Diplomatico has been on my list for a while, but I have consistently passed it by because I was hoping to get the smaller Exclusiva bottle, since I didn't think that I would like this brand. I had my chance when Total Wine was selling Diplomatico bottles for $23 and the small Exclusiva bottle for $5. I put them all in the shot, but I decided that it makes a lot of sense to keep the Planas review separate, because it's extremely different from the other offerings, and I am instead going to compare it to Havana Club 3 and Bacardi Superior. Review Smell It smells very much like Havana Club 3, maybe with a slight difference in that Havana Club 3 smells more fruity. Bacardi, of course, smells like the classic white rum "rummy smell" that I typically describe as vanilla and coconut. I would say the strength of the fruity smell is a sliding scale, where Bacardi has none, Planas has a bit, and Havana Club has a little more. Also, Havana Club 3 has an orange/citrus aroma to it, while Planas gives me more green apple notes. Taste Of course, taste wise, Bacardi just cannot compete. Planas has a surprising amount of flavor. Along with the classic rummy flavor that you get from Bacardi, I get apricot, and maybe a bit of overripe banana flavor. It's not as flavorful as Planteray 3 stars, but it has some nice mild flavors, and it doesn't burn much, especially for being 47%. Both Havana Club and Diplomatico make decent daiquiris, though I can't really distinguish a strong difference. They're both just good white rums. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 7/10 on 1/4/26) Diplomatico Planas is a pretty good rum. It's got character and body, and I would say that it's tied with Havana Club 3 in the white rum category. For mixing, I don't think that it's replacing Planteray 3 stars, but if you're into sipping rums, and a white rum appeals to you, this might be the best of that niche. January 4, 2026 Update: This rum continues to be pretty good. When I need a white rum with some aged characteristics, there really is no parallel. Amending to 6/10 to match the new rating scale.

I have once again gone on vacation, and as it was my turn to pick where we go this time, I picked outer space. You would think that space would have the best rum, since it's incomprehensibly larger than our planet, but nope, all they have is Ron Abuelo. Every time I leave the US, I am confronted with the fact that, no, it doesn't get better. We have the best rum selection already. To best compare this 7 year old column still rum, I figured it makes almost too much sense to compare it to Angostura 7 and Havana Club 7. Review Smell As expected from a spanish-style rum, it's pretty much all barrel. Oak, vanilla, maybe a bit of caramel and a slight citrusy note. Havana Club 7 is much deeper and richer in the caramel and oak aromas, while Ron Abuelo 7 is definitely slightly fruity. It kind of reminds me of Havana Club 3 in that regard. Angostura 7 smells the most different, where it's just oaky and vanilla smelling but otherwise quite plain. Taste I wasn't expecting to like this rum as much as I do. It's quite sweet actually. Did they sweeten it? It has nice caramel and toffee notes. It's slightly bitter, and burns more than I would expect from a 7 year old 40%, but overall not unpleasant to drink neat. Like with the aroma, on the palate, it also has a slight fruity note which reminds me more of Havana Club 3 than any of these 7 year aged rums. I would say that, compared to Angostura, it's not even a comparison as Angostura is very boring, but compared to Havana Club 7, Abuelo 7 is not interesting enough. In a daiquiri, I don't really feel like I can make a call on this, because both Ron Abuelo 7 and Havana Club 7 lose their nuance and complexity, and just become daiquiris made from aged column still rum. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 6.5/10 on 1/4/26) I am never a big fan of column still rums, because it just isn't as interesting to drink. It's like rum pretending to be aged vodka. But regardless, Ron Abuelo has something going for it, and I don't remember how I rated Havana Club 7, but I suspect that I underrated it, because I couldn't appreciate the deep complexity and just preferred sweet and fruity flavors. But on that subject, Ron Abuelo 7 is not bad. Definitely needs to be above Angostura 7 and below Havana Club 7. Overall though, I'd give it a 6.5 January 4, 2026 Update: This rum has honestly stood the test of time in terms of Spanish style rums. As much as I dislike Central American rums as a category, Ron Abuelo stands out as one that sucks a bit less than the rest. It has some body, it has some flavor, it's relatively smooth... I can genuinely recommend this as a starter rum.

