Calwise Spiced Rum

From the Distillery: This bold and rich rum features spices that reflect California agriculture and are inspired by our state’s more -earthy- inhabitants. We guess you could say it’s like a car ride through coastal orange groves farmed by naked hippies who don’t believe in deodorant and wear clove, cinnamon, and vanilla essential oils instead (we all know at least someone like this). Enjoy on the rocks, neat, or around a drum circle on a beach. My initial impression of this was it smells and tastes like they filtered it through well used, ground up, hippie Berkenstocks. So many weird and nasty smells and tastes. Having let it rest for a few months, I thought I would try it again. The nose has a pronounced clove, ginger, vanilla and citrus scent that reminds me of someone burning incense to cover up the smell of pot smoke mixed with a hint of b.o. and sasaparilla. If you can get past the smell the palate is not terrible, it's a little creamy and semi-sweet with a hint of spices, citrus and vanilla. The finish is a medium length, spicy and a mixed bag of citrus, cloves and vanilla that I just don't care for. Bottle kill 10/31/22 The nose has mellowed a lot, still a little funky, orange peel and clove stand out, very palatable and the finish is acceptable. An interesting rum which stirred great conversation when shared with others. Bumped up to middling rating.