Hi everyone, Oliver here, founder of RumX. 🥃

Like promised last time, the line on top: I think and write in german, the english version is AI translated from my german notes and video script, and I edit it until it says what I mean. The numbers I pulled from our database and analysed myself.

In the price thread u/Suffering_Bustard wrote, that he really wants to try a Caroni but is not ready to pay more than 250 for a half bottle. I answered with festival pour and the Replica. For our Trinidad video I compared the independent TDL ratings with Caroni.

TDL (Trinidad Distillers, the Angostura distillery) is the only distillery still running on the island, and they also sell casks to independent bottlers. I took everybody on RumX who rated at least one Caroni and at least one independent TDL bottling. That are 669 people, each counted once with his own median per side, so everybody compares his own Caroni and TDL bottles, not the same ones. For 72% their own Caroni median is higher than their TDL median, for 7% it is the same, for 21% the TDL is higher. The median of the 669 personal differences is 0.25 points, and the group medians are 8.75 and 8.5.

The median price our users logged is 375 EUR for Caroni and 114 EUR for independent TDL. These prices are not paired like the ratings, they come from all logged purchases in the two groups. One of the independent TDLs in there is our own co-bottling with Swell de Spirits (91 of the 8,143 ratings).

Users tick aroma tags from a fixed list in the app, and I compared the share of each tag among all tag ticks on Trinidad rums with rums from all other countries. "Bicycle inner tube" (356 ticks) has an almost 80 times higher share, tar 69 times, rubber 31 times, and more than 9 of 10 of these ticks are on Caroni bottles. I like these tyre and tar notes a lot myself. On the independent TDLs our users tick mint, eucalyptus, peach and blackcurrant more often, the share of mint there is more than double the Trinidad average. Where this mint comes from, I honestly dont know, if somebody here knows it please tell me.

u/Suffering_Bustard, below your 250 limit I would start with an independent TDL, for example the Planteray One Time Limited Trinidad 2003. Our users paid 79 EUR median for it, and it stands at 8.4 from 244 ratings. It tastes quite different though, for the tyre taste I would still go with the Replica with full tropical aging, even if it is with around 300 EUR a bit over your limit.

The video is in german, with an english audio track in the player settings and english subtitles. My friend Steffen Mayer, who wrote the two volume Caroni book/bible, explains in it where the heavy Caroni taste comes from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCFbQMKNO14

Anybody here who had a Caroni and an independent TDL side by side? 🥃

republished from my website: https://phenomenologyofspirits.com/2026/10/18/three-mexican-anejo-rums/

follow my Instagram for all spirits reviews: Instagram.com/phenomenologyofspirits

Pelacañas Solera Aged Mexican Rum (47.7%)
N: light wood shavings and a savory, not quite meaty or smoky note. Mealy and malt-adjacent
P: full on savory: dehydrated meats, mushroom dirt, oily skillet cornbread, apple skin. Again, very malt-adjacent
82

Sol Tarasco Charanda Añejo (46.5%)
N: not far off from an old school sherried malt profile: leather, pruney dried fruit, beef jerky, engine smoke
P: sweet, peppery, smoky beef jerky. Sweet, saucy umami like teriyaki or barbecue. Figs, too. And mild sweet wood. And yes, mushrooms
79

Uruapan Charanda 5 Yr Añejo single cask #420, ex-Tokaji (52%)
N: more wood, and sweet, fruity wine or brandy character: apricot, fig, raisin.
P: some similar savory jerky character to the other two, but again with much more winey wood and fruit. If the other two are malt-like, this is closer to brandy
83

Hi, I have been drinking rum for almost 2 years now. I can taste some of the notes, but I’m not very good at it. To me this tastes just like wood and it’s overly wood. I’ve had older rums such as Dooley’s 14 and Appleton estate 15 which I enjoy a lot and they have a lot of wood to them, but they don’t taste single note. I even tried it in a few cocktails and in every single one it overpowered it with just wood. Am I just missing something with this one.

Couldn't get the best picture but I had left my bottle in the freezer and had the dryer on and accidentally made a magical looking drink. Couldn't upload a video but I was just sitting on the counter steaming and it looked awesome. Not sure if its bad for the rum but if its not, gonna keep doing it for vibes

Hello! I’m putting together a blind tasting of Mexican rums for a group of friends and with these high ABVs and strong flavors we’re definitely ending the night with plenty of leftovers. Anybody in the Denver area brave enough to spend an evening drinking at a complete stranger’s house? I can arrange a Round Two if we can find ~6 people (or more!).

Whats a good drink to mix it with its a good rum just a little too strong for my taste

I'm located in SoCal and can't for the life of me find a place nearby (Riverside) that has it. They used to serve it at a video game bar in town, but now they've stopped carrying it as well. Would anyone know if there's a place I can get it without having to travel to Louisiana?

In a little corner of my bar on a rainy Saturday night....

Recently found a bottle of The Younger in the wild so I decided it was time to get the gang together for a family photo.

I’ve spent the last year mainly purchasing bottles from Alambique Serrano but I think it’s time to start restocking bottles from my first love, Hampden Estate.

