Angostura White Oak

I absolutely will never, in my entire lifetime, understand the impulse to filter beautiful barrel color out of an aged spirit, leaving a blank, pale, sad looking bottle behind. I honestly missed the fact that this was even aged due to "white rum" being on the label, in addition to how dumb it would be to get rid of the color initially. Simply needing an unaged rum for the bar, I went for this distillery that is new to me (as far as distilled spirits go, anyway), but I suppose all is not lost since this is at least aged in some quality used white oak barrels. The scent is very much of molasses, but a cleaner version with some of the sweetness taken out and perhaps a touch of citrus added. The ethanol is just slightly more aggressive than expected of an 80 proof. I get just enough vanilla and barrel sugar to know this is from a nice, charred barrel, and even some of the caramel-backed bourbon can also be smelled after backing off a bit. Very neutral flavor at first, with the body being very light and easily approachable. The molasses is there, but it's quite muted, but instead of being overshadowed by the barrel or any other flavor note, the neutral quality simply sticks around until the ethanol builds and starts to slightly enter the gums. At this point I taste some oak, but the charcoal starts to take over through the finish. I'm honestly shocked that the palate isn't overflowing with charcoal since this is double filtered, but it's clear that there are at least a handful of different flavor notes that could be here were the unnecessary filtering omitted. Angostura making rum seems surprising given that this is the spirit of choice, but it makes far more sense once the location is considered. Maybe some of this, bitters, and some fresh citrus could make something out of it after all, but I'll save that experiment for another day. Even with the slight disappointment sustained here, I can't say I wouldn't buy an aged Angostura rum, since I am quite curious, but I can confidently say that this isn't the stand-in needed for an unaged rum, and it certainly doesn't beat out a true, untouched aged rum.