The Chase Sapphire lounge in LaGuardia and the Plaza Premium lounge in Orlando is like a tale of two lounges. In the Chase Sapphire lounge, you get complimentary restaurant-quality food, a buffet with fancy hors d'oeuvres and desserts, and a full bar with complimentary cocktails and several excellent rums. In the Plaza Premium lounge, well, you get complimentary cold pasta and a sad salad bar. They have a bar as well, but almost everything comes at a cost. My previous review was about the one rum that is free, and it's so bad, that even free isn't enough for me to drink it. But I did buy one drink, because I've been meaning to sample it for a while. I got the Planteray XO. One thing to just keep in mind is that I saw a "20 extra old" on the neck of the bottle from the bar and figured it meant that it was 20 years aged, when actually it's a 20th anniversary bottle. Review Smell The first thing I notice is the harshness of the ethanol smell, which surprised me for such an aged blend, but there's also vanilla, coconut, and a sweet rummy smell. I'd honestly think that this was Bacardi gold with how harsh and generic it smells. Taste So, literally a day and a half ago, I went to a restaurant, and all they had at the bar were cheap crap rums, and Planteray Barbados 5 year. I already had this rum, I already reviewed it, so I just ordered it and sipped it neat. It's honestly not bad— I gave it a 7/10 when I reviewed it. Planteray XO tastes exactly like it. It's got that distinct "bajan-but-not-quite" taste. A bit of Foursquare, but also a bit of Planteray's own twist on it. And so, I feel like Planteray XO tastes pretty much like Barbados 5 year— except I really expected it to be smoother, but it's just not. It's harsh and quite bitter. I can barely make out a "20 extra old" on the bottle, so that explains the $70 price tag here, but there's zero reason that it burns a bit more, not less. I do remember adding a bit of sugar to The Real McCoy when I had it, and it saved it a bit. Didn't make it great, but it made it more palatable. I added more sugar to Planteray XO, and nothing about it changed. It already tastes sweet, so I guess the dryness isn't the problem. I don't know the proof of this rum, but unless it's like 57%, it has no excuse. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 6/10 on 1/4/26) I am disappointed. If I wanted Barbados 5 year rum, I could just buy that. But this rum basically tastes the same, burns slightly more, is a bit more bitter, and is way more expensive. Is this a bad rum? No. It's better than Bacardi, it's better than some other disappointments that I've tried like Havana Club Anejo Reserva. Maybe I had a bad batch? It still said "Plantation" on the bottle, and I basically finished off what was left at the bottom of the bottle, so maybe the bottle was just super old, maybe it was a bad batch, maybe something changed in the formula, maybe it just sat mostly empty in a sun-bathed Orlando lounge room for a long time and the rum denatured. But, just judging based on what I had, if Barbados 5 year is 7/10, then I gotta knock half a point off for the bitterness and burn and another half point off for the value. 6/10. If someone, for some reason, had this at a party (as in, I am not paying for it lol) and nothing else but Bacardi and the Captain, yeah, of course I'd go for it, but I do not think that I'll be buying this bottle. January 4, 2026 Update: Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 5 to reflect my new scoring system.

