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Sipping rum suggestions for beginners


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I am mainly a whisky/bourbon sipper. Never owned a bottle of rum. What would you suggest as a sipping rum for someone just getting into rum?

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I am mainly a whisky/bourbon sipper. Never owned a bottle of rum. What would you suggest as a sipping rum for someone just getting into rum?

Where to begin? Tons of information in the new Rum Forum of course. For a whiskey drinker I tend to suggest Mount Gay XO or Appleton 12. If you think you might like the rums that are typically sweeter then for me it is hard to go wrong with El Dorado 12, 15 and 21yo. These all tend to be readily available and generally affordable. I also like the Doorly XO and Seale 10yo that are from Barbados like Mount Gay and supposedly are not permitted to have added sugar like most rums do. Zaya is another rum on the sweeter side but interesting enough as a sipper.

The aged rhum agricoles are fun but might not be the ideal starting point as they tend to have a bit more of a vegetal funk and may be harder to find and more expensive. But they are not permitted to be sweetened as most rums are and tend to be more whiskey like as a result. Rhum Barbancourt 5 star/8yo is another generally readily available affordable rum which is a bit more like the rhum agricoles but to me typically not quite as vegetal in nature (or as expensive) as the rhum agricoles from Martinique and Guadeloupe.

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I like Barrilito 3 Star, from Puerto Rico, if you can find it.
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I am no expert on rum, but I do like a sip every now and then. Look at Pyrat XO, Apple Estate or Mount Gay Extra Old. All are very good and easy to find. I think the Pyrat XO is a bargain at $20.

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I am no expert on rum, but I do like a sip every now and then. Look at Pyrat XO, Apple Estate or Mount Gay Extra Old. All are very good and easy to find. I think the Pyrat XO is a bargain at $20.
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I'm formulating a shopping list for a sipper. So far i have RZ23, Appleton 12, ED 12.

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I'm formulating a shopping list for a sipper. So far i have RZ23, Appleton 12, ED 12.
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Some very comprehensive advice there, cant go wrong I say!.

I will add my two cents and back the suggestions for appleton 12 and mount gay xo, pick one or both, but i would suggest startting here.

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Pretty new to the Rum game myself, having gotten into it after trying some Balcones Texas Rum (still my favorite).

A few I really like are-

Pusser's 15 YO

Pumpkinhead 23 YO

Smooth Ambler Revelation

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Thanks to this thread I did go shopping for some rum today, and also because national rum day is coming up, well its actually national rum day for America, but hey whatever, it works for me.

And to my suprise there was no age stated appleton, only the standard and the resrve blend, which was just released here. So i bought a bottle od mount gay xo.

Im wondering, is there a rum shortage too?

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Thanks to this thread I did go shopping for some rum today, and also because national rum day is coming up, well its actually national rum day for America, but hey whatever, it works for me.

And to my suprise there was no age stated appleton, only the standard and the resrve blend, which was just released here. So i bought a bottle od mount gay xo.

Im wondering, is there a rum shortage too?

No particular shortage of the Appleton 12 or rum in general on the shelves here that I have noted. Might just be an Australian thing.

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I picked up my first bottle of rum ever, an Appleton 12 year old. When I opened it and had some, I must say I was a bit dissapointed because it tasted so much like bourbon. I don't know what I was expecting, having no previous experience with aged rum. It was a bit confusing. I thought it would be completely different than anything else I had before.

When I tried it again a few days later, I started liking it more. It tasted less like a bourbon. The aromas made more "sense", the taste and mouth feel stood out more. I have to say this has a thick syrupy mouth feel, unlike any whisky I've had. I guess it will take me time to appreciate the differences between whisky and this. It is an acquired taste.

Does all aged rum, including agricoles, taste like whisky, more or less? because of the ex-bourbon barrel ageing?

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I picked up my first bottle of rum ever, an Appleton 12 year old. When I opened it and had some, I must say I was a bit dissapointed because it tasted so much like bourbon. I don't know what I was expecting, having no previous experience with aged rum. It was a bit confusing. I thought it would be completely different than anything else I had before.

