Stroh 80 Austria Inlander Rum. The Spirit of Austria. Stroh is a brand of “rum” that you will likely come across quite frequently, being sold at most shops online.

Despite the fact, I do not know a single person who drinks or enjoys it. Stroh sits at the lower to mid-priced end of the market. It is an historic brand which has been available since 1857.

Stroh has had a bit of mixed identity over the years and the term “Inlander Rum” (Domestic Rum) has had it’s meaning changed by recent EU Legislation.

Domestic Rum, as can be found here with Maraska Room is essentially “fake” rum. As you can see from the review and the pictures of the bottle Maraska can no longer legally call such a spirit rum. It is a neutral spirit with added flavourings or essence – usually vanilla and butterscotch.

This is what Stroh originally was, with added flavours and spices. There are conflicting stories as well as to whether Stroh also contained a small percentage of “real” rum, from overseas. Now I understand that the base of Stroh is authentic rum produced in Austria from Sugar Cane molasses

Stroh is available in varying strengths, this is the highest ABV version and the most well known. In the US, due to them not using metric measurements you will see Stroh 160 which is proof rather than ABV.

Stroh comes in a 50cl stubby hip flask style bottle. The bottle is understood to represent those used by hunters during Austria winter in years gone by. A bottle of Stroh 80 will set you back around £30.

In the glass we have a very strange coloured spirit. It’s a very strange looking red colour with black flashes (I’m not quite sure how it manages this). On the nose I am met with a plethora of aromas.

All of which are pretty confected and pretty fake. Toffee, Caramel, Vanilla, Butterscotch (Werthers Originals) and some strange notes, which I can best describe as a mixture of Jägermeister and Licor de Herbias from Mallorca. Both of which I detest.

Add into this cacophony, a huge waft of sweet sugar and sickly sweet honey notes. It is in all fairness, absolutely rancid and completely fake. Stroh 80 is used quite a lot in baking and I can certainly see why that is the case. This is very, very essence heavy.

Sipped all you get is a massive amount of heat and some burning notes of sugar and burnt caramel. It has a slightly herbal off note to it, on top off all the sweet sugary notes. Which make it slightly bitter and even more unforgiving.

This is definitely not a sipper by anyones definition. Probably the type of thing Austria teenagers might “shot” down to get drunk.

Despite the high ABV, the length of this spirit is very short. You aren’t left with any kind of finish as such, just a mouthful of sickly sweet essence flavours. The burn of alcohol etc, disappears almost instantly on the sip. I’ve no idea where the actual rum has gone in this spirit. It may as well be made with cats piss.

Stroh is available in various strengths so maybe watering this down might help a bit. Does it? Not really, it just makes the experience a bit sicklier if anything whilst adding nothing of any merit.

It’s the kind of dreadful novelty nonsense that will appeal to people wanting to seem “hard” drinking high ABV spirits but who have no knowledge of Cask Strength or barrel aged spirits.

There isn’t a great deal of point being awful about Stroh as unlike a lot of the rubbish out there in the rum market they don’t seem to set their offerings up as anything sophisticated. They know it is used a lot in cookery and are happy with that. I will however still give Stroh a go as a mixer.

I’m quite surprised to find such a high ABV spirit mixes so easily into a rum and coke. Any heat or boozy notes from the ABV seem to disappear. All I am getting on the nose, is the fake toffee and butterscotch. It just all smells very sweet an innocent. In terms of flavour, it reminds me of Czech Domaci Rum and Old Monk (I would say Old Monk is a lot better overall though). It’s not rum and it doesn’t really pretend to be. It’s kind of happy in it old little weird place in the world.

I can’t really be too harsh about Stroh but at the same time I can’t think of a single good thing to say about it.

I suppose the very short finish of it and next to no mid-palate is a blessing. In all fairness, when you visit their website even they recognise it is used primarily in baking. They aren’t bullshitting anyone.

As a rum it’s a load of bollocks but as a curiosity it has a little bit of charm I suppose.

Please though don’t make me drink it again!