The Chase Sapphire lounge in LaGuardia and the Plaza Premium lounge in Orlando is like a tale of two lounges. In the Chase Sapphire lounge, you get complimentary restaurant-quality food, a buffet with fancy hors d'oeuvres and desserts, and a full bar with complimentary cocktails and several excellent rums. In the Plaza Premium lounge, well, you get complimentary cold pasta and a sad salad bar. They have a bar as well, but almost everything comes at a cost. Of course, they do have one well rum that is free. And on this day, I learn that sometimes, I won't drink a rum, even if it's literally free. Review Smell It smells like pure rubbing alcohol. There's not a hint of vanilla or coconut or any sort of "rummy" aroma that I get from Bacardi or Cruzan, which I was hoping this rum would try to emulate. It smells like I just got a cup of hand sanitizer. Taste I remember, when I was a child, I had trashy ice cream tastes. My parents liked chocolate and coffee, but I liked birthday cake ice cream. You know the kind. It's dyed to look like a unicorn's turds, and has a taste that does not taste like birthday cake, or like anything real— it just has that distinct "birthday cake ice cream" flavor. This rum tastes exactly like that. It's like, whatever flavoring agent they add to dyed ice cream to make it taste like birthday cake, they added to my hand sanitizer to make it taste like birthday cake. Surprisingly, it doesn't burn as much as the smell would suggest. It still burns quite a bit, but it's pretty much in line with what I would expect from a cheap spirit. I tried making a daiquiri. Again, it costs money to order a cocktail, so I just asked for a cup of lime slices, and I mashed them with a sugar packet. Look, this rum doesn't exactly deserve effort. I didn't like it anyway. The limes and sugar were fine, absolutely nothing wrong with them, the rum just sucks. I dumped the rest of my rum into a cola. At least a cheap rum should go down easy with a cola. Not this one. Even vodka doesn't make cola disgusting— what even is this!? This rum is entirely irredeemable. Even a shitty spiced rum that tastes like straight vanilla at least goes well with cola. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 2/10 on 1/4/26) I have given out a 3/10 before once or twice. I only remember kirkland spiced rum, which tasted like vanilla extract that's had an old rubber band soaked in it, and you know what? I dumped it in coke, and it was alright. It wasn't great, but it was alright. This rum... I don't even know what you could do with it. If someone gifted me a bottle, what would I do? Maybe make a birthday cake martini? Realistically, I'd pour it out. This is my first 2/10, and hopefully I never try something this low again. Can a rum even be worse than this? January 4, 2026 Update: Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 5 to reflect my new scoring system.

During my long delay at the airport, sure, Copalli was absolutely the star, but they had another rum available to try— Cruzan aged light rum. Now, I will spoil and say that I only had one serving of it and went right back to Copalli, so it was not my favorite, but I felt like reviewing it anyway, for the sake of completeness. At this point, I feel like my reviews are a collection. I am reviewing rum I feel like I wouldn't enjoy, just to have a review of it. Though, it has its merits. I would have dismissed Copalli if I just assumed it would be like Holmes Cay Reunion. Review Smell It's hard to describe the smell exactly, but it smells like Bacardi Superior, with extra Bacardi Superior. Like, you know the taste of Bacardi? It's very hard to describe in flavor notes, but there's a mild vanilla coconut taste that makes up that classic white rum smell and flavor. I'm sure all of you know the taste of Bacardi! So, Cruzan aged light rum reminds me of that, but stronger. Taste I actually quite like the taste. It makes Bacardi feel like vodka in comparison. I didn't have Bacardi on me to compare side by side, but it's my most drunk rum in my life, so I feel like I remember it, and this tastes like Bacardi x2. It doesn't have any fruity or funky notes, so I still wouldn't say that it's as good as Havana Club 3 or Planteray 3 stars, but if you love Bacardi and don't want anything radically different, then Cruzan is just a straight upgrade. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 6/10 on 1/4/26) I still wouldn't buy this rum, except maybe for a room party. It doesn't depart from Bacardi enough to make me want to have the time for it. That being said, it's definitely a solid step up from Bacardi, and I actually prefer it over Flor de Cana 4 year as well. In terms of plain generic column still white rum, this performed about as well as it could have, given that it's a tough category to really be excellent in. It's a solid 6/10. January 4, 2026 Update: Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 5 to reflect my new scoring system.

