Bedford Park Spirits Hampden H 10 Year Old

Bythefatrumpirate February 21, 2026February 21, 2026

Bedford Park Spirits Hampden H 10 Year Old. Enter Bedford Park Spirits, a UK indie bottler that has steadily built a reputation by picking casks that actually matter to rum enthusiasts and bottling them without nonsense.

No added sugar. No E150 and non-chill filtered. Just rum that tastes like the place it came from. You can tell they have links to the Scotch Whisky world simply by the phrase “non chill filtered” I can almost here Ralfy uttering those very same words.

If you’ve spent five minutes in more “serious” rum circles, the name Hampden will likely make you sit up. If you’ve spent a lot more than 5 minutes and a lot more than is reasonable to expect of any normal human being in “serious” rum circles you will also get excited about the “H”.

First things first before anyone says “Should it not be surrounded by the arrow keys? I know it should be surrounded by a kind of “diamond” ish thing either side that the arrow keys represent. Try telling WordPress that. If I put those arrow keys into this document it either self deletes, it or makes the rest of the article into an unreadable mess. Yes even more unreadable than this.

In rum terms, the “H” marque from Hampden is up there with the intense, fruity, funky profiles that divide drinkers into two camps: “Hell yeah” and “Why is anyone drinking this?” Of the 8 well-known rum marques at Hampden this is ranked fourth in terms of ester count. That said it is still very funky and perhaps better balanced than some of the higher ranked marques.

This particular bottle is a 10‑year‑old Hampden H. It is a Single Cask bottled at a serious 66.8% ABV. It’s 100% Jamaican Pot Still rum, Hampden don’t do column distillation. I’m not sure how much this went for in Europe on its original release upwards of £100.

Sadly its largely sold out. It was released back in 2024 so I’m late to the party. It was aged in ex-rum cask, which I’m not entirely sure about. The rum is noted as being from cask number 43858. It was a run of just 239 bottles. No wonder really, when it was bottle at such high strength.

The bottle itself is clean and straightforward, nice amount of information up front, no marketing BS. The label art courtesy of Elise Conlin gives it a bit of character. It’s functional, cool and very contemporary This is a rum that wants to be tasted, not Instagrammed but if you do the artwork stands up better than most Hampden indie bottlings..

So thats as much information as I have lets get on with the fun bit.

In the glass Bedford Park Spirits Hampden H 10 Year Old is a light to mid brown/yellow coloured liquid. It’s a little hazy as well. Does it look a bit like wee? Well yes it does. Is this why we don’t judge a rum by its colour or waffle on about the “legs”. Yes this is exactly why.

Poured the first thing you notice is the nose. It announces itself like a pneumatic drill ina a library. Now obviously the first thing you notice when you a pour a rum is going to be the nose. That perhaps goes without saying. When it is also the first thing the person in the room down the hall notices as well…….that is another matter entirely!

Immediately I am getting Banana, fermented Pineapple, Pineapple Chunks (the boiled sweet variant), Pear Drops (another boiled sweet), Guava and mango that have gone just that bit too ripe. A huge wedge of solvent and varnish. Drinking Hampden at times is a little like glue sniffing. So I’m told.

This is classic Hampden “H” territory. The marque “H” comes from Hampden’s internal designation for a very high‑ester profile as mentioned earlier, so it is extremely aromatic, volatile, fruity, pungent, showy. It’s the sort of nose rum geeks will sniff and nod sagely at, while the uninitiated might wonder if something’s gone gloriously “off.”

The ten years in wood hasn’t domesticated it anyway its still pretty feral. It has taken the sharpest corners off, so there’s more sweetness and depth rather than just raw power.

Lets sip….

Its quite thick and oily, coating the tongue. Much of what was there on the nose comes through again here. Though perhaps with a bit more clarity so you get Pineapple syrup, rich and sweet, Banana bread and some Lime Cordial.

Clove and black pepper appear on the mid‑palate. Turning up just to dial down the fruitiness and the funkiness a notch of two.

You get more wood and spice on the mid palate and the rum definitely evolves.

At 66.8%, Bedford Park Spirits Hampden H 10 Year Old isn’t delicate. You can absolutely feel the heat. That said its more a decent Madras or Vindaloo, instead of the unnecessary drama of a Phaal. The heat carries the flavour rather than masking it.

