Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum

Worst rum I've ever had. Maybe my bottle is bad, but I dumped this out. It made everything taste terrible. Smells of burnt rubber, salt and raisins.

Good Christ. Rotting tropical fruit and gasoline on the nose. A hard alcohol burn and deeply unpleasant flavor when drank straight. Mostly gasoline and a lingering tropical fruit taste. Burns hard, though.

Had no idea rum could be like this. Nose is insane banana with a grassy quality. Flavor is banana, leather, spice, with sort of a scotch-esque finish? No problem sipping this one

Recommended to me, I picked this up expecting an adventure. I consider myself a rum novice, so my notes may not be particularly helpful, but I am sharing them anyway. Popping the cork is like opening the door of a food dehydrator making banana chips. Pour some in a glass, admire the classy gold on blue label, notice the smell of cooking bananas, with butter, and brown sugar, and cloves, and molasses. Ok, people were not exaggerating when they promised this is potent. The smells are bold, mouth watering, and carried by an ethanol punch that lets you know right off that this isn’t some watered down rum flavored vodka. It is big, but not overly refined, not that it is aiming to be. 18/20 The first sip is not what I was expecting, it is hot, but not as hot as I thought it would be, but it’s not sweet at all on this first taste. Lots of magic marker notes, something slightly Scotch-like, and the funk/hogo is here. First impression isn’t as strong a showing as the smell. 23/30 Sip a bit more, admire the warmth … ginger, nutmeg, cloves, bananas, burnt sugar, sweet molasses, something metallic. There is a lot to love here, but there is this note that is metallic and unpleasant. I get why many people say this is perfect for mixing, I can imagine it making amazing cocktails, being fantastic with some ice, and a little bit of pretty much anything, maybe even just opening up the bottle for a few weeks will fix it. As it is, I love some parts, but overall there’s a lot that’s just not there for me. 18/25 On the experience and presentation, a nice bottle, really nice label, wonderful smell, and several really good points, but some parts that let me down too. 15/20 I keep five points for entirely subjective assignment, and I’ll give one, bringing the total score to: 75/100 I will be reassessing this in a few weeks.

Very unique from anything else I’ve tried. My first hogo heavy drink. Absolutely delightful. Almost reminded me of a scotch/tequila hybrid but in all the best ways.