Tastes like being in the outback with nothing to do but smile smile smile.

Had a tasting of these Hawaiian Rums and Flavored rums this morning from Kuleana, Ko Hana, and Koloa. See comment below for my thoughts:

I’ve seen the one on the right before but not the other two. I think regular Meyers’s is kind of meh, so I’m curious to know how these are different.

Hi everyone. I only started drinking rum properly last year, and recently I wanted to broaden my experiences. Until recently, I've only experienced what was available from supermarkets (UK) and wanted to expand the range I've tried. Around 1-2 months ago a friend introduced me to Master of Malt. Well that spiralled out of control fast when I found out I could get 3cl samples, the hunt for my favourite rums began. In order to try be as objective as possible, I recorded my ratings in an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of what I thought of each rum I've tried. Just finished my 40th rum label, and thought it might be of interest to others what I thought trying that many in a short period of time as a relative newcomer was like.

How did I test?

As I only had a 3cl bottle for the vast majority of rums, I needed a short and consistent testing process. Due to how little I had to work with, rating each rum in how they worked in cocktails was out of the question. So testing and rating was broken down into 3 steps:

1. Empty 3cl sample into glass, and try a couple sips neat for initial neat rating.
2. Add a couple of ice cubes, and try a couple sips with the ice to see if it changes my neat rating.
3. Add Pepsi Max to the same glass and try mixed for a mixed rating.

8 of the 40 rums broke this process, as I had an actual full 500ml to 1000ml bottle to try, which meant I could go back multiple times and adjust how I felt about them.

A rum was rated on a scale of 1 to 10.

The majority of the rums came from sets of pre-picked rum samples by Master of Malt, the majority of which were completely random.

What was recorded in the spreadsheet?

The primary spreadsheet was broken down into the following columns: Brand, Label, Type, Country, Vol%, Bottle Size, Bottle Cost £, Store Cost £ From, Cost per L, Neat Rating, Neat Log Rating, Neat Opinion, Neat Rating Per £, Mixed Rating, Mixed Log Rating, Mixed Opinion, Mixed Rating Per £, Average Rating Per £, Average Log Rating.

The "Log Rating" columns require a little explanation. These were calculated columns based on the numerical rating and the £ cost per L, to work out what the best value for money rums were. However one rum broke the ratings, where I'd rated it low however due to how cheap it was it broke into the top 5 of each rating per £ scoreboard. To combat this I used a logarithmic function in excel to help mitigate very low rated rums with very low cost. The log rating was calculated as "LOG(NumRating, Cost£PerL)*100". The cost per L had to be the base of the log function to stop one rum (that I'd rated 1/10) from breaking the function. When it came to the average log rating, this was "LOG(AVERAGE(NeatRating, MixedRating),CostPerL)*100". Multiplying by 100 was just to make numbers a bit more readable in the spreadsheet as scores were to 2 decimal places.

Costs for bottles are taken from Tesco as it's a popular supermarket that's widely available (if they sell it), or from Master of Malt (for pricing consistency). If a bottle was available in multiple sizes, the 700ml option was the default pricing pick.

The Results

Top 5 Neat Rated Rums

1. Rumbullion! XO 15 Years Old
2. Chairman's Reserve Forgotten Casks (Joint 2nd)
3. El Dorado 12 Year Old (Joint 2nd)
4. Planteray XO Barbados 20th Anniversary (Joint 2nd)
5. Ron Abuelo 12 Year Old (Joint 2nd)

Top 5(6) Mixed Rated Rums

1. Chairman's Reserve Spiced
2. Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced
3. Chairman's Reserve Original (Joint 3rd)
4. El Dorado 12 Year Old (Joint 3rd)
5. Plantery XO Barbados 20th Anniversary (Joint 3rd)
6. Kraken (UK) Dark Caramel & Cornish Sea Salt (Joint 3rd)

Top 5 Neat Value For Money (Neat Log Rating)