A couple of drops of water opens it up nicely, softening edges and letting more subtle notes come through.

The finish boils down to exactly what you hope for from a rum like this: long, warm, fruity, and slightly salty on the back of the tongue. The hint of oak keeps things grounded. It’s long and intense and dries out beautifully. You think you might wait a while for another sip but…you don’t..

This rum is not mainstream. It’s not trying to be friendly to every palate. For people who love Jamaican rum, especially in that classic high‑ester Hampden style, this is a great bottle. Bedford Park have done smart things here: chosen a cask that has aged well, left the spirit alone and let it do all the talking..

It’s definitely not the sort of thing you pour for someone who “just likes a Captain and Cola”

The Scarlet Ibis Trinidad Rum

The Scarlet Ibis Trinidad Rum
Bythefatrumpirate May 4, 2015July 13, 2015

The Scarlet Ibis is the national bird of Trinidad. Unlike the label and as the name suggests, The Scarlet Ibis is a bright red beauty of a bird. This rum was originally commissioned by the Ultra Trendy New York bar “Death & Co.”.

The rum is blended using aged stocks of Trinidad rums and is released in limited batches when it becomes available. As a result the rum can be quite difficult to find. Once again I was able to source a bottle from The Whisky Exchange.

As my rum journey has progressed I have been very impressed with the variety of rum I am able to purchase in the UK. Online stores such as The Whisky Exchange, Master of Malt and Beers of Europe frequently surprise me with their wares.

The Scarlet Ibis as mentioned already is blended from aged stocks of Trini rum. The rums in the blend are aged between 3 and 5 years. Each rum is aged in American white oak casks. I have seen suggestions that the rum in the blend is from the now defunct Caroni Distillery. As the rum is between 3 and 5 years old and the Caroni Distillery became defunct around 2001-2 this doesn’t add up for me. It seems more likely that the rums in the blend are commissioned by the importer/distributor Haus Alpenz. So the only real option is that they are produced in small pot still batches by Angostura. (As the only surviving distillery on the island).

A couple of other points of note regarding The Scarlet Ibis is that it is not chill filtered. This means that it is cloudy and sediment can be seen in the bottle especially when it is shaken. Also from the notes on the bottle the rum is at least bottled in Austria again by the distributor Haus Alpenz. That is about as much information as the bottle and my web surfing can ascertain with regard this rum. It is both elusive and exclusive.

Having said all that I fired an email off to Haus-Alpenz and received the following

I initially asked what the actual blend for The Scarlet Ibis is/was

“It (The Scarlet Ibis) is a blend of aged rums, currently 3 to 8 years, from Trinidad – all column distilled (forgive us for the copy error on early release that said pot still). Many of these high character rums are otherwise used as ‘topnote’ for blending with more neutral rums, hence our concerns when starting that we’d get allocated to a small stock”

I then asked if any rum from the Caroni Distillery was present

“Caroni is long gone, and the island production is all owned by Angostura. That said, they have a very wide range of distillates, well beyond what you see labelled under their brand.”

However, it does not come with an exclusive price tag. Despite being imported from the US and coming in a 750ml bottle (an extra 50ml shot than the UK size bottles) it cost my little over £30. It is bottled at 98 proof – 49% ABV.

The Scarlet Ibis comes in a standard bar bottle (it was introduced as a “premium” mixer by Death & Co.) however it gets an extra mark for the wooden topped cork stopper, which offers a very good seal on the rum. The presentation is understated. Perhaps the Ibis is not coloured red to avoid confusion with the Doorly’s line of rums from Foursquare. The presentation is clear and uncluttered and gives a nice bit of background without too much bullshit.

The rum pours itself a nice light straw to gold colour. The nose is quite light. It reminds me of both Angostura and Caroni products. There is a light vanilla on the nose but also a more oily/industrial kind of note to the rum. It is not over poweringly sweet but there is sufficient fruit on the nose such as pineapple and a hint of banana. There is also sweet light honey notes.

Sipping The Scarlet Ibis is initially quite challenging. At 49% it packs a bit of a punch. Initially on the tongue there is a nice sugary sweetness but it is quickly drown out by the harsher Caroni like notes. Strong alcohol and an almost medicinal like after taste. Like Caroni it has a slightly oily/petrol like note. Difficult to describe and probably only really understandable by anyone familiar with Caroni’s rums.

