Review: Ron del Barrilito 2 star

Color (5%): Light to medium body, with lots of thinning at the edges. Nice golden amber hue. There are darker aged rums, but this is on the younger side in used wood. 5/5

Nose (10%): Lovely heather honey and leather notes hit me first. Dried fruits like apricots come out. Dark orange and purple colors. Woody nuttiness comes through, almonds. A bit of funk carries through. Alcohol isn't that hot, but it is certainly there. A bit of acetone sharpness. I'm not looking forward to trying this neat, but I'll stay open-minded. 8/10

Palate (20%): I expected it to be worse. There's a nice tobacco note. Caramel sweetness makes you think that sugars are added after distillation, but the brand claims that is false. Caramelized walnuts, cedar wood, roasted coconut, and peppery spice. It's a bananas foster profile. Pair it with some French toast, maybe some salted caramel. 17/20

Finish (10%): It's a pretty hot burn. That banana funk does stick around. Lots of funky esters and alcohol burn. 6/10

Overall Impression and Harmony (30%): This is a decent daiquiri rum. I wouldn't put this in the sippable aged rums. At a stretch, maybe with ice, but not neat. I see the cocktail application, but there are aged rums out there that fit the neat, sippable bill for me, and this is not one of them. It has a home in the mixing rums family on a tiki bar shelf, but I wouldn't use this for rum and cokes or straight sipping. Let this guy sit on the shelf unless you're an aspiring bartender who wants to learn about tiki. 21/30

Retry on Ice (25%): Those funky notes pop out much more. Some of that caramel sweetness comes out. The oak and nuttiness fall away. It does get easier to sip.   22/25

Total Ranking: 79% Legendary, Amazing, Great, Good, Fair, Average, Tolerable, Swill

Estimated Fair Price: $24

Actual Price: $30

Conclusion:  This rum is fine. It's that nice funky banana gold rum that works well in cocktails. This is not a sipping rum, but it's easy to see beverage applications. Tiki cocktails could use this, and dessert old-fashioned cocktails with this in a split base. It'll probably take me a while to kill this bottle unless I'm intentionally depleting it. I might use it in a punch, but when I get home from work, I rarely want to put in the effort to make a complex cocktail. It'll be perfectly good for your cocktail needs but it needs other flavors to bring out the harmonies. 

Fact Sheet:

Distillery Location: Puerto Rico
Aged 3 to 5 years in white oak barrels that were previously used for aging Oloroso sherry
It's been made since 1804 by the oldest rum manufacturer in Puerto Rico
ABV: 43%

Review: Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 Solera Rum

Color (5%):  Very deep dark amber. Dark caramel. thinning to hay yellow at the edges. 3/5

Nose (10%): Nice brown sugary molasses sweetness. Nice purple dried fruits come through from those PX sherry casks, raisins, dates, and prunes. Faint spices come through, nutmeg and allspice. Mild oak comes through.  8/10

Palate (20%): Lots of sweetness, very sugary for an aged rum. I don't mean sugar flavor, I mean this is not dry, it is sweet. Artificial additives are allowed in rums and I suspect this is the case here. It's a dark caramel treacle sweetness. The fruit is less dried and more ripe or fermented. Notes of banana peel, powdered cocoa mix, walnut, dried orange peel, and bergamot. Not very much oak character. This is certainly used wood and it's not giving much fresh oak flavor. That bourbon doesn't present forward much at all. Fake caramel flavor and vanilla come through but toasted oak does not. 14/20

Finish (10%): Lots of nuts and dried fruit. Lingering molasses. The booziness does linger in the throat for quite a while. It's not overly harsh it just sticks around for ages. 8/10

Overall Impression and Harmony (30%): This is a pretty complex rum. Waves of flavors come and go washing over you. This is a bit sweet for my own taste. I could see it mixing incredibly well in daiquiris and tiki drinks. This is okay to sip neat but it is just too sweet for a typical whiskey drinker like me. I can't give it full marks but it is pretty good. I prefer unadulterated rums typically. 25/30

Retry on Ice (25%): That fake brown sugar flavor comes out even more over ice. Arguably worse than neat. I could see this rum in spirit-forward cocktails as a part of a split base with cognac or whiskey. That with some bitters could be nice. But when I don't like the sweetness and then the sweetness gets stronger. I feel like I'm going to get a headache from this. 17/25

Total Ranking: 75% Legendary, Amazing, Great, Good, Fair, Average, Tolerable, Swill

Estimated Fair Price: $38

Actual Price: $45

Conclusion:  Unfortunately this rum has been sweetened and has a misleading age statement. This is a solera-style aged rum so there is a tiny bit of 23-year-old aged rum in the bottle but it's not all 23 years old. Most of this rum is about 6 years old from what I gather, which is fine. Rum doesn't have the same legal restrictions on age statements as scotch so they are often misleading. If you do your research on the product or innately know what solera means you might not be fooled but when someone sees the number 23 on a bottle they get excited, especially when it's reasonably priced. This is a solid C. It's not impressive or top-tier in the rum world but it's not a failure. 

