosby Fancy (or high grade) molasses, and a seven day fermentation, the wash is run through the the pot still, and then a second time on the smaller a reflux still with eight rectification plates, which produces a distillate anywhere between 75-93% ABV. This results [Click here for the full review…]


Carroll’s Distillery “Gannet” Unaged White Rum (Canada) – Review

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Jan 112025
 
Carroll's Distillery "Gannet" Unaged White Rum (Canada) - Review

Well, here we are again, continuing with the lineup of the Carroll’s Distillery rums, which I bought all at once some six months or so ago. The next reviews will all be about this one outfit’s stable, so I’ll push them out fast. Now, if you recall, this is a small New Brunswick-based micro distillery owned by Matthieu Carroll, and he founded it as a sort of hobby project back in 2016, got serious in 2018, then sourced a 500L hybrid pot still and registered it as a commercial distillery in 2019 — he went full bore into retail a [Click here for the full review…]


Helios Distillery “Teeda” White Japanese Rum – Review

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Jan 092025
 
Helios Distillery “Teeda” White Japanese Rum - Review

“Teeda” is a Japanese word meaning “sunshine”, which is a nice name considering that the distillery in Japan that makes it is called “Helios”.  We have looked at several of Helios’s rums before this – the unaged Kiyomi white, the blended gold rum, the 5YO rum, and of course the pricey but very good 21 YO I just did a video review for last week. It is unusual that they have nothing in the midrange between 6 and 20 years of age, like most other distillers, but maybe they’re just laying down stocks, and the 21YO was something of an [Click here for the full review…]


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