Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum clocks in at 94.6 proof, well above the 70 proof original. It’s geared toward those who prefer bolder sipping spirits like whiskey and want a spiced rum that delivers more flavor while standing up in cocktails.

Captain Morgan Black is produced from Caribbean blackstrap rum and other ingredients like clove spice and cassia bark. After distillation, it’s finished in double charred blackened oak, which smoothes out the spice and adds a more discernible oaky note than the original. It’s less sweet, but still offers plenty of clove and cinnamon spice, plus lots of oaky vanilla. The flavor varies considerably from the sugary 70 proof version, which is good, because simply offering a higher proof spirit would be redundant, given the brand’s already-available 100 proof Captain Morgan 100.

In addition to drinking it straight or on the rocks, Captain Morgan Black hopes to find its way into more elevated cocktails like the Old Fashioned. We’ll see if that takes hold, or if consumers continue to associate the Captain Morgan brand as a mixer for Coke and ginger ale.

Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum is available nationwide at a suggested retail price of $21.99 for a 750ml bottle.

Have you tried it yet? If yes, let’s hear your thoughts.

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- The Lash Spiced Rum Review
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- Malibu Red

Rum is definitely a product of “terroir.” The raw ingredients and the soil in which they’re grown affect the final product just like distillation, blending and aging.

All that’s a long introduction to our latest review – Rhum Clément Premiere Canne, a Martinique-produced Rhum Agricole.

Rhum Clément was established in 1887 and continues to produce a solid line of Rhum Agricoles, including the unaged Premiere Canne Blanc and a handful of aged spirits. Rhum Clément Premiere Canne is vegetal and grassy on the nose. Drink up to find an earthy, complex mix of flavors ranging from chocolate to orange peels to burnt sugar. The grassy notes remain throughout the tasting experience, and it finishes very dry.

Rhum Clément, and all agricole rums, taste far different than your average Caribbean-style white rum. The usual molasses is replaced with vegetal notes, and it’s much less sweet than other rums, which means that drinkers might not even recognize this as rum. But if you’re into rhum agricole, this is a good one.

While it can certainly be consumed straight, rhum agricole finds more use in cocktails, like the classic ‘Ti Punch, which is the national cocktail of Martinique. It’s delicious and very easy to make, as it combines just three simple ingredients — rhum agricole, lime and cane syrup.

If you’re in the market for cane syrup, Rhum Clément makes a great one. Their Sirop de Canne adds a sweet and spicy flavor note to ‘Ti Punch that pairs well with the earthy rhum agricole.

‘Ti Punch

1.5 oz rhum agricole
1 barspoon cane syrup
1 lime

Cut a thick lime disc so there’s plenty of zest. Add lime disk to a rocks glass, and pour cane syrup on top. Muddle. Add rhum agricole, then add a few ice cubes and stir.

Rhum Clément products are available in more than 65 countries worldwide. The 80-proof Rhum Clément Première Canne retails for about $30.

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- Denizen Rum Review
- Caliche Rum

Malibu Red was created in partnership with singer/songwriter Ne-Yo. It’s becoming increasingly popular for an entertainer to back a spirits brand. Take Ludacris’ Conjure Cognac, for instance, or Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Tequila. Then of course, there’s Toby Keith’s terrible Wild Shot Mezcal. The good ones can exist independently of their celebrity endorser, while the bad ones (looking at you, Wild Shot) stick a worm in the bottle and set the category back twenty years. But back to Malibu Red…

Combining tequila with Barbados Rum and coconut extract is, theoretically, a difficult idea to grasp. Obviously, the market hasn’t demanded such a product. But when you’re backed by a celebrity – and muddling flavored rum with tequila – you’re clearly pushing the lifestyle angle more than what’s inside the bottle. So it’s with some trepidation that we cracked open our bottle of Malibu Red.

On the nose, there’s sweet coconut with a hint of pepper and agave. Take a sip and taste more of the tequila, which stands apart from the sugary coconut, almost like two drinks in one. The mouthfeel is viscous, and there’s an off-putting medicinal note that creeps out toward the finish. Overall, it’s a muddy mess of flavors, with neither the rum nor the tequila standing out.

That said, its sweetness, mixed with a mild tequila bite, might prove popular as a chilled shot or blended with simple mixers. Clearly the brand is targeting the nightclub space rather than the tequila or rum connoisseur. Malibu’s brand cache, plus the collaboration with Ne-Yo, has already resulted in lots of buzz, so we’ll see if Malibu Red catches hold and thrives.