1. Bacardi Spiced
2. Kraken (UK) Dark Caramel & Cornish Sea Salt
3. Chairman's Reserve Spiced
4. Chairman's Reserve Original
5. Langs Banana Jamaican Rum

Top 5 Mixed Value For Money (Mixed Log Rating)

1. Chairman's Reserve Spiced
2. Bacardi Spiced
3. Kraken (UK) Dark Caramel & Cornish Sea Salt
4. Chairman's Reserve Original
5. Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced

Top 5 Averaged Score Value For Money (Average Log Rating)

1. Bacardi Spiced
2. Chairman's Reserve Spiced
3. Kraken (UK) Dark Caramel & Cornish Sea Salt
4. Chairman's Reserve Original
5. Kraken (UK) Black Cherry and Madagascan Vanilla

Top 5 Worst Rated Neat Rums

1. Project #173 Smoked Chilli
2. Project #173 Coconut (I hate desiccated coconut, so this one is very personal)
3. That Boutique-y Rum Company Signature Blend #2
4. Central Galactic Spiced
5. Angostura 5 Year Old

Top 5 Worst Rated Mixed Rums (A bit of a theme with this one)

1. Project #173 Smoked Chilli
2. Project #173 Coconut
3. Project #173 Coffee
4. Project #173 Gingerbread
5. Angostura 5 Year Old

My thoughts and opinions on the rums I've tried

I was really interested to see what my favourite rums were, and also to try work out if I'd buy a bottle of it. My biggest regret was the Project #173 sampler set, I hated basically all of them. They were all so incredibly one dimensional, and were completely outperformed by basically any other rum. I've also never had anything as nasty as that Smoked Chilli one.

I can't get enough of the Chairman's Reserve Spiced, it is by far my favourite spiced rum for a spiced rum and coke. It's a permanent resident in my collection. I don't think I could ever mistake the smell of this for anything else. I'll probably eventually get a bottle of the Original or the Forgotten Casks, but I'm wanting to try more rums before picking one up. A rum I was disappointed in considering how much I enjoyed Chairman's, was Bounty Gold Rum despite being from Saint Lucia Distillers as well.

My sister and brother in law are massive Bumbu fans. When I finally got around to trying it, it had far too much sugar for my liking, I'd never buy a full bottle. However when I tried the Don Q spiced, I found it to have the same flavours profiles, but infinitely more enjoyable, one I might actually pick up a bottle of. I'm also hoping to try the Don Q Reserva 7.

I'd like to try more of the Plantery rums, I really enjoyed the XO. I was however confused by Plantery Pineapple Stiggins' Fancy. It's listed as a "flavoured" rum, but I really struggled to taste any pineapple, it really caught me off guard.

I wasn't expecting to rate Rumbullion! XO 15 so high, as I had tried it after having had the regular Rumbullion. The normal Rumbullion! was rated really high on Master of Malt, however when I tried it I really couldn't vibe with it. All I could taste was the overwhelming flavour of cardamon and cloves. The XO 15 had none of that. If it ever took my fancy to try the normal again, I'd maybe experiment with something involving apples as odd as that might sound. My partner likes cardamon tea, and I remember once her giving me some while I was eating an apple. The flavour combo of the two worked really well.

Pusser's Gunpowder Proof Black Label was quite nice, however despite that I don't think I could support them after hearing the controversy.

I was hoping to enjoy Appleton Estate Signature more than I did. This one is normally recommended a lot online as a way to get into non-spiced rums, but it didn't impress me, it also didn't offend me either. However from some of the other rums I've tried, I have noticed that rums that have been aged more sit well with me, so I'll be sure to try their other options.

In terms of scoring, most rums scored higher when mixed as it would usually hide certain elements I didn't like, however some rums actually scored the same or lower mixed as I felt that when they were mixed they lost too much of their personality. Chairman's Forgotten Casks, Ron Abuelo 12, and Rumbullion XO being some of them. I also felt some rums would ideally be in a cocktail, however for the ability to test I couldn't. The white rums were the main ones I felt this way about.