My last review on Holmes Cay Reunion agricole was... controversial. Some people like the briny olivey taste, while others agreed with me that it reminded them of a dirty martini. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I wanted to try another agricole any time soon, because it would have to be vastly different for me to genuinely think that it's excellent. At the very least, I had a lot more rums in mind that I'd like to try before I gamble it on another agricole. And then I was flying to Orlando last weekend, and my flight was delayed by 6 hours. Luckily, my credit card automatically gives me a free lounge pass after a 2 hour delay, so I got to go to my favorite lounge ever: the Sapphire lounge in LaGuardia. They have excellent food and snacks, and also a surprisingly decent bar. > Note: This rum is unaged, but is rested for 6 months in stainless steel tanks Review Smell To start, I want to acknowledge that this review is not perfect. I was allowed a daiquiri or just on the rocks to mix with coke, but they refused to serve it to me neat. They said it's their policy to not serve alcohol neat. Ok??? Bizarre. So, that may slightly affect my perception. That said, while I got a lot of grass and brine smell from Holmes Cay Reunion, I only get a tiny bit of that smell here. I mostly smell... what I can best describe as something similar to Jamaican funk. So overripe banana, pineapple, but also a hint of citrus, kind of like with Copeland rum (and Irish blend with Bajan pot still), and of course a bit of fresh grass and pickled olives. Taste If you told me that this was Jamaican rum, I might have believed you. It's not like the rums that I have tried from Appleton, Long Pond, or Clarendon— in fact, again, the rum that it reminds me most of is Copeland, which gets its pot still portion from Barbados, but is much more similar to Jamaican rum in taste than other Bajan rums. The funk itself is quite potent. I don't have these on hand to try side by side, but I would say it's not quite at the funk level of Xaymaca or OFTD, but it's certainly more funky than Myers's. It's very good. It makes a great daiquiri or just rum and coke. The flavor profile is just very "rummy", and it's smooth and doesn't burn, which is fantastic for something so lightly aged. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 6/10 on 3/25/26) (Edited from 6/10 on 1/4/26) I still wouldn't buy this rum, except maybe for a room party. It doesn't depart from Bacardi enough to make me want to have the time for it. That being said, it's definitely a solid step up from Bacardi, and I actually prefer it over Flor de Cana 4 year as well. In terms of plain generic column still white rum, this performed about as well as it could have, given that it's a tough category to really be excellent in. It's a solid 6/10. January 4, 2026 Update: So, when I made this review, I had not yet tried a clairin, and Copalli tastes exactly like San Zanj. The slight taste of brined olives and tropical fruits is pretty typical of a Haitian clairin, and Copalli white basically embodies that flavor. But, in fact, I like it slightly better than San Zanj, so I am dropping my score to 7.5/10 to align with the new scoring chart. March 25, 2026 Update: Im back in my happy place, at the chase sapphire lounge in LaGuardia. I'm back drinking the rum here. Copalli, Cruzan, and Appleton 8. A pretty good selection. I won't lie, I had rose colored glasses trying it last time. Now going back, it's really not that good. Like, it's good, don't get me wrong, but 7.5/10 is just below Smith & Cross. Let's not kid ourselves. I enjoy it about as much as Appleton. It's well rounded, fruity, briny, and genuinely enjoyable, but coming back a year later, I now realize that this cane juice flavor profile is not that unique. I might have to bump down San Zanj as well. Sorry, but these are living reviews! What noob me loved, the ruminator finds just above average.