Aside from the celebrity endorsement, Malibu Red has another thing going for it: zero competition in the rum/tequila/coconut space.

Stats:
- 35% Alcohol by Volume
- $16.99

More liquor reviews

The first video tells the story of the legendary parties hosted for Americans in Cuba during the dark days of prohibition. When prohibition hit the U.S. in 1919, Bacardi rum beckoned with the invitation to “Come to Cuba and bathe in BACARDI rum.” Americans listened, coming in droves to a country where parties were the national pastime. Celebrities, athletes, heads of state and more came to Cuba for free-spirited fun.

The final two short films cover the birth of the Cuba Libre and the mysterious story of how Bacardi’s iconic bat logo evolved. Click through, and raise a glass to 150 years of rum.

Caliche is billed as a “super premium” rum, a designation more often associated with vodkas and tequilas. The name “Caliche” comes from a type of limestone that’s present around the distillery in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

In creating Caliche Rum, the distillery uses a multiple-distillation system and carbon-active filtration to produce a clean, pure rum. Next up, aging in American white oak casks and blending. Caliche Rum contains a portion of Solera rum (Solera is a process of aging by fractional blending, in which the finished product is a mixture of ages, with the average age gradually increasing as the process continues over many years). This gives more depth and nuanced flavors to rum. Speaking of flavor, take a sip to taste caramel and vanilla with light tannins and oak accents. It’s smooth and velvety and has more body than Don Q white rum, also produced by Distileria Serralles.

About the launch of Caliche, Rande Gerber said he “saw an untapped market in the super-premium white rum space due to limited options for rum drinkers. After meeting Roberto and learning more about his family rum-making tradition, we knew we could make the highest quality rum at an accessible price point.”

For now, Caliche Rum is available in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Dallas

Stats:
- 40% Alcohol by Volume
- $24.99

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- Denizen Rum Review
- Don Q Grand Añejo Rum
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Hot Buttered Rum is one of our favorite seasonal drinks and is a nice change-of-pace from egg nog and spiked cider. Rum is the perfect base for this buttery libation, which is spiced up with allspice dram and apple cider. There are several quality recipes for Hot Buttered Rum, but this year we’re making the below recipe, courtesy of Kenneth McCoy and NYC’s Rum House.

Hot Buttered Brugal

2 oz Brugal Añejo Rum
1 teaspoon honey
½ teaspoon butter
4 oz hot apple cider
½ oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

Add all ingredients to mixing glass. Stir vigorously, then pour into heated coffee mug. Grate fresh cinnamon on top, and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

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- Ron Abuelo 7 Anos Rum Review
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Ron Abuelo 7 Anos is a rich, amber-colored rum with aromas of vanilla, caramel and fresh sugar cane. Flavors range from more vanilla and caramel to cocoa, toffee and honey. That sweetness fades in the finish, with lingering notes of dry leather and citrus. It’s exceedingly easy to sip, and even rum novices will be hard-pressed to find much burn in this one.

Apart from the very solid attributes noted above, perhaps the best characteristic of Ron Abuelo 7 Anos is its price. Like its younger sibling, the Anejo, the 7 Anos is incredibly affordable. So while it sits in my glass adorned with neither ice nor mixer, the Rum and Coke crowd can mix freely without monetary guilt.

That said, for better mixing results, throw it into actual cocktails. The sweet start and dry finish lends itself well to a variety of drinks, like an anejo daiquiri, a rum old fashioned or a rum punch

Stats:
- 40% Alcohol by Volume
- $20

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- Denizen Rum Review
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Denizen Rum starts with column-distilled rums from the Angostura Distillery that are charcoal-filtered and aged up to five years in small bourbon barrels. From there, 15 types of Jamaican pot-distilled rums are added to the mix and blended in Amsterdam (a city that’s been blending rums since the 1700s, when the Netherlands colonized much of the Caribbean).

The result is a clear rum – the color imparted by barrel aging is filtered out – with lots of sweet molasses and tropical fruit on the nose. Take a sip to find a medium-bodied, surprisingly spicy rum that’s full of vanilla, citrus and molasses, plus some green grass and figs. The Jamaican rum component really shines here, adding a heavy, viscous quality to the lighter Trinidadian rum. It finishes dry and slightly woody with some lingering vanilla.

Denizen Rum is a game changer for white rums. Granted, this is an aged rum that’s just had the color stripped out. But still, it’s priced the same as many mass-market white rums – looking at you, Bacardi – but offers loads more flavor and utility in cocktails.

