Bounty Rum is something of a staple rum in its homeland the island of Saint Lucia. Finding a bottle of this rum become something of an obsession for the completist in me. I’ve always had a soft spot for Saint Lucia Distilers (SLD) and I’ve wanted to try this rum for a long time.

Finally I found a bottle at Drinks Supermarket here in the UK.  Complete with HMRC customs stamp on the actual label.  Suggesting that this was at one point distributed in the UK.  Indeed it was imported by the current SLD Importer Emporia Brands.  Quite how old this bottle is I’m not sure.  I suspect it is stock that Drinks Supermarket stumbled across in their warehouse after forgetting they had the odd bottle.

I paid the princely sum of £19.99 for this 70cl bottle. Domestically it is very much SLD’s entry level rum but welcomingly it is bottled at a respectable 40% ABV.  Presentation wise it is very different to most of the SLD range.  A conventional bar style bottle is topped off with a slightly oversized metal cap (like Barbancourt’s).  The gold, yellow, red and black colour scheme and the picture of Saint Lucia serve their purpose but its far from innovative.

Bounty Rum’s taglines are “The Spriit of St. Lucia” and “Our Island Our Bounty”. Which might explain why it is so hard to find outside of the island. It should be noted that this is a very different Bounty Rum to the one produced and sold in Fiji.

I spoke with Michael Speakman who works at SLD for some more information.  Michael noted that Bounty rum is 100% column distilled rum aged 2 to 3 years.  They are currently overhauling Bounty.  A white, dark, gold and spiced are planned to be exported to the US and Europe from 2018. Bounty Rum will become SLD “entry level” range.

In the glass Bounty Rum is a gold/straw colour.  The colour looks quite honest – maybe just a touch of colouring.

The nose is light and floral.  It reminds me a little of VAT19 from Trinidad only not quite as sweet.  It’s easy going with a lot of coconut in the mix.  Reminiscent of Chairman’s Reserve White Label.  Which is no bad thing.

It’s not hugely complex – there is a touch of spiciness, the tiniest hint of oak but its mainly vanilla,coconut and orgeat than I am getting on the nose.  It’s definitely more easy going mixer than sipping rum.

Having said that sipping Bounty Rum is not an unpleasant experience.  It’s quite nicely aged for such a young rum and has enough flavour to merit a glass or two on its own. It’s perhaps a bit too spicy and young but I’ve paid a lot more for a lot worse in the past!

Mixed Bounty Rum really comes alive.  It gives a nice fruity kick to most mixers and is surprisingly smooth.  It really mellows out cola and gives you a really nice long drink.  The coconut notes and the vanilla are quite prominent but it stays clearly on the side of “pure” rum rather than Old J or Sailor Jerry levels of sweet.

This isn’t a particularly complex or challenging rum.  It’s light and sweet. Although it doesn’t have a huge amount of different flavours what it does deliver is well defined and very tasty.  It’s certainly worth every penny of the £19.99 I paid for it.

This is quite a different rum to Chairman’s Reserve which is the most obvious rum to compare Bounty to.  Both hailing from the same island and same distillery.  The price of Chairman’s Reserve is also around £20.  Chairman’s is a more complex, more interesting rum but both perform really well as a mixer.  If Bounty wishes to establish itself then it will probably need to price itself near the £15 mark here in the UK.  Bit like Appleton Special and Appleton Signature Reserve.  Though I would say there is a more a difference in terms of profile between Bounty and Chairman’s Reserve.  No surprise as Bounty is all column distillate and Chairman’s is a blend of Pot and Column.

This is certainly up there with other “entry level” rums from the likes of Appleton and Foursquare.  It really is very decent stuff.  I’m looking forward to the new re-vamped Bounty range.  Providing the UK gets it that is!

I hope I don’t have to wait five years to try it like I have with this.