Fact Sheet:

Company: Diageo

Distillery Location: Guatemala

Aged in American Whiskey and various sherry casks

ABV: 40%

Review: El Dorado 3 Year Old

Color (5%):  Totally clear, minimal legs. All color has been filtered away. I don't penalize for that when that is the intention, though 5/5

Nose (10%): Nice creamy coconut and vanilla. Dried fruits and cocoa. It's a nice, nuanced "white" rum. There's an aged character, but it's been muted to add complexity compared to unaged white rums. 9/10

Palate (20%): Oh, that is interesting when served neat. Banana peel and candy sugar notes. White to light brown sugars. A bit of menthol comes through. It's a light-bodied rum in terms of alcohol burn. There's a bit of viscosity, but it's neither syrupy nor oily. Baked Girl Scout coconut cookies come in. It stays dry and fruity. It would go great in rummy cocktails: mojitos and the like. 18/20

Finish (10%): Very smooth. Very quick finish. Very little alcohol sharpness. This is crazy clean for what is intended to be used as a white rum for mixing purposes. The filtration does the job very well to keep it approachable. 9/10

Overall Impression and Harmony (30%): This is a complex "white" rum. Rum terminology regarding age statements, color, production region, spelling, and other variables must be clearer. This is an aged rum, but it's been filtered and thus has a clear hue, which could confuse some people. That said, compared to other white rums, this is a banger. Sipping a white rum neat is uncommon, but this isn't a struggle, and you can see how well it would work in cocktails. Mojitos would pop, as would daiquiris. I don't know how this would stand out in a complex tiki cocktail with other punchy flavors, but this can certainly shine, given the chance. 27/30

Retry on Ice (25%): That body still punches. This nuance will not fade in cocktails. Again, who sips white rum straight? But this is plenty good, with lots of complexity. Menthol pops out a bit more, and so does coconut. That herbaceous quality pops in a big way. The sugars were never that prominent, but they don't fade away or become overbearing.   22/25

Total Ranking: 90% Legendary, Amazing, Great, Good, Fair, Average, Tolerable, Swill

Estimated Fair Price: $32

Actual Price: $18

Conclusion:  In my market, a 750 of Bacardi Superior costs about $15, with a 1.75 going for about $22. There's never an occasion to save that 3 dollars for that sacrifice of quality. If you are making jungle juice for a frat party. But even in a rum and coke, spend 3 bucks on this every time. I can't name a better white rum I've ever had, and this price point is more than reasonable. Buy it. That's it, buy it. 

Fact Sheet:

Distillery Location: Guyana

ABV: 40%

Review: Clément VSOP Rhum Vieux

Color (5%):  Very light, faint gold honey, no brown. Medium thinning at the edges. 4/5

Nose (10%): There's a bit of salt. Lots of fresh sea air. Sweet notes of butterscotch. The sugar notes are more delicate. Dried fruits and orange marmalade 8/10

Palate (20%): Nice and oily. Lots of orange coming through on the back end. Nutty, almond, and amaretto notes dance around. Some coconut milk slips in. Creamy butterscotch. Actually, it's dry in terms of sugar content. It's odd talking about sugary flavors and saying that it's not sweet, but that's how rum works. 17/20

Finish (10%): The heat lingers for quite a while. Lots of grassy sugarcane flavor and lots of spice. It's dry in terms of sugar content. 7/10

Overall Impression and Harmony (30%): It's been a while since I sipped rum neat. This is quite enjoyable. I bought this for mixing in tiki cocktails, and it certainly is great for that, but it's decent on its own. I would like a bit more age here, but it's a tasty gold rum. Lots of complexity, a great body, and a great mouthfeel.   25/30

Retry on Ice (25%): That's really nice. The spices come out a lot more. It's more punchy all around. All those oils open up to something big. I don't notice anything major being lost. This pops, and I want to have this in tiki cocktails. 23/25

Total Ranking: 84% Legendary, Amazing, Great, Good, Fair, Average, Tolerable, Swill

Estimated Fair Price: $44

Actual Price: $36

Conclusion:  If you seek an excellent rum experience and education, try this. Rums are broken down into innumerable categories from color to country to age to language to the method of distillation to everything under the sun. Your best rum bartender couldn't narrow rum into fewer than 10 categories. Other rums within similar types will do the job in place of this in cocktails, but this boy has some depth of character. This will work in fruit-forward tiki drinks and in rum old-fashioned cocktails. With just lime juice and sugar, this will make a tremendous daiquiri.

I like an agricole, it has a serious earthy pure taste. It feels like nothing is hidden or masked. Finding an application for this rum is easy, but I can't give it a perfect score. I need help thinking of a rum that beats this one out in terms of friendliness and versatility for the cost, but it'll never be the best option for my applications for specific cocktails. If I were building a cocktail menu, I'd opt for cheaper rums for my builds, but If you want to explore the rum cocktail world, this is a significant investment that will meet so many of your needs. If you have yet to try it, buy it. Buy it early on. You will probably find a different rum that you will like a bit better for your own applications, be it neat or in cocktails, but this is a great benchmark to start at and develop a frame of reference from. I'm happy to have this on my shelf; it's an easy teaching rum. If you can be a mentor/guide for someone into the rum world, you should have this. 

Fact Sheet:

Country: Martinique

ABV: 40%