French producers Bardinet are behind the Ron Pujol brand nowadays, though the rum has a heritage stretching back to 1818.

Research on the internet has been difficult – the official Ron Pujol website is in Spanish (it’s actually Catalan you ignoramous) and resists any translation.

It would seem that this is perhaps the Spanish version of Negrita?  For those not familiar with the brand, Ron Negrita is another of Bardinet’s offerings.  It is a mixture of agricole and molasses based      r(h)um and is popular and easy to find in both Spain and France.  Ron Pujol offers more of a “ron” experience than a “rhum”.

Ron Pujol is a blend of rums from various Caribbean Islands, aged in white oak barrels.  This, unfortunately is pretty much all I have been able to find about this rum.  It is likely that the rum is column distilled and not a mix of pot/column (but that is only really a guess).

The rum is available in various bottle sizes up to 1 litre and is as cheap as rum comes.  In Spain a 70cl bottle of Ron Pujol will set you back around 6-8 Euros.  It is bottled at 40% ABV.  The presentation is reasonable for a rum of this price.  It comes in a standard bar bottle.  The labelling is slightly dated and looks more like a bottle of German Pilsner than rum but at this price its unreasonable to expect anything too fancy.

Ron Pujol is very popular in Catalonia (Barcelona is the capital) which is a region/province in Spain.  Ron Pujol is particular popular in a drink called a “Catalan Carajillo”.

A “Carajiilo” is a Spanish drink, which is basically a coffee mixed with brandy,whisky or rum.  There are many different ways of making a Carajillo, ranging from black coffee with the spirit simply poured in, to heating the spirit with lemon, sugar and cinnamon and adding the coffee last.

I’m not sure how popular Ron Pujol is in Spain but it is quite readily available and is also visible online at numerous Spanish speaking retailers.  So I guess it is fairly popular.  I got a few miniature bottles from holidaying family to try out.

There are three “spirits” in the Ron Pujol brand.  This would appear to be their “straight” rum, the other two appear to be liqueurs/creams.

I’ve said about as much as I can about this rum so I think it will be best if we now move onto the actual review.

In the glass, Ron Pujol is a light gold to straw colour.  Typical in many respects of Spanish style “ron”.  The nose is quite sugary.  With large wafts of sugary alcohol.  Surprisingly there is a little hint of a more vegetal note a bit like Negrita.  A further nosing reveals a light creaminess to the rum – light and slightly floral.

A sip of the rum is not a particularly complex but not altogether unpleasant experience.  It’s initially quite sweet – brown sugar and a little ginger but the overall taste is very short.  It skims the taste buds and exits very quickly with little burn.  Its pretty “thin” overall.  It lacks any real depth or any real flavour once the initial sweetness has left the palate.

As a mixer it performs competently.  It offers a very slight cream soda like note to a rum and cola but its pretty unremarkable.  In fact its almost non-existent.  It’s as inoffensive as rum can be.  Very middle of the road, forgettable and completely unremarkable.  As a cheap mixer (and it can be very cheap in Spain) it is certainly an option for an easy nights drinking but it can offer little beyond that.

Quite what it can add to a coffee is beyond me as I would imagine the only thing it could do is make it undetectable to the missus!