With a few drops of water and left to rest a little you can begin to enjoy the rum as a sipper. The water takes that light edge of it. As well as muting the alcohol burn it also allows more of the notes noted when nosing to shine through. This is not a sweet sipping rum by any stretch of imagination. It is quite dry. The sweetness doesn’t last long on the tongue before being taken over by the more latin notes. It has a lot of ron like qualities. Being pot distilled it also has some Jamaican qualities to it.

There are a lot of tasting notes I could make about this rum. It’s complex. However, the overall profile is that it is quite dry and at the opposite end of the “Premium Sipping Rum” spectrum. It’s not sweet. It has sweet notes to it but they do not dominate.

The Scarlet Ibis when mixed with a little cola gives quite a nice smooth mixed drink. It reminds me as less sweeter version of VAT 19. I was surprised how smooth the mixed drink was as I was expecting a slightly rougher mouth feel.

If you can find a bottle of this it is well worth seeking out. However please note what I’ve said in the review. It might not be for everyone. If you are considering the purchase of a more expensive Caroni bottling but are basing it on liking Angostura 1919 you may wish to try this first.

It’s very different.

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Six Saints Caribbean Rum

Six Saints Caribbean Rum
Bythefatrumpirate March 3, 2020March 3, 2020

Six Saints Caribbean Rum. Hailing from the island of Grenada via spirits importer Crucial Drinks comes Six Saints Caribbean Rum. I was told some time ago that this rum was the “same” as Clarke Court’s Old Grog Rum. Quite who, when and where was told that I don’t know.

Anyway, although I enjoyed Old Grog back in the day the review dates back to 2014, looking back I do think it had an almost artificial banana flavour added to it. Maybe I should get another sample and do a re-review? We’ll see.

Six Saints Caribbean Rum was a rum I avoided for another reason as well. Despite there being two active distilleries on Grenada – Grenada Distillers Limited (Clarkes Court) and River Antoine (Rivers Royale) there was one other rum producer Westerhall Estate. They no longer distill their own rums. Instead using rum from Trinidad and now Barbados and blending it. I feared because Six Saints was marketed as Caribbean rum hailing from Grenada rather than specifically saying it’s distilled at a specific distillery – it might have been similar to Westerhall.

Anyway this was on offer at Amazon for around £25 a bottle so I thought I would finally give it a spin. Upon carrying out a little more research at the brands website, I am pretty sure this rum is distilled at Grenada Distillers Limited. It notes the distillery is in the south of the island near the capital St.George and became active in 1937.

Six Saints Caribbean Rum is a “small batch” rum which is bottled at 41.7% ABV 100% tropically aged in ex-bourbon barrels. As far as I am aware they do not have Pot Stills at Grenada Distillers so this is column distilled rum. In the UK it retails at around £30. The website seems to have it priced quite competitively at £25.99 at the moment.

There aren’t that many reviews of this rum – or indeed Clarkes Court products in general. Distribution of Six Saints seems to focus on the UK. Recently the brand have released a few different “finished” rums. Presention wise the label is quite busy and I like the squat bottle and the cork stopper is a nice touch. I would prefer a bit more information about the actual rum though. Tales and background are nice but I like to know exactly what the juice is inside.

I’ve never really heard anyone say anything about this rum so it’ll be interesting to see how i find it.

In the glass we have a fairly light spirit. Lacking an age statement I would guess this is around 3-4 years old. It’s shade darker perhaps than straw.

The nose is also quite light with a fair amount of vanilla and some gent

le oak spicings, It’s quite similar to an Angostura rum but isn’t quite as heavy on the vanilla. (This doesn’t have any additives).

It’s reasonably pleasant but you do get a bit of young sweet alcohol. It’s not the most complex or challenging of noses. There’s a little brown sugar and some light ginger but it’s not taking long to work out.

Sipped it has a pleasant mildly sweet entry with lots of vanilla and light toffee. Plenty of dry oak and spices make this taste a lot better than it smelled. Certainly more complex and with quite a nice overall profile.

