Cacique is a rum brand from Venezuela. Home of Pampero and Santa Teresa.  Produced by Destilerias Unidas S.A,  (DUSA).  The distillery best known for arguably the most recognisable Venezeulan rum brand – Diplomatico.  The brand is now owned by industry giant Diageo.  Quite what relevance Cacique 500 has I’ve been unable to find out? I guess it might be some kind of anniversary, perhaps.

Domestically Cacique is the best selling brand.  It’s reach also goes as far as mainland Europe, in particular Spain. This rum and the younger Anejo are both very popular and readily available.

Presentation wise this is a very sexy rum.  The opaque contoured bottle is great.  As with many Central American rums it doesn’t have cork stopper it instead has a plastic cap with a diffuser in the neck.

The diffusor is to prevent the bottle being re-sold with cheap hooch replacing the rum.  Which happens regularly in both bars and shops in some Central American countries apparently.  You also get a nice but pretty thin card sleeve to keep the rum in.

This rum isn’t available from many outlets in the UK and it will cost you around £40 for a bottle.  I’m pretty sure when I picked this up in Spain I paid less than 20 Euro for it.

This rum is a blend of rums aged up to 8 years.  Information has been hard to come by. As far as I am aware it is a column distilled rum.  Like Diplomatico they make claims that their rums are distilled in Pot Stills but there is precious little evidence of this in the profile of their rums.  Sorry, but I’m pretty sure this is a column distilled rum.

Cacique as indicated by the Indian Chief picture is an Arawak Tribal Cheiftain.  This rum is the “middle of the road” entry in the Cacique line up which comprises – Anejo, 500 Gran Reserva and Antiguo (which I have not seen in any store as yet).

With little further information to tell you all it is probably time to crack open the bottle and start the review process.

In the glass you get a very vibrant copper/gold coloured rum.  The nose is quite sweet and very familiar.  Caramel, toffee, some dark chocolate and a touch of coffee come to the fore.  There is an overall light “buttery” element to the rum.  It is quite floral and soft.

Lacking on the nose is any oak or evidence of ageing.  It is likely the oldest rum in the blend is 8 years but a lot of the rum will be much younger.  Rather than any oak it has quite a heavy hit of tobacco – similar to Havana Club 7.  An aroma which I’m not all that stuck on to be honest.  All in all, it smells a little sickly.

Sipped it is a very easy going, easy to drink rum.  It is on the sweeter side. Maybe a notch or two higher than Santa Teresa 1796.  It has minimal alcohol burn and once again it shows little signs of oak ageing.  Not a very spicy rum – I’m not getting much feeling of interaction between the rum and the oak barrels it was matured in.  None at all to be honest.

It tastes a little like milky coffee and dark chocolate mixed.  For me it’s just to smooth. It doesn’t really do much in the mouth.  The whole experience is a little muted.  The finish is mostly just bitter with only a little spice.  It’s not really all that terrible because as finishes go it is very brief.

There is not much unpleasant about this rum.  I’m pleased that the sickly tobacco notes on the nose have not followed into the sip.  Sadly, it is quite bland and kind of generic and very typical of the style.

Much like Santa Teresas Linaje (similar packaging as well) this is just very average.  You would probably find yourself mixing this as much as you would sip.  It makes passable if forgettable rum and cokes.  I can’t really imagine it excelling in any kind of mix as it is so light.

It’s better than the sugar heavy DRE but there is just so much competition at its price point. I can’t really think of an argument to buy another bottle, other than it being extremely cheap when in Spain.

Easy going, easy drinking but at the same time safe and a little boring.