Santos Dumont XO Rum. This rum is marketed as a Brasilian rum, rather than cachaca. Quite why this was the case I was initially unsure about. Fortunately, some research made some things a lot clearer. Whilst at the same time telling me very little…..

First up who might this Santos Dumont character be? Well, he was a World Famous Aviation pioneer, Noble Man, Celebrity and Style Icon, back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. His father Henri Dumont was known as the Coffee King of Brasil. As well as this rum there is also an Elixir released by the Santos Dumont brand.

Santos Dumont XO Rum is produced from Sugar Cane Honey which is aged in a co,mbination ex-Pedro Ximenez, Bourbon and Port Casks. It has been bottled at 40% ABV. It was recently available from Master of Malt but they are currently out of stock. It retailed at £59.95.

Presentation wise, as you can see Santos Dumont XO Rum screams a certain kind of “Premium Rum”. Fancy decanter style bottle with a huge cork stopper and a pretty black box. It’s all very nice but the alarm bells are beginning to ring a little.

You see I’m intrigued to learn more about the actual rum in the bottle. Little things like how old it is and how it was distilled would be very useful. So let’s do a little digging the brand must have website with such an expensive looking luxury bottle?

Of course they do and all the information you would ever not need is to be found there. If you like fairy tales then you are in the right place with Santos Dumont XO Rum. If you want some actual information on this Sugar Cane Honey Premium XO rum you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Sadly I can only find speculation and some frankly laughable “reviews” of this rum. So in the absence of facts, I think I will try and establish how authentic this product might be.

58g/L of additives says the hydrometer as it bobs at an ABV of just 22%. Ouch!

For those of you who have clicked on the link to the brands website, this might not come as much as a surprise. This is a rum which has been produced under that wonderful producer of Super Premium Bullshit A.H. Riise. So it would appear they have added one of their trademark (and I quote) “proprietary formulas”. Nice!

I’m not looking forward to this.

In the glass we have a fairly standard “dark” brown spirit. Bit of a reddish hue but its all pretty much as you might expect from a Premium Rum.

Nose – Woah Woah! This is familiar. I was wondering quite what a Brasilian rum rather than Cachaca might be and I’m far from impressed. It smells like all the worst parts of Don Papa, Ron Millonario and A.H Riise Navy Rum muddled together into a truly disgusting overtly sugared mess. 58 g/L of additives no less and it smells like at least three times as much as this.

Santos Dumont XO Rum has the awful nasty synthetic sugary note you find in all A.H Riise rums. Artificial fake banana, mango, strawberry and masses of sugar and aspartame. It’s god damn awful on the nose. Not a hint of rum to be found – no vanilla, coconut, real banana and oak ageing. No wood or spice at all. Terrible synthetic garbage.

Surely it can’t taste as bad as it smells? Well it’s not far off. It’s absolutely awful and a complete insult to any concept of a Premium Rum. God knows what rubbish is in this rum but there isn’t anywhere near enough rum to save this.

The taste is pretty much A.H Riise rum – that horrible foul synthetic taste. Like overly sugared rotting fruit and sweets that have turned a bit sour after being left out in the sun. It truly is an awful drink. I do think the makers of such rums have been left out in the sun a bit too long.

Sweet but cloying and with tons of clove and just a generally very nasty profile. No wood, no spice, no rum. A foul and truly awful spirit. I doubt this is made in Brasil, more likely sourced from some alcohol factory somewhere, maybe Peru. To be fair the base spirit could be pretty much anything. You cannot taste it.

Santos Dumont XO Rum arrives like a sickly sweet mess and disappears virtually straight away (thank the lord). All you are left with is a saccharin like bitterness. No finish as such, it just fades away to nothing, very quickly. Leaving a very bitter nasty mouthfeel.

Truly horrendous muck. Quite what the Elixir will taste like is beyond me but I would be sure to brush my teeth afterwards. I dare say you’ll likely need to get them bleached as well!

You may well wonder how this kind of thing keeps appearing? Well take a look at Rum Ratings and you would think I was reviewing a completely different review. Try Flaviar as well for more truly clueless musings.

Maybe I’m wrong about this “rum” but I really don’t think I am.