It’s short though – the mid palate doesn’t evolve much and the finish disappears pretty quickly. It’s a very dry rum but not one with any discernable length or overall complexity. You get an initial burst of flavour and then it kind of just disappears. It reminds in many ways of young South/Central American rums such as Flor de Cana 5. What is there flavourwise isn’t too shabby but it’s not a very long lasting experience.

It’s not unpleasant or inoffensive in anyway but it lacks any real complex body. It’s just not terribly exciting. I prefer some of the rums from Clarkes Court themselves over this to be honest.

At the price I paid I didn’t mind putting Six Saints Caribbean Rum into a few mixed drinks. It made a decent if somewhat pedestrian rum and cola. It didn’t add a great deal of anything to most things though. It’s functional and serviceable. I can’t imagine anyone getting to excited about this.

By no way is this a dreadful rum – it has no additives and has been aged for a decent period and it has no real off notes. It just has little to get excited about.

As average as average can be.

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Legendario Elixir de Cuba

Legendario Elixir de Cuba
Bythefatrumpirate October 20, 2016

Legendario’s Elxir de Cuba is perhaps the most confusing bottle of rum in the world. Which in itself meant I had to get a hold of this Cuban curiosity for a review.

I picked the Legendario up on a visit to Spain, I had been curious about their rums for some time. I was especially curious about this 7 Year Old rum.

You see, this is because Legendario Elixir de Cuba is not a rum at all. Nor do I think the product in the bottle is 7 years old. Certainly not all of it anyway.

So how exactly do Legendario get away with this? And why is this drink nearly always stocked alongside the regular rums? Even online you’ll find this in the rum section many times. Let me explain.

By law Cuban rum must contain no more than 20g/L of added sugar. If it does contain more than this it must be labelled as an “Elixir” and not a rum. However once you put the lovely little Cuban flag, the 7 on the neck of this bottle and relegate the “Elixir de Cuba” to the middle of the label in smaller red lettering, it is easy to understand how people are being confused. Retailers also do not help labelling this as a 7 Year Old Cuban Rum.

If you scratch a little below the surface (and believe me some Rum Reviewers have been unable to do so) you will soon realise this isn’t a fantastic Cuban 7 Year Old rum at all.

It is as explained earlier, an “Elixir”. When I ran the Hydrometer Test on this rum it returned a negative result. It is so full of sugar and additives I could not get the hydrometer to bob at all.

Legendario’s Elixir de Cuba is a rum punch of sorts. It is produced using rum/aguardiente  aged up to 7 years infused with sweetened extracts of grapes, raisins and other dried fruits. It is then reduced in ABV with demineralized water.

Legendario’s rums are extremely popular in Spain. Much of the marketing seems to focus on that demographic. I am not entirely sure if their rums are marketed under the Legendario brand in Cuba. I suspect not.

Ron Legendario was established in Cuba in 1946. It was first produced in a distillery in the historic district of Havana Bocoy, in a building dating back to the 15th century. Ron Legendario is now produced in six factories across Cuba in Matanzas, Villa Clara, Havana and three in Pinar del Rio.

Information from one of their distributors indicates that the rums in the Elixir de Cuba are a minimum of 7 years old. As Legendario use the Solera system I am little sceptical about this.

If you are in Spain you should be able to pick up a bottle of this for around 14 euros. In the UK a bottle will cost between £25-30. It is bottled at 34% ABV which in hindsight was probably another clue that all was not as it seemed with this “rum”. The presentation as mentioned earlier, is quite nice – I like the cloth Cuban flag and the dark tall tapered bottled is attractive. It does stand out on the shelf especially when you have a few of the Legendario range alongside each other.

So there is all the information I could track down, lets see how this tastes.

It is impossible to tell from the bottle what colour the elixir is. When poured the elixir is a very dark brown – like a cola. It sticks to the plastic diffusor leaving behind some brown residue. When first opened you get a bit of a crack and grind of the screw cap and you can actually hear some sugar solids grinding against the cap and bottle.

In the glass the elixir is very thick and viscous. It clings to the sides and when swirled takes some time to fully return back to the bottom of the glass. It’s clear its a liqueur of sorts.

A nosing reveals few surprises. It smells like an El Dorado Demerara tuned upto the maximum in terms of brown sugar and raisin. There is a very slight twang of leather and oil, so the Cuban rum does show itself a little. Further nosing reveals sweet sugary notes – Coca Cola maybe Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut Chocolate.

