Rating:
www.roguespirits.com

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I don’t generally take to white rums – and why would I? Dark rums, at best with their heady musk, oaky molassesy kick, and all-round manliness are pretty much nature’s perfect drink. White rums, on the other hand, are quite often flavorless, astringent, and at most suitable as mixers. But once in a while a decent white rum comes along, such as Rogue Spirits’ White.

The second half of their two-part line, the first being the Blackbeard-labeled Rogue Dark, the white rum features its own pirate on its face, this time being none other than Jean Lafitte (perhaps the least piratey-looking of all pirates, but we’ll forgive him because he was otherwise pretty awesome.) In the bottle, this rum is what most any other white rum would be – clear as water and indistinguishable from vodka, gin, or rubbing alcohol. [read more »]

Rating:
www.neworleansrum.com

Back in 2006 I reviewed New Orleans Cane Amber Rum. Since that time, Cane Rum has been discontinued over apparent confusion between itself and 10 Cane Rum. In its place we now have Old New Orleans Rum, which I think is actually a much better label anyways as it not only highlights itself as being one of the few continental US rum distilleries, but in a pirate town ta boot

Now I would generally expect that in such cases, while the bottling has changed, the rum might not. My bottle of Cane Amber is long gone (I have a second, but refuse to break the seal for this review – sorry!), so I can’t really do a side-by-side comparison. I do recall Cane Amber as being rather more scotch-like than rummy, but this is really all that I have to go on.

In the bottle, Old New Orleans 3 Year Aged Rum is a nice, basic brownish amber. The bottle is clean and classy, and corked in the manner of all self-respecting rums (with a few exceptions.) To the nose, Old New Orleans smells of sweet sugar cane, vanilla, and just a hint of over-ripe fruit. It comes across as being light-bodied, and perhaps a little alcoholly. [read more »]

Rating:

www.kilokai.com

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from Internet Wines and Spirits

And I quote:

“We love great rum and that’s why we made Kilo. It’s uncompromising. Take a sip of Kilo straight. Do the same with any other spiced rum. Enough said.”

Thus reads the back label of Kilo Kai, and thus is the reason I had profound respect for this rum before I even opened the bottle.While the two primary spiced rum contenders are duking out who has the highest proof, Kilo seems focused on making the better product – and they’re doing so with an “in your face” attitude that any pirate can respect. The bottle is tall and dark, the logo forms a rather intimidating skull that any rum would be proud to bear, and the back label – well, any rum that challenges its drinkers in such a way is off to a fantastic start in my book. [read more »]

So a while back I began receiving emails about Zaya 12 Year aged rum. It seems that the distillery has relocated from Guatamala to Trinidad. While this isn’t in itself a good or bad thing, there were also reports of a distinct drop in the rum’s quality as well. In fact, old Guatamalan bottles of Zaya were quickly becoming difficult to find as they became presumptive collectors items. I count myself fortunate to have scrounged up one of the last remaining bottles from a local store, thus making it possible for me to do a proper side-by-side comparison.

In the bottle, the new vs. old Zayas are nearly identical. The dark amber color is a near perfect match, and it’s only by holding up to the light and looking carefully that you can tell the old Zaya is slightly redder, while the new is a bit more orange. The bottle structure and labels are also nearly identical, although the script beneath the rum’s name now reads “Imported Rum from Trinidad” rather than the former “Imported Rum from Guatamala”, and the small disc above the tag now bears a tropical coat of arms instead of the previous sun-god looking thing. [read more »]

Rating:
English Harbour 5 Year rum boasts all the shelf qualities I enjoy – a short, squat bottle with a rustic label, nicely foiled cork, and general appearance that would like right at home in the hands of a pirate.

To the nose, English Harbour is light and fruity – I detected a distinct note of apples (something I’d not experienced since Old Havana Cuban rum.)  To the taste, it retains this fruitiness but also carries some warmth with just a slight tingle. The finish is soothing, relatively gentle, and sweet.

You might notice all the things I haven’t said about this rum – it’s not dark, not heavy, there is no brown sugarry musk or oak kick in the face to let you know your alive. It is in fact a very delicate rum. Meaning it lacks most all the qualities that I personally look for in rum. That said, it’s also rather decent. [read more »]

Rating:
www.innercirclerum.com

I’ve been reviewing rums for some years now, but tonight we’ve hit a first for me – a rum from the land down under. I’ve heard legends that such rums exist – even stories of one with a polar bear on its label, which makes no sense whatsoever. This is not the polar bear rum – this is another rum. One with a spot on its label. A red spot.

