r/rum

Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about reviewing rum or notes or hints or any of that stuff, so I’m just speaking from the heart here.

This one’s for /u/TendiesAndCream 🏄🏻‍♂️ I’ve wanted to try Rivers Antoine for some time now so this is a huge bucket list item for me. As far as how the experience went: I mean, what the FUCK. I’ve never tasted a rum like this before. I finally sort of get all of those weird ass tasting and smelling notes people use when they refer to freaky ass rums like this. I immediately smelt nail polish remover after pouring it. This is freakishly dark tasting, if that makes sense. Again my mind goes to those weird descriptions of like burnt rubber or bandaids or something. Honestly, it’s pretty tasty. Definitely not my favorite, and it’s no where near bad, but above all else it’s a very unique experience. I’ve never tasted funk like this before. Now I have to try it in a Mai Tai or something. Feels dirty, but in a good way. If you haven’t tried it, I feel like it’s a must.

Rating: 6.7/10

I built Antilles, a free rum tasting journal that looks like a 17th-century captain's logbook and can turn your bottle photos into vintage nautical engravings!

As a fellow rum enthusiast, I built Antilles to be the ideal place to track my collection and tastings. It's completely FREE with no ads, and always will be.

Here’s what makes it unique:

• Vintage Engravings: Upload a photo of your bottle, and Antilles automatically creates a vintage nautical engraving, like something from an explorer's logbook.
• Build Your Collection: Create and share a beautiful, digital "shelf" page of the bottles you own and have tasted.
• Chart Your Voyage: View your tasting coverage on an interactive world map that colors in as you explore rums from different countries.
• Log Everything: Track your pours with ratings, detailed notes, tags, and photos. There’s even a guided tasting feature to help both beginner and expert tasters.

"The main problem with this project is I'm going to have to open all of my old Rums and try them again for tasting notes!" - TikiBobby

Give it a try today and start building your collection: Antilles. Special thanks to all the beta testers who have used the site and shared their feedback over the past few weeks.

Best,

- ken
My Shelf

Hello Again,

Today I'm breaking into 4 Años with Single Cask #359 Caja de Especies. Specially bottled for Prizefighter Bottleshop in Emeryville, CA this is their second selection and first single cask after their blend. This rum was distilled by Axel & William Krassel in June 2021 with their Krassel Column Still before being aged for 4 years in a New French Oak Cask stored underground. It was then bottled at a cask strength of 61.3% for 150 bottles.

Nose: Cloves, cinnamon licorice, dates, cane sugar, vanilla, and artificial strawberry.

Taste: A spiced vanilla root beer with a good amount of oak, red licorice, caramel, with a bit of a herbal note underneath.

Finish: Herby grass and a ton of woody cane sugar goodness with some anise. For it being 61% ABV there is nearly no burn, if anything its warming like the spices found in the finish.

Overall: 7/10, a good bottle and I'm thankful to start seeing older releases making their way out.

Today I spent some time revisiting these three and honestly… all of them fit a proper slow evening perfectly — alone or with somebody who knows how to enjoy silence and conversation.

The Imperial 40 stays sealed until the right anniversary.

Also curious — has anyone else photographed their rum collection on analog film?

Would love to see the shots. Mine are coming soon.

Found this unopened bottle from my parents. They honeymooned in Jamaica in 1989 I think. Was looking for any information about this bottle being I can’t find much online. Thanks!

I bought this bottle today. They use the sugar cane juice not molasses. I had a taste with a couple of ice cubes and a little squeeze of lime. The company website said it would have grassy notes from the sugar cane juice. I tasted that for sure. It has a nice clean taste.

If you're from the UK, you're probably familiar with Dead Mans Fingers. Which to me, is the classic easy drinker-cheap enough, but better than CapMorgs. If it's on offer I'll quite happily buy a bottle of the standard spiced rum in order to slow down on my more expensive samples.

So imagine my surprise, when I find this on Amazon for a measly £24!

It's not listed on their official website, so I presume it's a rum that they no longer produce. At that price point the only comparison I have is Woods Navy Rum, which was surprisingly good. But I didn't have high hopes heading into this one. However...! For the price, actually very delicious.

I had no idea DMF even had samplings at this strength considering their usual market is between 32%-38%. At least you can actually call this one rum. On the nose there's no aggressive solvent bite. Almost butterscotch/caramel, with a hint of a spiced chocolate cake. Not much dissimilar to taste either.

What I could closest compare this to, is Dark Matter rum. Which if I'm being honest, I didn't enjoy all that much. Too spicy, too forceful, very Christmas cake in a glass and it wasn't quite for me. This is similar, but in a much more rounded way. Heavy on the spices- nutmeg, cinnamon etc, it warms your tongue but somehow the sweetness and the vanilla rounds the flavours off beautifully. Very easy to drink considering the ABV and overall, very impressed.

Worth a shot if you see it at a good price. It's no Hampden, but I'm glad I gave it a go!

Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about reviewing rum or notes or hints or any of that stuff, so I’m just speaking from the heart here.

Alright I admit it, I have to stop thinking of these incredible rums as a sort of cross breed with other spirits. But the first thing that came to mind when I sipped this was a sort of light smokiness, I think? So I immediately thought “Oh, it’s like scotch-rum.” If that makes any sense? I don’t fucking know man. Either way, this is incredibly tasty stuff. This tastes like a special occasion type of rum. I was lead to Hampden Great House because I was told it’s a natural step above my favorite rum, HLCF. I have to say, while I do love this rum very dearly, I’m not sure if I like it more than HLCF. I have to have HLCF soon after this again to remind myself. Anyways, this shit is very good. I’m not sure how the 2025 stacks up against other years but I just chose this one because it’s the most recent that I could snag. Highly recommend, especially if you like a little bit of smoke.

Rating: 8.0/10

Hello all!

I have Been searching for Hampden rums in Florida to no luck past few days. I was just able to find my first bottle in the wild today and this is what they had.

Good buy? Am I jumping the gun with this as my first entry into their portfolio? If anyone is from FL and knows where I can find some lmk.

Thanks to u/ShitImDelicious, I've decided to dive into my own reviews. I'll try to keep a regular cadence, but if I know me, they will be inconsistent at best!

I'll use u/10art1 method for scoring.

I purchased a set of samples from the Florida Rum Society. It was a little pricey, but I wanted to try what was in it. If I'm being honest, I got the lowest level, because the other options were already sold out. Such is life. This is the first one I tried.

Alambique Serrano La Sociedad, pick #27, 68.2% ABV, released 2024

Nose

Burning paper or cardboard, a hint of acetone, caramel, orange creamsicle, and a hint of hay or grass

Taste

Some hay or straw up front, combined with toasted oak and green wood, quickly turning to dried strawberries which lingers for quite a while, and a finish of kerosine or plastic.

Score

9/10

I've had a lot of bourbon and a lot of rum, this ranks up there with the best of them, literally in the top 5. The complexity, the uniqueness; it's just outstanding. This is admittedly the first expression I've had from Alambique Serrano, so maybe I'm just missing out, but I've been unable to find it. I'm going to start finding it.

Here is my collection so far. I live in a rum wasteland but I'm making do to get ahold of what I can.

Is your favorite here? What would you make with what's on the shelves? Any home built recipes you like? Good split bases that go with any of these? I wanna know!

Not pictured are Appleton Signature and Mocambo 20.

Alambique Serrano, Rums of Mexico, Privateer, so many more… really one of the only good bars around Times Square.