It is unquestionably a liqueur. A very sugary one at that.  The grape and raisin extracts must be very syrupy and very intense.

Sipping the rum is very much an after dinner experience. The elixir is even sweeter than it smelt. It reminds me of drinking the last swig of coffee where the sugar has settled at the bottom of the cup.

What little of the 7 year old rum you can taste is not entirely pleasant. The only thing the sugary raisin flavour doesn’tseem to mask is a slightly dry, grainy tobaaco/petrol note which appears in the finish. It’s quite a odd sensation and pretty grainy.

For me this drink is simply to sweet and far to cloying to enjoy. It’s gloopy, very oily and sickly. Even when you mix it with cola you can still taste the sugar. It reminds me very much of regular Coca Cola which I just can’t drink. I can only really stomach the diet version.

It also puts me in mind of Ron El Prohibido.  A rum which is bottled after being aged in Raisin Wine barrels. That had a sweet yet strange after taste as well. I’m not a massive fan of this either from a Rum point of view (which it definitely isn’t) or as liqueur. It is simply far too sweet for all but the most sweet toothed person.

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Articles | Best Value Rums on the UK Market - Jamaica

Best Value Rums on the UK Market – Jamaica
Bythefatrumpirate January 14, 2022April 1, 2022

Best Value Rums on the UK Market – Jamaica. I’ve been considering an article on “Best Value Rums” for some time. Following my Rum of the Year article, I’ve received a lot of requests for a post focusing on cheaper or value for money rums.

I think people are beginning to feel a little priced out of certain types of rum. I’m hoping this will help people seek out some genuinely good rum without breaking the bank. I’m also hoping some of the selections will help people who might feel they are missing out. You don’t need to be paying £100 for a Hampden DOK Single Cask rum to experience Jamaican rum

Originally the plan was to try and compile a list of all rums which are good value for money from across the Rum World.

Upon beginning to compile a list of rums I found that quite a lot of Jamaican rum is very good value for money! So whilst I may in future combine a few different styles/regions into posts, I think there is more than enough coming out of Jamaica to warrant a full article.

Now for anyone outside of the UK this list might not prove to be useful. I think in the main it should work quite well for most people in the UK and mainland Europe. Outside of that, in particular the US you likely won’t find all that many of these bottlings available in your location.

Likewise if I’m asked why I didn’t include “X,Y and Z” it is likely going to be down to a few reasons.

a) It’s not available here in the UK

b) I haven’t actually reviewed the rum in question. This shouldn’t be much of an issue.s I usually buy anything that is sub £30 and readily available. I am a cheapskate at heart.

The focus of the selections will be around Rum. Without additives where possible. However, I will include a couple of Spiced/Flavoured rums if I feel they are worthy of a mention. At the lower end of the market I think we can be a bit more liberal in our choices. Not everything has to be an enlightening sipping experience.

So here goes.

I’ve decided to do things geographically. This should work well as a good way of picking up some rum bargains. Also I’m hoping it will help those new to rum navigate around the different styles of rum.

I’m a big fan of identifying the individual styles of rum coming from the various rum producing countries, islands and regions. Rather than trying to Pigeon Hole rums into broader often meaningless categories. Dark, Light, Gold and Navy Style might have a place in certain circumstances but I’m hoping to expand beyond that.

Some of the links to the reviews will be from a number of years ago so some of the details may be slightly out of date. I was also just cutting my teeth in the blogging world so they might not be to the standard of todays reviews. Apologies if some of the writing is even worse than that of today!

Jamaica

When it comes to experiencing some Jamaican rum on a limited budget, you really are spoilt for choice here in the UK.

You can walk into supermarkets in the UK and pick up iconic island favourites such as Wray and Nephew Overproof and Appleton Estate with ease and well within a £25-40 budget.

Appleton’s range of Signature , 8 Year Old and their 12 Year are frequently discounted by a few pounds as well. Signature is regularly available for £20 with Appleton 8 coming in at £26 and the 12 Year can be found for slightly under £35 when on sale.

The usual retail for these rums nowadays has increased slightly since the re-design but bear in mind the prices of these rums had remained the same for a considerable length of time. I was paying £20 for Appleton V/X over 10 years ago.

