Ok, this isn’t really a “style” so much as a rum type that’s come about to feed a demand in the market. Basically, rums that are made to no particular style, or maybe edging towards the Spanish style, that are packed full of sugar and other various flavourings, put in a fancy bottle with a nice story about it’s origin and then sold at a high price as “premium” or “super premium” rums.

Often you will find these rums showing off an age statement and the killer sticker of “Solera”. Basically, these rums are often aged in a solera system that allows older rum and new rum to mingle, the idea is that youthful and powerful rum is mixed with older and more complex rum to smooth out the final product. It’s more complicated than that, but ultimately it lets the producers stick an age statement on the bottle and people will think it’s really old and buy it.

Solera age statements are the maximum age of the oldest rum in the blend, of which there is probably very little. The average age of the rum will be a lot lower.

They are very sweet and designed to be drunk neat or over ice by people that would otherwise buy other sipping spirits, such as Cognac or whisky. The sugar effect smooths the rum out and makes the experience quite hedonistic. The market dictates these have a place, and they are not “bad” rums, but they’re not really my style – although I did start out on this like most people, until I found “real” rum.

These can be found in Guatamala, Venezuela, Columbia and Peru amongst others.

Examples of so called “Super Premium” style rums are:

Diplomatico, Ron Zacapa, Dictador, Zaya, Pyrat and Ron Millonario