Mount Gay Black Barrel Rum (Discontinued)

Not a fantastic supper but still pretty reasonable. Lots of wood and some spice. Not super sweet. Touch of smoke? I like it. Buy it again? Probably not.

Tasted neat from a glencairn, this is one of three rums offered as a tasting kit from Flaviar. The pour is a brassy gold and shows consistent sheeting on a swirl with slow legs. I'm expecting a richer mouthfeel. I gave the pour a solid 10 minutes rest before tasting. The nose of this rum is sweet with vanilla, caramel and butterscotch notes. There's also an ethanol note. Pretty much four notes and not much depth/complexity to the aromas coming off the glass. There's maybe a touch of wet wood barrel. Nothing about the smell of this rum is inspiring me. On the palate, this is a bit better than the nose intimated. There's a silky mouthfeel, sweet cream initial impact and a short white pepper finish. Some might call this "smooth" but I've learned this is often a way of saying "I'm so happy that this drink doesn't challenge me and has no spice" - which is a pretty reasonable translation in this case. There's a touch of lemon sour about mid curve, then a stronger hint of chemical alcohol. There's also a prominent "paper" note, like cardboard. A slight aftertaste of banana skins and a bit of a floral character hang on for a few seconds. Finally, there's a ghostly hint of maple syrup after the finish. I had to really dig to find flavors. I can't help but feel there might have been a good rum buried somewhere under a young, very pedestrian filler and that's where it fails. Nope, this isn't doing it for me. I looked up the price and for $39.99 for a 750ml in my local market I'm going to say this is a hard pass. It's not horrible, but I don't want to drink any more of it and I certainly wouldn't pay that kind of money to mix it, either. It's not a good value and its not ultimately a very good rum, imho I'd rather have Mt Gay Eclipse at half the price.

This is nice rum. Both beginners and intermediate drinkers could appreciate the sweet vanilla-toffee smell and strong but sweet taste, the nice acidity and tardiness which bourbon barrel brings. But there is also sweetness of molasses and the specific alcohol rum taste. It looks like match in heaven, but sadly it is lacking. One glass is nice experiment, but with second one you start wondering why would you want to drink more. You can get the bourbony notes better with some nice bourbon and the same with rum notes. So Black Barrel worth keeping for taste exercises? No, but it's worth the try if you stumble upon a nice price.

Aroma: Faint caramel & alcohol. Flavor: Quick sip is slightly floral & alcohol. A longer taste reveals little; very tolerable alcohol thanks to the sweetness, caramel, and a toasted flavor I quite can't nail down...marshmallow skin and/or banana? Not a good sipper and "it'll do" for mixed drinks. Kraken Black Spiced Rum is better and cheaper. Rating is based on neat sipping.