Below are typical prices of the rums at the moment

Signature £24

8 Year £32

12 Year £40

If you wish to go even lower in terms of price then Appleton Estate/Wray and Nephew do have another couple of rums that are even cheaper than the Signature Blend.

They were formerly called Appleton/Special and were available in Gold and White Expressions. They have since been re-branded as Kingston 62. I’ve had the re-branded versions of both and they’ve change very little. They are both decent but I would probably opt for the slightly more expensive Signature Blend over both.

All these rums offer a good example of Jamaican rum if perhaps not the funkiest expressions available aside from the iconic Wray and Nephew Overproof.

If you are just starting out in the rum world and are hearing about Jamaican funk. Wray and Nephew should be your first port of call. Definitely one to tick off the bucket list.

If you are wanting to try the rum and save even more money. It is also very often available in smaller convenience stores in 20cl and 35cl bottles. So if you are out and about and see it in its smaller size it’s a great shout. A lot goes a long way believe me………..

If you are after a bit more funk and are hoping to get something similar to the aged Hampden bottlings then you might wish to consider some Jamaican blends.

JAH45 isn’t always the easiest brand of rum to pick up but if you hunt around you should be able to find some stock online. Their Overproof can be tricky to find but the other expressions are usually fairly google-able. Their rums were also available in UK restaurant chain Las Iguanas pre-Lockdown but I can’t vouch for that anymore.

JAH45 are a mix of Pot and Column distilled rums from various distilleries in Jamaica. Their stand outs for me are the White Overproof (I haven’t reviewed it as yet) and the Silver. The Silver should set you back little over £20 and offers a funky, yet not quite so potent introduction to Jamaican White Rum.

Of course if you want to experience the iconic Hampden “funk” then Hampden Gold offers a good introduction to that style again at under £25. Its not quite as easily available as the Appleton range. You should be able to find it for sale online with a UK stockist.

I would have also recommended Hampden Rum Fire. Unfortunately that has seen a considerable price increase since changing over to Velier as the Importer. So its well over £40 now. You can pick up all Jamaican White Overproofs for less than this. So its not a great bargain, though its a good rum.

Returning back to a more refined style of Jamaican Rum then we must pay a visit to Worthy Park.

In terms of “budget” rums Worthy Park at entry level are a little more expensive. You can pick up their Rum Bar Silver here in the UK for a little over £20 but I would save up a few more pounds and opt for Rum Bar Gold. A 4 year old aged rum which works beautifully in mixed drinks but is also surprisingly good as a sipper. It’ll set you back around £28-30 but its well worth it. It can be a little tricky to find and isn’t always in stock. Keep an eye out and get a bottle when it is.

My final bottle on this list is probably one of the most “marmite” (and most mis-spelt) bottlings in the Rum World. It is coloured to with in an inch of its life and arguably does have some “additives”. Molasses is allegedly added back to the rum post distillation. It is also a pretty young column still only rum.

Presentation wise it hasn’t changed in decades. It is about as fashionable as wearing socks with sandals or a pair of Adidas Two Stripes from the local flea market. For one reason or another I’m always drawn to the opaque “kitsch” cliched bottle……

You see there is something I find strangely addictive a bout a Rum and Coke made with Myers’s Rum Original Dark. It should set you back a little over £20. Even if you don’t like it – it’s another “iconic rum” to tick off the list.

If you do like it I think you’ll always keep a bottle in stock. If you don’t well the bottle is pretty cool……

Well I hope this little run-down proves useful. I was intending or thinking I would include a couple of Flavoured Rums and some Rum Creams.

However, I reckon there is probably going to be enough room to form their own lists. So I will keep them separate. Keep an eye out for those lists coming soon.

I will also be compiling a list of bottles in the £40-70 bracket that also represent good value. Appleton 12 has snuck into this list simply because it is one of the few genuine “sipping” rums you can pick up in a supermarket.

EDIT

For some reason I forgot to add the most recent addition to the UK Supermarkets in terms of Jamaican Rum. The Duppy Share Duppy White Jamaican Rum. Often when doing tasting notes I state that I get certain tastes and flavours. Well there is a lot of Grapefruit going on with this rum and it makes it very distinctive. At around £20 this is another really good option for mixing and it isn’t that bad neat either.