When I tried it again a few days later, I started liking it more. It tasted less like a bourbon. The aromas made more "sense", the taste and mouth feel stood out more. I have to say this has a thick syrupy mouth feel, unlike any whisky I've had. I guess it will take me time to appreciate the differences between whisky and this. It is an acquired taste.

Does all aged rum, including agricoles, taste like whisky, more or less? because of the ex-bourbon barrel ageing?

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I picked up my first bottle of rum ever, an Appleton 12 year old. When I opened it and had some, I must say I was a bit dissapointed because it tasted so much like bourbon. I don't know what I was expecting, having no previous experience with aged rum. It was a bit confusing. I thought it would be completely different than anything else I had before.

When I tried it again a few days later, I started liking it more. It tasted less like a bourbon. The aromas made more "sense", the taste and mouth feel stood out more. I have to say this has a thick syrupy mouth feel, unlike any whisky I've had. I guess it will take me time to appreciate the differences between whisky and this. It is an acquired taste.

Does all aged rum, including agricoles, taste like whisky, more or less? because of the ex-bourbon barrel ageing?

You bring up a pretty interesting point here, I have had experiences with both MT gay xo and appleton 12 where upon opening they were almost identicle to bourbon, but given only a few short days the rum character started to come through more pronounced.

Inversely I find most bourbons need a couple days following opening to 'settle down'

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I wonder if you can list some non-bourbon-like rums besides ED 12?

If you aren't choosing a rum from Barbados or a French Agricole or some of the Jamaican rums like Appleton you are likely to get less of a whiskey similarity.

Zaya, Zacapa, Santa Teresa, Pampero Aniversario are all sweeter style rum. Most any of the Spanish style rums from Puerto Rico (Don Q, Barrilito and of course Bacardi, the vodka of rums...), the Dominican Republic (the 3 B's, Brugal, Barceló, Bermudez and "private labels" like Atlantico and Matusalem) and of course Havana Club from Cuba if you have access to them. Cruzan from the Virgin Islands is another big producer of basic rums.

There are tons of independent labels made by one of the larger producers. The Ministry of Rum has a search tool with many brands listed.

I like to occasionally read the reviews on the rum gallery. As with any blog or website you have to read with a somewhat jaundiced eye and decide for yourself what is useful and not.

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Thank you, I appreciate all this information. Navigating the world of rum can be confusing for the beginner.

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At present I'm not sure how much easier it is for the intermediate... but when you get a good one, it sure is wonderful.

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  • 2 months later...
Pretty new to the Rum game myself, having gotten into it after trying some Balcones Texas Rum (still my favorite).

A few I really like are-

Pusser's 15 YO

Pumpkinhead 23 YO

Smooth Ambler Revelation

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  • 3 months later...

This was a very helpful thread.  I'm a rum newbie and only had the Balcones and SA Revelation on my bar but wanted a non-NDP Caribbean rum to add to it.  I didn't want to dive down the same rabbit hole that bourbon got me in, but at the same time I see myself broadening my horizons a bit, especially as summer comes around (and especially given the current bourbon market). 

I wanted a rum more on the bourbon side than the sweet side, I wanted something aged, I wanted something close to 90 proof (which seems next to impossible in the rum world - it seems everything is either 80 proof or 150 proof), I wanted something readily available at Total Wine, and I didn't want any additives in it. 

The info above narrowed it down for me, and then some info over at Capn Jimbo's site (remember him?  He was here for a cup of coffee awhile back before burning a bridge or two IIRC) provided some interesting tests on additives in rums.  After reading this thread and perusing those tests I narrowed my choice down to Mount Gay XO and Seale's 10 year.  Then I stumbled across an interview with the Seale's guy, and he seemed legit, honest, transparent, wanted to do things the 'right' way. 

So Seale's 10 year, 86 proof was the winner.  I'll try it later this week.   At half the price of Mount Gay XO, I feel even better about it.  The only downside is this bottle design.  Very phallic.  But it makes it easy to spot on the shelf I suppose.

 

Edited by dcbt
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So far for me, I like these enough to buy again:

Sailor Jerry
Gosling's Black Seal
Appleton Estate V/X
Barcardi 151
Mount Gay XO Reserve Cask Rum

Have a bottle, but have not tried yet: El Dorado Special Reserve (15 Yr. Old)

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