Right now, New York is your best bet for finding Denzen Rum, but it’s also available at a handful of online retailers.

Stats:
- 40% Alcohol by Volume
- $16

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- Plantation Grande Reserve Rum
- Zaya Gran Reserva Rum
- English Harbour 5 Year Old Rum

On the nose, Plantation Grande Reserve offers aromas of ripe bananas, toasted coconut, leather and caramel. Take a sip to taste vanilla, caramel and molasses, plus some orange peel, fruit and baking spices. It’s loaded with flavor and offers more sweetness than the nose suggests. The lingering finish is a mix of sweet and spice, with lots of cinnamon heat fighting for attention in the enveloping background of sugar cane sweetness.

The dual-oak aging process comes through with American oak notes like caramel and vanilla mingling with the mild fruit notes likely supplied by the French oak. It’s certainly a viable sipper, which is always welcome at such a modest price point. That said, Plantation Grande Reserve is great in cocktails. Try it in a daiquiri or a fruit-forward tiki drink, or add a rum float to your Cognac Julep.

Stats:
- 40% Alcohol by Volume
- $20

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The rundown –

Port Royal Gold

Included in a room drop at our Spanish Court Hotel, Port Royal Gold seemed cheap and astringent, certainly not a viable sipper. I imagine it has some application in cocktails, but all I can say for now is that it’s not very impressive sipped straight from a hotel bathroom drinking glass.

Wray and Nephew Overproof

This is one of the most consumed rums in Jamaica, an impressive stat given its potency. The 126 proof spirit hides beneath some alcoholic top notes, but is otherwise packed with aromas and flavors. It’s pure sugarcane with a malty sweetness that’s reminiscent of cachaca. I ordered this rum to accompany my lunch, and several of my dining companions noted that they could smell the rum from across the table. While I enjoyed it, this was not a crowd pleaser.

Appleton Estate V/X

This entry-level Appleton Estate rum is a blend of 15 rums aged five to 10 years in used whiskey barrels. It works very well in cocktails, as its sweet molasses and fruit backbone holds up well in most drinks. Given its versatile nature and affordable price point, Appleton Estate V/X was a ubiquitous fixture at Jamaican bars, where it was often used in rum punch.

Appleton Estate Reserve

This blend of 20 rums – each aged eight years or more – is smooth, rich and easy-drinking, with notes of vanilla, butterscotch, orange peel and spices. Sitting just above the V/X, it works well in cocktails but is also a very decent sipper. This was my regular pre-dinner, post-dinner and sometimes during-dinner drink during my stay in Jamaica.

Appleton Estate 12-Year

Also called Appleton Estate Extra, this blend features stocks ranging in age from 12 years to 30 years. It’s warm and nutty with notes of citrus fruit, vanilla and oak. Sampled at a few different venues, it was served neat in a snifter each time and seemed to be a favorite amongst bartenders. It’s tasty, well-balanced stuff, and one of the better rums I sampled during the Jamaican tour.

Appleton Estate 21-Year

A full-bodied sipping rum full of oak influence and spice that would likely pair well with a cigar. It was certainly enjoyable, but I found it a bit too woody and preferred the 12-Year overall.

Smatt’s Gold

I’d never heard of this rum prior to visiting Jamaica, and upon seeing it on a restaurant menu, the name didn’t evoke much confidence. So of course I ordered it. Served as a shot, but sipped like a gentleman, I found the body to be thin and watery, but it did pack a punch of flavor. Smatt’s also makes a silver, unaged rum, which I didn’t sample.

Coruba Dark

Served as a shot at Usain Bolt’s sports bar, called Tracks and Records, Coruba Dark was sweet, heavy and full of molasses. While it made for a decent shot, I’d love to revisit this rum in tiki cocktails.

Meyers Dark

Eh. Sweet, simple and nothing special. It makes a decent addition to cocktails, but doesn’t offer much on its own.

El Dorado 12

This was my first time sampling El Dorado Rum. I really liked it, despite it’s not being local. Turns out it’s from Guyana. No matter. El Dorado 12 is smooth and mellow with hints of honey and brown sugar. It offers fruit and spice and finishes clean and dry. Very good stuff.

El Dorado 15

Next up, the El Dorado 15 skips the honey and brown sugar backbone of its younger friend, instead opting for more oak influences, plus notes of coffee, chocolate, almonds and orange spice. I’m not sure I preferred the 15 over the 12, but it was certainly a lovely drink.

Click here for a full recap of the Jamaica trip.