El Ron Prohibido or Ron Habanero.  I’m really not quite sure quite how to introduce this rum.  The front of the bottle is written mostly in Spanish so that doesn’t really help.  The back of the bottle gives more clues as its all in English – Ron Prohibido is the registered Trade Mark on the back so I’ll go with that.

The reverse of the bottle gives us a little history with regard this wine, sorry rum.

“In 1700, Spanish ships arrived to the colonies in the New World loaded with products from Spain. One popular product was sweet wine stored in barrels, which were later emptied after use.  These empty barrels were filled with Chinguirito, which is rum that was produced in Mexico and shipped back to Spain, it absorbed wood flavours and aroma from the sweet wine barrels, which gave it very special characteristics.  The resulting product became very popular in Spain and local producers saw it as a threat to the sales of their products.  Consequently, the King of Spain prohibited the production of this rum in the New World.  Chinguirito was also known as Habanero because the last stop on the way back to Spain from the New World was Habana, Cuba”

So there you go.  The rum (despite some observers perceptions) is not a chilli pepper rum (Habanero).  Other sources I have read also note that sweet wine was in fact raisin wine (this would make sense).  However, this is the legend which is wrote on the rather swashbuckling bottle.

So we will press on with the presentation of this rather distinctive bottle.  It has a Kraken like ringlet on the neck which you can just about grip and hold through using your thumb and forefinger.  Coupled with this is a rather fancy seal with a little wax effect embossed plastic seal to the front which denotes that this rum is a 12 Year Solero Blend.  So we know the oldest of the rum in this bottle is 12 years old.  At round £22 per 70cl bottle in the UK that would suggest that the majority of this is unlikely to be aged for 12 years.  It is bottled at 40% ABV.  The base of the bottle also has a rather confusing pattern on the bottom. It’s either a flower like effect or some kind of depiction of the new world.  The bottles label are due to look aged and to touch feel slightly cheap and don’t seem to evenly stuck to the bottle.  I think they could have done a little more with less with regard and old style presentation.  It’s interesting and different however so it may encourage an impulse purchase.

The fact that this rum mentions raisin wine is leading me to expect a very sweet rum.  I have previously only tried one Mexican rum – Mocambo 15.  That was single barrel offering and it too had quite eye catching presentation.  Unfortunately the rum was very disappointing.

Nosing the Ron Prohibido it is very sweet.  It has a very strong raisin and sultana kind of dry fruit richness.  These aromas completely dominate the nose and there is little evidence of anything else.

The importers of the rum Emporia Brands advise drinking Prohibido “straight to appreciate its unique wood and bittersweet tones”.  As always I will try the drink “straight” or neat as I prefer to call it.

In the glass the rum continues to look very dark.  It has flashes of deep reds.  It is very dark and is up there with the likes of Black Seal  and Blackwell’s.  The rum is initially very sweet but the finish is slightly tart leaving an almost bitter lack feeling in the mouth.  The raisin is once again prominent.  However, woody notes also come into play with a little spicy oak.  I do think this rum has probably been aged for on average between 5-8 years in the main.  It’s very easy to drink, even neat.  For my palate as a sipper it is too sweet and the finish isn’t entirely pleasant as it leaves a bitter oaky aftertaste.  I have my suspicions about just how the rum is this sweet.

So to did Peter Holland over at The Floating Rum Shack.  Clicking on the link will show that our beliefs that added sugar was the culprit were incorrect.  I’m still a little sceptical.

The closest comparison I can get to this rum would be a Demerara.  Maybe a cheaper kind of blend, its very sweet.  It’s also very easy to drink and quite a good rum to get drunk with.  Disappointingly though its rich raisin notes seem to lose themselves quite a lot when mixed with cola.  I really expected a rum with this much sweetness to cut through the cola more than it does.  In a lot of ways it makes the diet cola I use taste almost like regular cola.  It doesn’t add a great deal of rummyness to the drink.

This is a pretty average rum all round really.  It’s packaging could be slightly better and if they maybe upped the Solero blend a little they might hit a bit more complexity.  Personally I would also tone down the sweetness a notch or two.  I can see this rum appealing to Spiced Rum drinkers.

All in all not a bad rum but nothing to get too excited about and there are probably another thousand rums in the £20-25 price bracket I will be trying before I re-visit this