Well worth checking out

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Aluna Coconut Rum

Aluna Coconut Rum
Bythefatrumpirate April 2, 2018April 5, 2018

Aluna Coconut Rum. A new addition to UK shelves in 2017 was Aluna Coconut Rum. For many Koko Kanu offers a more respectable alternative to the perennial pub and club favourite Malibu in the battle of the “coco-rum” wars.

Much like Malibu, Aluna Coconut Rum technically isn’t a rum under EU law. It is bottled at 35% ABV. Standard Malibu is 21% ABV in the UK. It is really a rum based spirit drink.

Now it is unlikely you will find many (if any) reviews of Aluna Coconut Rum on dedicated rum review websites. You are more likely to come across “micro reviews” and comments on Social Media such as Instagram and Pinterest.
You may come across the odd review on less specific “alcohol” blogs but you need to be wary of such sites. Often they only offer “reviews” based on the marketing material sent to them and are not in the business of offering a critical assessment.

It is unlikely that many other rum review sites will review this as it either won’t interest them or they look down on this kind of offering. I’ve always said I’ll review pretty much any “rum” I come across – good, bad and even ugly. At times very ugly. At times such as this it might not technically even be “rum”.

Aluna Coconut rum comes in a bar tender friendly tall bottle. The presentation is sleek and modern. Surprisingly not at all tacky. No palm trees, hula girls or other such nonsense. You even get a synthetic plastic topped cork. I did find the one on my bottle hard to dislodge though.

In the UK where it has been launched and is being distributed by Mangrove. It retails at around the £20-25 mark. Which is slightly more expensive than the completion of Malibu and Koko Kanu. I attended a Rum Festival last year where this was being exhibited by Mangrove. They were very keen to point out the lower calorie basis of this Coconut “Rum”. The rum is a base of Caribbean (I guess at Trini) and Guatemalan rums. It is noted on the bottle as being a “Toasted Coconut Flavoured Rum”. It is blended with “organic coconut water and natural toasted coconut flavours”.

At the aforementioned Rum Festival they seemed a little surprised that I wanted to try the Aluna. I was interested because they weren’t mixing it in a mini-cocktail, as is often the case with flavoured and spiced rums. I thought that was quite daring.

Now as with my review of Koko Kanu I am reviewing this as a £20 bottle of coconut flavoured rum. Koko Kanu I enjoyed, as it delivered the coconut flavour and just enough Jamaican funk to give it a little kick. It was very sweet though. I am not comparing it to a £200 – 20 Year Old Caroni rum or even 12 Year Old £35 Bajan rum. The star rating is based on how good I feel it works as a coconut rum. How authentic the coconut flavours are.

So without further ado lets get down to the (hopefully fun part).
The nose is surprisingly good. Really nice toasted coconut notes – like fresh Macaroons desiccated coconut and a slightly less sweet note of natural coconut water running over it all. It promises everything on the label. If you don’t like coconut – particularly in its natural fresh state then this isn’t for you. If you do then this does have a air of authenticity.

Running alongside the coconut notes is a nicely balanced vanilla and light toffee from the rum. With many “coco-rums” particularly those suspicious bottles you find in mainland Europe, the alcohol is overwhelming and rather unpleasant. No such problems here. This is really nice. It is sweet but compared to Koko Kanu and Malibu there is definitely a huge step down in the sugar levels. It measured on the Hydrometer at 25g/L whereas I couldn’t get a reading of Koko Kanu (suggesting over 100 g/L of additives).

I found with Koko Kanu that you got a real residue of granulated sugar around the screw cap. I have had this bottle of Aluna for some time now. I’ve not noticed any sugar granules forming either in the rum or around the closure.

Aluna Coconut Rum is surprisingly shippable and very enjoyable. The nose is transferred across into the sip. Toasted coconut, coconut water, vanilla, toffee and just enough alcohol to remind you this is 35% ABV. They suggest adding ice. Again its quite refreshing to see that they are confident to not just mix this drink.
It is a flavoured rum. It’s not an amazingly complex sipper but it does offer a sweet, tasty and refreshing “sorbet” like palate cleanser or occasional after dinner sip. Its certainly a lot better than some of the sugar laden “Premium” straight rums out there. There’s a lot less bullshit on the bottle as well.

