Ok, so there are loads of blogs out there where people review spirits – there is even a site dedicated solely to rum reviews for the public. Almost all of these sites score the drink, well I’m not going to.

Scoring:

Taste and smell are subjective. What I taste and smell is not the same as what you taste and smell, hell, what I taste and smell on one day is different from what I taste and smell on another day. How my taste translates to a score would depend on my experience in rum,  how long the bottle has been open, how much rum is in my glass, the temperature of the rum, what time of the day it is and what I’ve had to eat….as well as my general mood and feeling. How can I give a score? This is not an objective process, it is entirely 100% subjective to me. So no scores. A rum will get a nod, tut, or general shrug as I try to quantify what I think of a rum, but I will not be attaching a numerical value.

Water:

No. No water.

I want to drink what’s in the bottle. If I buy a single cask there is a reason for it. The amount of alcohol in a bottle is there for a reason (more on the magic of 46% abv here) , diluting it down lets you really analyse the nose and will change the palate structure and finish, but it’s not always a good thing. Not all spirits swim. Unless I get every rum I drink to the same abv by measuring it out with a pipette then it’s not a fair contest – life is WAY to short for that. Adding water produces massive consistency issues, I’ll be drinking it as it comes. There may be the odd occasion I have to add water, but if that’s the case then so be it and it’ll be stated in the notes.

NB: When I drink spirits for general drinking I often add water to stuff over 100 UK proof (57% abv), I just won’t be generally doing so for the purpose of my comments on here. By all means add whatever you want to your rum, it’s your rum. You pays your monies and you takes your chances, I’m certainly not going to preach to anyone how to drink their drink.