A feel like an honourable mention should be the Tanduay Double Rum. Neat it tasted almost charred, however when it was mixed it was quite pleasant and I felt it worked really well with cola flavourings. A second mention I would give to English Harbour 5 Year. It was fairly easy to drink, felt a little thin neat, but appeared like a nice all-rounder for mixed.

A dishonourable mention has to be OVD as this rum broke my original cost per rating scores because it's so unbelievably cheap and was the reason I had to use a log function. This rum is available in 1L bottles, and comes in at £27.50 per L when not on offer at supermarkets. In comparison, Rumbullion XO is £133.90 per L. It's the cost per L that caused Bacardi Spiced to appear in all 3 top valued scoreboards. It too is available in 1L bottles at £24.25 per L, and at the time of writing this it's on offer at £19 a L. However to make the scoreboard fair, I recorded it's 700ml bottle costing £27.14 per L.

What's next?

Currently on my bottle and sample purchase list is:

• Foursquare Spiced
• Foursquare 12 Clifton
• Don Q Reserva 7
• Worthy Park Select
• Doorly's 3
• Doorly's 5
• Doorly's XO
• Appleton Estate 8
• One-Eyed Rebel Cherry

I hope this was a little bit interesting to read. If people liked seeing this sort of thing I might make another post after another 40!

Got this bottle from the in laws. No idea how old it is. Never been opened but it still has been subject to evaporation. There are some little floating particles so my sense is to leave it alone but my husband thinks it’s fine. WWYD?

Hey! Recently fell in love with Hampden’s HLCF — it’s like vanilla varnish with vegetal funkiness. It’s a bracing embrace.

Love it neat.

Looking for something as if not more bracing, skewing into the garishly varnish world. Or nitrogenous, (dare I say rotting, but like good) fruit/veg.

Any recs?

My tastes skew extreme.

Honestly, pretty solid! On the nose it gives me brown sugar, nutmeg, big Christmas spice kind of vibe. Overwhelmingly smooth, but not all that complex. If you haven’t tried it, I’d recommend it just because of how unique it is.

As most runs are :)

Am I over-indexing on Jamaican?

I generally prefer mixing tiki cocktails rather than sipping (as you may have worked out already).

A friend inherited his grandparents house and we found this unopened in the liquor cabinet. As you can see I’ve enjoyed a large amount of it already, but now I’m curious how old the rum that I’ve been drinking is.

It doesn’t look like they’ve used this type of label any time recently. Anyone able to date it?

34% tariff on Guyana. WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO EL DORADO NOOO

Going to Jamaica in two weeks. What should i bring home from the duty free? Staying in negril if any shops close by. No time to hit Hampden unfortunately. Link for duty free in comments. Thanks!

Went down to Florida for a little over a week to visit some friends and family. Had an opportunity to do a private tour at the Papas Pilar distillery and it was a blast. Super hospitable people and I mentioned was in the rum business as well, and have some family friends who are investors in the business and one of the master distillers along with the distillery directors said hi, and afterwards the distiller brought me out a pour of the distillery select to chat about how he created it and my god was that some of the best stuff I’ve had. Sadly you can only purchase the distillery select at the physical location in Key West, but if you love rum it’s such a great experience!

Bought some other bottles that I can’t find in my home state. Cracked into the La Marielita which is one of Don Pancho’s brands out of las cabras and that guys amazing too!

I also just recently bought a small oak barrel that I’m going to create an infinity barrel with, .5oz of 70 different bottles of rum! Would consider sending out samples of that as well if people are interested.

Bought some other

The liquor store I work at recently started getting more rum in.

So far I've tried:

El Dorado 12 yr Appleton Estate Signature Diplomatico reserva exclusiva Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black Don Papa

Appleton was probably my favorite out of these and I also have a bottle of Doorly's XO that is quite good.

What should I grab next?

Finally decided I need to pull the trigger on a pineapple rum for cocktails but have zero experience with flavored rums. What are people’s opinions these two options?