Part of a Mt Gay rum tasting trio from Flaviar. I'm somewhat new to critical rum reviews. I've had many, many "sipping rums" on my travels through Florida, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. The 2021 New Year marked a more serious appreciation for this spirit and my love for Foursquare is pretty intense. Let's see what this iconic brand brings to the party.
The pour is a light brass. A swirl shows multiple thin legs and light sheeting that dissipates quickly. I anticipate this will be just a touch thin. I gave it a good 5 minutes to rest and tasted neat from a glencairn.
The nose is slight cotton candy, cut grass, gently butterscotch. The nose is thankfully free of any ethanol or chemical notes. It's very soft, but clean and appealing.
On the palate this rum continues its lightweight journey. Surprisingly this is reminding me of Japanese whisky, particularly Suntory's Toki. Very light and delicate. It is not at all complex.
There's a slight sweetness, a touch of honey, a bit of caramel, very light white pepper and a short, clean finish. There's a blush of ginger. and a light sweetness remains on the palate after a swallow. This is the antithesis of demanding.
The finish is short, clean and combines sweet with a touch of sour lemondrop. Interesting, I get no banana or fruit. I get more banana from a Belgian ale than is present in this by an order of magnitude.
This is okay as a sipper, but not good enough to be enthusiastic. It might be a reasonable mixer, but its ephemeral taste profile means it will get lost quickly in multi-element cocktails. I'm thinking this is a good choice for a highball with Q soda and an orange zest twist. It might also be interesting to mix this into something Manhattan-like with an Ambrato vermouth That's probably my next experiment.
This is a $20 bottle. It's certainly a good value with no fatal flaws for its inexpensive market position. It's really not my thing, but I'm not hating on it. I'll happily trade a 90% full 750ml bottle of Toki for a 50% full bottle of this!
I rate on a scale where 1 is undrinkable for me and 5 is a perfect example of the expression. Looking at a bell curve, most competently made liquors should sit between 2 and 3 with the peak at 2.5. I think this is an honest 2.75 and that's not a bad thing at this price point.
19.99
USD
per
Bottle
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