Legends speak of a rum that fears no mixer. Before even seeing this rum on shelves, I learned of the acronym— O.F.T.D., which officially stands for "Oh Fuck, That's Delicious!". If I had to design the perfect rum, I wouldn't make it any other way. It has Jamaican funk, Guyanese funk, it's very much overproof, and it comes in at an incredible value. In fact, speaking of the design of this rum, I was blown away by the sheer number of rums used in this mix, and by the big names in rum, tiki, and cocktail culture that came together to create this blend. I was going to compare it to Myers's, but it really isn't in the same league, so I will also compare it to Pusser's and Xaymaca, as they are a Guyanese and Jamaican rum, respectively, with bold and delicious flavors. This breakdown is not very specific just due to the number of rums used and how diverse they are, so I recommend reading this writeup with much deeper info, if you're curious: https://cocktailwonk.com/2018/01/oftd-deconstructed.html Review Smell Compared to Xaymaca, OFTD has a richer, deeper, woodier smell. It still has some of that funky banana pineapple smell— definitely at least as much as Myers's! But it's dominated by oak and prune notes that I associate with DDL rums. Speaking of Myers's, despite OFTD being 69%, I get less alcohol burn in the smell than I do from Myers's at only 40%. Taste OFTD is insanely flavorful. The overproof rum melts on my tongue and has an incredible deep, earthy funk. As a test, I mixed together one part Xaymaca and one part Pusser's, and incredibly, other than being obviously lower proof, there's really very little difference that I can sense between OFTD and this blend. It kind of makes sense, since two of the four marques in Xaymaca (MLC and STCE) are also two of the four marques in OFTD, and I couldn't find info on the DDL marques, but Pusser's is also sourced from DDL, though I only found this afterwards, so mixing the two and having an extremely similar taste profile was enlightening during my tasting. Also, this definitely makes the best daiquiri that I have had to date. Yeah it stains it to an army green due to the dark color, but the flavor is so deep, rich, and complex. Maybe it's because the proof is higher, and maybe because this might be that one Plantation product that I hear doesn't have sugar, but I found that I prefer this daiquiri with a little extra sugar. The Jamaican and Guyanese funk just elevate this drink to another level. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 10/10 on 1/3/26) Is this rum perfect? I don't know. I kind of hope that there's more rums to enjoy. I hope this isn't it, and I am drinking the best rum that I will ever have right now. I may have to later adjust my scale or demote some of my earlier scores... though it feels bad to demote Myers's, even though it doesn't hold a candle to Xaymaca or OFTD, because in a vacuum, it genuinely is an enjoyable cheap rum that I would buy again. But, for now, every other rum can step aside, because this one is a 10/10, and if there's only one rum that I could have from now on, I would pick OFTD. January 3, 2026 Update: So, this rum won my 2025 best mixer award, and might have won overall had I not restricted it to winning just one category, and I thought that Xaymaca was just a slightly more well-rounded rum. Again, the flavor is excellent, the proof is high (I prefer to mix it or otherwise water it down because it's so strong), and there's no real off-flavors. Could the flavor be better? Sure. I absolutely love a hampden, and this isn't quite it. But, for what it is, this is now my go-to black rum, and a permanent staple of my liquor cabinet.

I think that I am going to do this review a little differently, because clearly, funky rums are in a league of their own, and just trying to assign a number out of 10 is, at a glance, easy for quick comparisons, it really misses the nuance. Just because I rated Zacapa 23 7.5/10, and Appleton Signature 7.5/10, doesn't mean that they are equal. We're not really comparing apples to apples. So, I sort of touched this in my Myers's review, where I decided to compare it to Appleton Signature, but going forward, I will try to find some "classic of the category" rum to serve as a baseline. And speaking of classics of the category— for dark, funky, lightly aged rums, there really is no rum better known than Myers's. I don't know if this approach is right, or if eventually I will grow tired of comparing every lightly aged pot still dark rum to Myers's and saying "yeah it blows Myers's out of the water" as I predict will be the case, but I can try it and reevaluate later. Anyway, this rum is a blend of rums from Long Pond and Clarendon distilleries (both under NRJ, part-owned by Maison Ferrand, who also own