Inner Circle Rum is bottled and labeled in an understated, classy manner. Its website boasts that this is a rum not created for the likes of us – the bourgeois, pedestrian sorts – but was rather developed for the upper, snobby crust of society (and yet the website also boasts a skull&crossbones pattern in the background. Go figure.) It also boasts many awards – a factor that means increasingly less to me the more I learn that the folks who bestow such awards have entirely different expectations of rum from myself.

[read more »]

Rating:
Pirate’s Choice Molasses Reef
www.pirateschoicerum.com

Pirate’s Choice is an unusual rum. It bears special consideration in several respects. First, it was first distilled in a makeshift (and very illegal) contraption built on the second story of a scuba shop in Key Largo. This is highly braggable. Now created in a more professional (and legal) distillery, the rum is sold in classy squat bottles, complete with labels featuring a silhouette of a pirate ship at rest as a storm approaches. This is beautiful. And, most noteworthy of all, no rum since the golden age of piracy has gone through such effort to introduce, insert, and endear itself to the pirate community. And this, my friends, is remarkable and admirable. In fact, I first met the president of Pirate’s Choice at PyrateCon 2008 in New Orleans, where he was giving away t-shirts, stickers, temporary tattoos, and countless samples of his product to every rogue, wench, and scalliwagg he could find (and being PyrateCon, he found lots of them.) However, this wasn’t the first I’d tasted Pirate’s Choice – I’d had a sample some months prior – at Pirates in Paradise in Key West. As I write this review, Pirate’s Choice is currently promoting itself at the Hampton Blackbeard Festival, with plans to attend the Port Washington Pirate Festival in turn just one week later. In short – Pirate’s Choice Rum is busting its hump to be noticed by the pirate community, making it the first and only rum to look at modern day pirates and see a viable market worth persuing. I suppose this could be seen as a cold business strategy, but I actually view it as heartening. I mean, when’s the last time Captain Morgan gave a squat about us? And HE’s supposed to be a pirate! [read more »]

Rating:
Havana Club 15yr Rum

Cuban rum – by its very nature – has some serious expectations to meet. Between the mystique of being taboo, the equally high bar set by Cuban cigars, and the general buzz of how incredible Cuban rum is supposed to be, it only stands to reason that finally getting your hands on a Cuban bottle should be a moment to celebrate. And as such, the rum itself is certainly expected to be worthy of such a lofty build-up.

Meh.

My first dissappointment with the Cuban rum was the bottle itself – mainly the screw cap and plastic diffuser. I like corks, and diffusers seem appropriate only with cheap mixers. So why cheapen a dignified rum with one? Well, I have been schooled. It seems that with the diffuser locked in place, it prevents malcontents from drinking a rum, refilling the bottle with some other rum, and then reselling the thing. It makes sense. I still don’t like it, but I recognize the logic, and will try to be less critical of plastic diffusers from here on. (This said, it bears note that to date I’ve only discovered this forgery-defence utilized on highly praised yet over-rated rums, and never on those I would genuinely deem worthy such concerns. In my experience, the best of the best rums remain humbly – and honorably – corked.) [read more »]

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Rogue Spirits Dark Rum
www.roguespirits.com

Click to buy!
from Internet Wines and Spirits

It’s a pet peeve of mine when people compare good rum to fine cognac. This is because it seems like everyone wants to somehow apologize for rum, or justify their enjoyment of it. “It’s not like rum, it’s more like a fine cognac” and so forth. These people can take a long walk off a short plank, for all I care. I love rum, and I don’t need to compare it to cognac to feel better about my enjoyment of a beverage that’s essentially born of industrial waste.

All that said – and I apologize for the irony – Rogue Spirit’s Dark Rum is more like a fine cognac. [read more »]

Rating:
Coyopa Rum
www.coyoparum.com

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from Internet Wines and Spirits

The packaging of Coyopa Rum is a classy mix of old and new. The square bottle and large, wood-handled cork reminiscent of rum’s fine heritage, as does paper seal, complete with handwritten batch numbers and distiller’s initials. But on closer inspection, the busy background of the colorful label is actually various images of a dancing couple, which gives a slight hint of modernism and trendiness. Personally, I enjoy the old-style found in many rum bottles, but in this case the blend seems to work rather well.

The rum inside is a rich, clear amber, and to the nose it smells cool and uncomplicated. Brown sugar is dominant beneath the chill, and little else makes itself immediately known. [read more »]