Aluna mixes very nicely in a variety of cocktails. Makes a tasty Pina Colada, unsurprisingly and it mixes well with most fruit juices. I’ve also quite enjoyed a few rum and colas with Aluna.

Personally, I think this has a bit more to it than sugary coconut and I prefer it to Koko Kanu. Both offer a good taste of coconut but this offers a bit more complexity with a bit more variety in the coconut notes.

If (for whatever reason) you are looking for a Cocount rum or want to upgrade from Malibu then I would recommend trying this. It does what it is intended to do well. The coconut flavours are well-defined, without being sickly. The base rum whilst light adds just enough alcohol, vanilla and toffee notes to be more than just a neutral base.

Surprisingly good.

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Novo Fogo Barrel Aged Cachaca

Novo Fogo Barrel Aged Cachaca
Bythefatrumpirate April 25, 2019April 25, 2019

Novo Fogo Barrel Aged Cachaca. Novo Fogo are a cachaça brand I have been aware of for a while now. They have made a bit of a stir in the US, where the brand was first launched.

Novo Fogo use more modern branding and marketing practices, than many of Brasil’s cachaça producers. The cachaça is marketed in a similar manner to how a Premium Rum brand would market itself. However, they do not go in for fairy stories, like many Premium Rum Brands. The information Novo Fogo provide, is authentic and focuses very much on transparency. You learn a lot about what you are drinking with Novo Fogo.

The brand have recently expanded into Europe and a few of their expressions are now available in certain retailers in the UK. Gerry’s has this particular expression in stock at the moment.

Novo Fogo Barrel Aged Cachaca, has been aged for 2 years in sanded and toasted American Oak ex-bourbon casks. The distillery which produces Novo Fogo cachaça is located in the town of Morretes, Parana State.It is situated in the Atlantic Rainforest.

The distillery uses modern equipment but everything is done organically and most processes are done by hand. These include the cutting of the sugar cane with a machete. The cachaça is fermented using yeast cultivated from the estates own sugar cane. The “cane wine” as they call it, is then distilled in Copper Pot Stills, each batch produces around 1200 litres of spirit. Of this only around 130 litres – the heart of the distillate is used in the cachaça.

The resulting Cachaca, is then aged in Oak Barrels before being bottled at 40% ABV. Presentation wise, as touched upon already these are very much ready for the European market. The curved stubby bottles remind of the Appleton Estate style of bottle and the labels give you sufficient information, to tell you exactly what you are buying. A bottle in the UK will set you back around £40, which would be slightly expensive for a 2-year-old rum, perhaps even an Agricole.

Novo Fogo have a number of expressions in their portfolio, an entry-level Silver Cachaca, some partly aged in native Brasilian woods and some Single Barrel expressions. I have a few more Novo Fogo offerings coming up for review shortly, so I won’t give away all their story quite just yet!

In the glass we have a light/golden brown spirit. Nosing Novo Fogo Barrel Aged Cachaca, I get a lot of spicy oak spices – ginger and cinnamon and a lot of vanilla from the oak casks.

Further nosing reveals some creamy notes, shortbread and croissants. There is a slightly floral note as well, which adds a bit more depth.

Overall the nose is nicely integrated, well-balanced and very pleasant for a relatively young spirit. It noses like a lot of much older cachaças.

Sipped this is quite a “woody” spirit, the barrel influence has been big on this cachaça. This gives it a very spicy mouthfeel, lots of ginger and all spice. There is also a smoky note, especially on the mid palate. Sweetness is provided by hints of banana and some vanilla custard.

The initial entry is smooth and it builds into a spicy and smoky complex mid palate. It’s not the sweetest of cachaca with very little “grassiness” and no real vegetal notes in it. Unsurprisingly, I find that the Novo Fogo team suggest using this rum in an Old Fashioned Cocktail. This is quite a “bold” cachaça and it stands up surprisingly well in such a drink. A really good recommendation!

This is much better than I was expecting of such a young spirit, the oak barrel has had a real influence and made this a pretty complex sipper. Finish wise, it perhaps isn’t the biggest or longest of finishes. That said it does fade nicely and you do find yourself sipping little and often on this cachaça.

I’m looking forward to trying some more Novo Fogo soon!

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