Planteray). The rums are aged for 1-3 years, then finished in Ferrand casks. Review Smell It's absolutely incredible. It positively blasts you with esters of Jamaican hogo. Sweet, overripe banana, pineapple, molasses, and a bit of raisin and oak. It is very fruity and inviting. In contrast, Myers's comes across as rather plain. I still get the nose of Jamaican pot still, like the same classic banana, pineapple, molasses smell, but it's a lot less forward, and my nose gets blasted more with alcohol fumes instead. Taste The contrast only grows here. The flavors of Xaymaca are so bold. They fill my nose when I exhale, and the palate is long with sweet, fruity hogo. The actual flavor profile of the funk doesn't really differ much from Appleton Estate Signature or Wray & Nephew OP, but it feels like it's just right in terms of amount of funk and age. Myers's also doesn't really differ in the flavor profile of the funk, it's just... muted. Hidden behind more alcohol burn and more sweetness. I'd say it has more body to it, probably from the added molasses, and, I mean, it's alright, but I wouldn't sip Myers's. I will gladly sip Xaymaca. And actually, on the back end, I get some of that slight burnt rubber industrial chemical taste, the same one as in Wray & Nephew OP, which is generally my only criticism of Jamaican rums, but I get absolutely none of that from Xaymaca. I think that Daiquiris really are great for comparing rums side by side, because pretty much any Jamaican rum can go in a daiquiri and it will be sweet, sour, fruity, and funky, and I would enjoy it, so being able to compare two side by side would really show how the two rums would be different in a cocktail. But in this case, it really is so night and day, that maybe a daiquiri test wasn't even needed. Genuinely, I like Myers's. I had it, I enjoyed it, and I was in philly, where Myers's is under $20, so I brought a bottle home with me, and I don't regret it. That said, it just doesn't hold a candle to Xaymaca. Myers's gets me tickets to go to the Jamaican funk show, but Xaymaca puts me in the splash zone. It's so incredibly fruity and funky, that actually, after sipping it for a bit and going back to Myers's, it almost tastes tepid. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 10/10 on 1/3/26) My go-to fix, if I want a lightly aged funky Jamaican rum, has been Appleton Estate Signature mixed 3 parts to 1 part Wray & Nephew white OP. It is delicious and close to perfect. I said before that this blend is a 9/10, and so far, I have not had a rum that is straight up better. Until now. Xaymaca is basically that perfect mix in a single bottle, but with one additional improvement: the removal of that slightly industrial burnt rubber aftertaste that comes from W&N. It never really bothered me that much, but I'll give it an extra half point just for refining that even further. 9.5/10. Now, it makes me wonder what a 10/10 rum would look like. I love the fruity banana funk of Jamaican rum, but I also love the raisiny pruney funk of Guyanese rum, so maybe if Plateray would mix Jamaican and Guyanese rum, and maybe instead of watering it down all the way to 43%, keep it way overproof at 63% like Wray... or better yet, pick the funny sex number 69% (nice)... oh hey look at that I am spoiling the next review! January 3, 2026 Update: Xaymaca is still wonderful. It's fruity, well-rounded, smooth, and nice for mixing and sipping. In fact, it won my overall best rum award for 2025. That being said, I know that there's better rums out there, and there definitely is room to improve, despite it being excellent already.

So, I spent this past weekend in Philadelphia, and though I have indeed acquired a new rum there, I haven't yet had a chance to try it, so for now, I am going to talk about my first time trying an agricole, which I had at someone's house party recently. Review Smell The smell very much reminds me of pickled olives. Just briny and olive-y. Taste It's grassy and olive-y. It's really hard to describe in any other way. Maybe if I had more agricoles, I could point out some specific notes, but this straight up tastes like a pre-made dirty martini. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 6/10 on 1/3/26) I normally like a very funky rum, but this is not even close to the funk typical of some other nations. I would consider this rum closer to a tequila than a Jamaican rum. It's very much a savory profile, and while I did finish my shot, I don't think I know what to do with a rum of this profile. For that reason, it's a 4. If you love agricole, you might very well love this rum, but it tastes the least like rum out of every rum that I have tried so far. January 3, 2026 Update: Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 3 to reflect my new scoring system.