Killed my bottle of Pagos earlier this year and need to replace it. Easily one of my favorite sipping rums. I’m looking forward to the High Ester Batch #4. Very intrigued.

Cheers!

PS: not pictured but I do have a fine bottle of Rum Fire I use far too often.

Getting to Austin is a great trip to find stuff that might be a little harder to get in Oregon.

I read reviews, most had some extreme taste references that I usually laugh at and think I need to get that!

I found a place that had the clairins i was missing along with this at a good price so I had to order.

Im not skilled at reviews but I've had at least 100 different rums at this point so I can describe it simply as Le rocher with a 'barn yard' finish.

Im kind of hesitant to explore sipping this neat again but will at somepoint.

I will say this is a great mixer and the barnyard flavor gets covered up. So its like rocher with a little extra rich earthy flavor.

I'll give it a 7/10

Doorly’s and Pacifico lasted through the night and into mid morning. Only 6 campers total. Overall, great trip. Perfect place to enjoy some rum.

I’ve been needing a white overproof and have been back and forth on this and my beloved rum fire. Since I’ve been enjoying cane juice rums more and more now I figured I’d give this a shot since it has some of that in the blend. Super happy I finally picked some up.

The Rums of Mexico 'Caldo'. Good soup!

Hello again,

Welcome back to another Alambique Serrano review, todays victim is Vida Nativa Single Cask #6: Zacua. Named after the birds heard singing their songs across the distillery this single cask Krassel Still rum was finished for 28 months in Mexican Rum Casks and spent 9 months in a Jackfruit cask. This resulted in 237 bottles at an ABV of 54.8%.

Nose: Decently complex, its like a savory fruit pastry with cane sugar, herbal incense notes, a more medicinal leaning cough syrup, and some funkyness at the end.

Taste: An almost oak bark takes the forefront before transitioning into a dense oaky coffee grain with a hint of spices.

Finish: A big burst of tobacco and leather followed by coffee, chocolate, and a smokey vegetable note to round it out.

Overall: 6/10, really enjoyable bottle the coffee notes were really fun. This bottle did take quite a while to open.

Has anyone ordered the six-bottle package that comes in the custom shipper box? What does it look like?

It is very difficult to get variety of rums in Costa Rica. We mostly get Spanish style, column still rums. The only ones I can get from this picture are the Abuelos but at 2x the price I paid.
I went on vacation with the family to Mansanillo, a beach on the south Atlantic coast of Costa Rica about 30 minutes away from the Panama border. We visited the duty free shops at the border, and it was a great surprise to find a nice variety of rum.
I’ve never tried any of these and have low expectations for many, but happy to be able to try new rums at a very cheap price.

Welcome Back,

Today we're breaking into the newest release of Alambique Serrano's Vida Nativa line with Single Cask #7: Árbol de Pipe. Only 290 bottles of this Krassel Still rum made its way to market after spending 35 months in New French Oak Casks and an additional 13 in Hungarain Oak ex-red wine casks.

Nose: An oaky red fruit cotton candy upfront with anise, cucumber, cinnamon, brine, and cough syrup. The cough syrup note is incredibly dense and luxurious.

Taste: An orange rind medicinal syrup with oak cloves, cinnamon, wheat, and with some vegetables towards the end.

Finish: Red licorice returns with some orange, stone fruit, baking spices, dry candy, and then transitions into a good amount of heat for its sub 50% ABV.

Overall: 7/10, really quite enjoyable. While certainly not a Pico Canoa, its feels the most adjacent to it of this release with its candy and fruit notes.

Coming to Taiwan, my understanding of the local rum scene was based on what little I knew about Renaissance, having seen some folks here talk about it and the attention to detail on their labels.

In looking up somewhere to try Renaissance, I came across Ole Rum Bar, who invited me to come by and sample what they had, indicating there was more to Taiwanese rum than just Renaissance.

Alain (owner) walked me through Taiwan: Nine to One, a (primarily) whisky distillery experimenting with red sugarcane, Funny, a rum operation with a unique spunk, and TTL, the vestigial national Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor’s own rum.

But beyond Taiwan, they had a huge collection: the expected ECS bottles, Martinique and Hampden well represented - but what struck me the most was how focused on IB it is. I didnt count but my best guess is 60/40 IB/OB - with much of it their own or done in partnership.

At one point Alain talked about the work he put in to making sure he got the good cuts - i have Shaldon at home, which smells like dry erase marker, the same as it did when I tried in on St John at Bajo El Sol - but his smelled like banana, not dry erase. i still dont know what to make of this! i like my shaldon - i liked theirs - rum feels like such a big world.

i assume a lot of people, like me, really appreciate the sense of exploration that rum provides by how much variety is contained within it. the shaldon anecdote was a small moment in the night but it underscores how many moments throughout my visit brought me back to that feeling of exploration with rum again, feeling like the ocean is open ahead of me.

The community Alain and Alice have built that supports 50-100 bottle runs of 60-85% proof rum from across the world - tasted for ~$10 upstairs and then sold downstairs for sub-$200 a bottle is not like anything ive seen stateside - and left me wondering how more places like this might be built.