I can almost feel the condemnation as I write.  A review of another of Diageo’s Captain Morgan offerings.  However, before you do so, please note this is a white rum not one of the many Spiced Variants which have given the Captain such a bad name in recent years.

A White Rum from the Captain Morgan brand has been available on and off for some time.  Dependent on the territories you have visited and/or your geographical location and time spent enjoying rum, you may have come across a White Captain rum in the past.

All I know is that until this year (2015) Captain Morgan White Rum was not available in the UK.  Coming at the same time as huge global re-branding by Bacardi.  Not to mention another new Spiced Bacardi product (Carta Fuego).

Captain Morgan White Rum enters a UK market which is dominated by Bacardi.  In most bars and clubs in the UK, if you ask for a Bacardi and coke – you will not be asked if an alternative white rum is okay if Bacardi isn’t actually available.  For many Bacardi IS white rum and it’s matterless if it isn’t the Bacardi brand.  Even more worrying many Bacardi drinkers in the UK don’t even realise it is a rum……….

Faced with what is a monopoly in the UK the Captain has a lot to do to gain a foothold in the market.  Price cutting other Spiced Brands in supermarkets throughout the UK has got Captain Morgan’s Spiced Gold to the top of the charts so will that be a tactic?  Indeed, yes it has been I picked up a 70cl bottle for £12.99.  In the UK it is bottled at 37.5% ABV.

Presentation wise it is the new style Captain Morgan similar to the Spiced Gold and Black.  It is nothing remarkable and in many ways pretty tacky.  The screw cap is of decent standard but the label gives little real information about the juice in the blend.

Finest Caribbean Rum is as much details as you get.  So how is the Captain planning on winning over UK audiences?  Well they have went for another tried and tested tactic of offering novelty glasses with the Captain Morgan.  In this instance plastic tankards.  Sadly I didn’t get one with my bottle!

Diageo have also embarked on a no doubt very expensive TV marketing campaign with several adverts on UK TV and in partnership with Buzzfeed for more details see here.

As mentioned already I expect many people will write Captain Morgan White Rum off before they have even given it a try.  As a regular spirits drinker and weekend “binger” I decided that £12.99 was not to big a price to pay for a drink which I would be able to mix with cola.  Yes it might not be the greatest rum in the world but I probably would soon empty the bottle……..

First up, I’m not keen on the Captain’s Spiced offering and the Dark Rum (called so many different things worldwide) is so-so, a kind of bad version of Myers’s.  Nevetheless I soldiered on so here are my findings.

First up, unlike Havana 3 Anos (another popular Supermarket offering in the UK) this is as clear as day.  No yellow haziness it is crystal clear.  So this has no doubt been filtered quite extensively.  It is much the same as Bacardi, Appleton, Chairmans Reserve etc.

The nose on the White is very strong and pungent.  Jamaican rum is my first impression.  It is also very sweet and has hints of pineapple, banana and other tropical fruits.  This is a young white rum so there is also a strong smell of what can only be described as “booze”.  Alcohol fumes are very much present despite the slightly lower ABV.

As a sipper this is quite a challenge and not one I would really recommend.  It really burns, pretty much everywhere and not a nice warming burn but a strong medicinal boozy burn which makes you feel like your throat is on fire.  A little ice cools it down a little but also dilutes what little flavour you got out of it.  Is this a sipper? Of course it isn’t and I was a fool to try.  I would however, be an even bigger fool if I was to try and appraise it as one.

Captain Morgan White Rum is an inexpensive mixer for cocktails and long mixed drinks.  A reasonable person should just it on those merits alone.

A liberal mix of Captain Morgan White Rum with cola is a surprisingly good experience.  The cola tempers alcohol fumes considerably allowing the tropical fruits on the nose to come through.  It is quite a sweet rum with a lot of almost boiled sweet (Pear Drops in particular) flavours.  Banana and pineapple are also in the mix along with sweet syrup like notes.  It makes a nice fruity rum and cola.  It reminds me very much of Chairmans Reserve White and Appleton White.  It is not quite as “funky” as Appleton White but it does display some of that Jamaican funk especially in the aftertaste.

I’ve previously played down much hyped white rums such as Plantations 3 Stars and Banks 5 Island Rum (a particularly overpriced and overworked white mixer).  I feel both try to be to clever and introduce too much to what should be quite a simple straight forward mixer.

I don’t think Captain Morgan White Rum is as good as Chairman’s Reserve White Label or Appleton White but at around £13-16 a bottle it is not a bad option for a weekend mixer.

Of course I know that this review will be dismissed by many (who will probably never try this rum) in much the same way many avoid ALL Bacardi rum.  I’ll stand by my opinion on this, as a mixer I think it is a very credible white rum.