Ron Zacapa Centenario Sistema Solera No. 23 Solera Gran Reserva Julio Ricardo Montoya de la Rosa Ramírez. With so many words on the front of the label, you know that this rum is Guatemalan royalty. This is a staple of liquor stores, for some reason. Yeah, there's Malibu, the Captain, Bacardi, and a few others that sometimes show up, like Diplomatico and Barbancourt... but this one shows up in almost all of them. Why? Why does every liquor store want to stock this? Perhaps it's the high price? Perhaps it's the giant 23 on the front, suggesting that they are carrying something worthy of the top shelf? Is it worthy of the top shelf? Is it worth the $50 that everyone charges for it? Based on the overall reputation, I was not enthusiastic, so I skipped it for a while. That is, until one day, I saw a 50mL for sale. Review Smell There is a deep, rich smell of caramel, vanilla, and molasses. I also get some notes of citrus, like an orange, as well as raisins. Taste The taste is quite potent. Immediately you're hit with oak and sherry, which I find to be the prominent flavors, but there's also a tangy zip to this rum that's hard to describe. I want to describe it like the tang of orange soda, but without the flavor of orange. It's not particularly fruity, I am moreso getting more subtle notes of vanilla and honey. I have not yet looked this up, but my guess is that it was aged in red wine or sherry casks (I do every tasting before looking up information on the rum to not bias my tasting in the direction of what I am expecting based on the info provided). It is quite mellow and pleasant to sip on. It's sweet, and doesn't burn much at all. I am not sure that this sort of rum goes in a daiquiri, but I wasn't sure what other cocktail works better. Anyway, it does make for an interesting daiquiri. It's oakier than I prefer, but the deep flavors in the rum are fun and enjoyable. I notice that this daiquiri is very tannic— it feels like a daiquiri with a touch of aged cabernet in it. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 6/10 on 1/3/26) (Edited from 7.5/10 on 1/3/26) I think that, overall, I would describe this rum as an aged Spanish column still rum with a splash of sweet sherry. I don't know what cocktails I could put this in, as it has a pretty unique flavor, but sipping it neat is definitely a nice experience. In fact, this is my favorite Spanish-style rum, and I am rating it as such. 7.5/10, on par with some middle-of-the-road Jamaican rums! It tasted very oaky and tannic, which may be a bit of an acquired taste, but the richness and complexity was unlike any other rum I've had so far. That said, even though I thought that this rum was good, there's also the question of value. There's other rums that I would rather sip neat, and which are more versatile for cocktails, that are less than half the price of this rum. This rum is good, but not $50 good. Appleton Estates Signature is about equally enjoyable, and far better for mixing (for very different reasons and flavor profiles, but still...), and 1.75L of it goes for $32. I don't think that I will be buying Zacapa 23 again, unless it goes on a steep discount. January 3, 2026 Update: Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 6 to reflect my new scoring system. March 9, 2026 Update: I feel like I underrated it. The deep richness is better than what most Spanish-style rums can provide. I am bumping it up to 6.5/10

This one doesn't really have a deep story. I was just walking around liquor stores in my neighborhood, taking stock of what rums they have and for what price, so that I know what is available here vs what I have to go to Astor Wines to acquire, and one of the stores that I hit up had small sample bottles of Copeland rum. I saw that it was Irish, and thought— ah great, a rum that tastes like Irish Whiskey. Gross. Oh well, maybe it'll make for a good review, at least. > Note: This rum is a blend of column still rum from Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, and pot still rum from Barbados. NI portion aged in Pinot Noir barrels, Barbados portion aged in bourbon barrels. No age statements for any of it. Review Smell Very grassy and funky. Kind of similar to a Jamaican funk with the banana and pineapple notes, but I am also getting some citrus fruit, like lime, and something vegetal. Taste Very much outright funky. As with the smell, you taste what is very similar to a Jamaican funk, with the banana and pineapple, but there is a strong citrus note to it that I don't get from other Jamaican rums. To better compare them, I made my favorite Jamaican mix of 3 parts Appleton Signature and 1 part Wray & Nephew white OP. I definitely don't get the aged barrel notes from Copeland, so if this rum was aged at all, it wasn't for very long. However, there is a distinct zip, a citrus tang, that I just don't get from the Appleton/Wray mix, and I quite like it. For a 40% rum, it's not particularly smooth, but it's also not particularly harsh either. It makes a very good funky daiquiri. Of course, the citrus notes are lost in the lime of the daiquiri, but it's still a good young rum with a bold pot still taste. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 8/10 on 1/3/26) I was completely wrong about how this rum would taste. I was absolutely not expecting tropical pot still, and it was a banger. Absolutely, I prefer it to many Jamaican rums that I have tried. I really feel like it lacks the complex aged notes that you get from Appleton Signature, and so it doesn't quite beat the 3:1 mix that has become my staple, but I wish I still had some Planteray 3 stars to compare to this, just to decide if this might be the one rum that I would keep if I could only have one rum forever. I'm not sure. Either way, I don't know how much that means to anyone, as I have yet to acquire some of the heavy hitters that I have been recommended, such as Smith & Cross, Worthy Park, Hampden, El Dorado, etc. and by the sound of what people are saying, I may need to expand the scale past 10. So, I will leave it at this: if you love Planteray 3 stars, you might love this one just as much. Except it costs twice as much, so there's that. And, once again, the 50mL costs less on a per-liter basis than the full bottle— what's up with that? January 3, 2026 Update: Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 6.5 to reflect my new scoring system.

