Top Ten Rums (you should avoid)!

We’ve all been seduced by that glittering rum bottle on the store shelf.  It looks so pretty, what’s inside must be great.

Or…  maybe it just looks that way!

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My writings on this website are primarily to help my readers chose better spirits when making that purchase decision. To that end I thought I should publish my first warning list. These are the purchase decisions you want to avoid. Those sugar-cane based spirits which will help to empty your wallet, but will leave little in the way of reward. I expect this list to be somewhat controversial, and if I slight one of your favourites please chime in with a comment to defend your rum of choice. But having said that, I must confess, that these are anything but my rums of choice. These are my regrets, and I publish this list in hopes that I can help you avoid a regret or two.

And so without further adieu, here are…the top ten Rums you should avoid. The ones that weren’t pretty…  they just looked that way!

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10)  Rhum Clement X.O.

The Website calls it Rhum Perfection, but I’ve had three separate occasions to sample the Rhum Clement. Each time I was left scratching my head. This is dry and bitter with a finish that seems take more from you than it gives. In my locale it is also upwards of $100.00 a bottle.  It’s more the price than the flavour that makes this rhum number 10 on my list.

9)   Bacardi Arctic Grape

This is a strange one. I tasted it in Miami at the top of the Bacardi Building at the company’s private penthouse bar. I of course was intrigued by the name, Arctic Grape. It was good that Bacardi had jumped on the Arctic bandwagon. Until I tasted it. All the intrigue was gone, and I was quietly looking for a sink.

8)  Rhum Kuracera

I tried this Rhum about a year and a half ago, and it just seemed to miss every mark with me. I tried adding cola and let me tell you, that was that a mistake. The drink frothed up and became even worse tasting.  Maybe someone else knows what I was supposed to do with this one.

7)  Renegade Rum Company 2000 Jamaica Rum

This Renegade Rum left my palate dazed & confused.  I found this quote on the Bruichladdich website which pertains to all of their aritsan rums,

“We expect these to be savoured on their own, with a dash of water as an aperitif, or even as a lighter digestif, or enjoy with a cigar. Mix them only if you must!”

I guess I fall into the category of those who ‘must’. And at over $80.00 a bottle this is definitely one to avoid.

6)  Sx Samba (liquor de Cana)

SX Samba is a cachaca-style rum made from sugar cane and flavoured with limes  and vanilla.  If you go to the website and have a look you will see bottle is downright sexy, the Sx Samba however, is downright nasty.

5)  SX Calypso (licor de Ron)

SX Calypso is advertised as a pale gold liquid with delicate hints of fresh lemon and green mint. I tasted this concoction at Rum Renaissance  2011 as part of my judging duties. I am hoping to avoid that tasting duty next year.

4)   Bacardi Razz

I tasted over 100 rums at Rum Renaissance last year as part of my duties as a Rum XP Judge.  Of all the spirits I tasted this one hurt me the most! I do  not know what the company was thinking when they came up with this raspberry flavoured monstrosity, but whatever wave length they were on, I am on the opposite.

3)  Captain Morgan Private Stock

When I first tasted this one I thought I quite liked it. But soon the vanilla began to fight back. In waves and waves it came, and came, and came at me.  By the time I had sampled this rum three times I had pretty much given up. This rum more than any is responsible for my fear of vanilla flavoured rums.

2) Spiced Jack No. 94

I like overproof spirits. When you have a great rum or whisky and you concentrate the flavours more it always leads to a wonderful experience. But if you take a mediocre spirit, and concentrate flavours that never should have existed in the first place….

1)  Appleton Estate 30 Year Old Rum

I had such high hopes for this rum when I bought two of them.  Oh what wonderful things I could have done with that money. Simply put I consider this Appleton to be a broken, over oaked spirit. Now maybe, if it had only cost me $100.00 per bottle this rum might not have made the list. But, at over $300.00 per bottle, it is easily the worst rum purchase I have ever made.

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And there you have it, the ten rums that I recommend that you avoid. I hope this list is fun, and I hope that you disagree with a selection or two of mine. Because, when all is said and done, it really  is all about personal taste, and I would hate to think that I would have the last word on your personal taste!