I have a special relationship with Myers's. For one, I always thought that the spelling was weird, so I never had the Mandela effect of "wait, it's not spelled Myer's or Myers'?!". But also, this was the rum that started it all. I had only drank Bacardi and Kraken and was happy with that being the pinnacle of my rum experience, until a mixologist friend of mine gave me a cocktail made with myers's, and I was blown away. Then I asked to try it neat, and it was a crazy experience. To this day, I love Jamaican rum and rate it highly. Literally, the best score that I have ever given a Spanish style rum is 6.5, and that's also the score that I have given my least favorite Jamaican rum. The bias is so strong, that I think, going forward, it makes more sense for me to compare Jamaican rums vs each other, Spanish style rums vs each other, etc. because otherwise it's just not a competition. Review Smell The smell is very rich and funky. It's pretty much the jamaican staple: overripe bananas, pineapple, raisins, molasses. It's very fruity and very funky. Definitely more funky than Appleton Signature. Visually, it's also very dark. Taste Very bold funk. Appleton is more of banana and caramel forward, whereas from Myers's, I am getting a bit more pineapple, but both have a similar kind of funk, except Myers's is obviously stronger. Though, Appleton has a bit more complexity to it from the aging, having a few vanilla and oaky notes too. It even has a slightly rubbery medicinal taste which is exactly the same off taste that I noticed in Wray & Nephew white OP, and it likewise is only really perceptable when drunk neat, and disappears in a cocktail. To be honest, I would not drink Myers's neat anyway. I always do a daiquiri, but it's pretty much the same story. Funky, fruity, lovely. The funk lingers on the exhale, like you get with a lot of good funky rums. Verdict {rating}/10 (Edited from 7.5/10 on 1/3/26) I love this rum. It's not the best I've had, and in fact, in the Jamaican category, I think I slightly prefer Planteray 3 stars, and in the dark rum category, I think I slightly prefer Pusser's, and Myers's is certainly not a sipping rum, but it brings a lot of character to the table. I said that Appleton Signature + Wray & Nephew is my "9/10 mix", and I feel like Myers's tries to be that, but it doesn't quite hit the mark. Appleton just has a body to it that Myers's just doesn't have, I suspect because the blend of rums that Myers's is made of skew towards unaged. That being said, it's delicious in its own right, and positively screams Jamaican. Definitely a great mixer, definitely a must-have on your shelf. The value is a bit weird, because I know that it goes for way cheaper in Pennsylvania, but in NYC, I can only find very overpriced liters of it.... or 50mL shots for $1. So I just bought a whole pack of $1 shots. Comes out to about $21/L January 3, 2026 Update: I gave it another taste, and I mean, it's iconic, but there's definitely not only more flavorful rums out there, but ones with less industrial flavor. Myers's is good, but there's much better stuff out there.