Don Q Gran Anejo is a top of the range sipping rum from Puerto Rican domestic powerhouse Serralles.
The Gran Anejo is a blend of rums aged up to 12 years from Serralles aged stocks. It is noted (unsurprisingly) that these are amongst their “finest” aged stocks.
Puerto Rico is perhaps best known for being one of Bacardi Internationals rum producing nations. Their flagship rum Bacardi Superior is produced there. However the Serralles family have been producing rum on the island since 1865.
Don Q Anejo is one of the two more “premium” rums available in the UK from Puerto Rican producers Serralles. The Don Q brand has recently been re-vamped and they are actively trying to get a foothold in the UK market, which is currently dominated by another Puerto Rican concern – Bacardi and brands from Diageo such as Captain Morgan.
Don Q Gold along with Don Q Cristal are the entry level rums from rum producer Serralles.
Don Q hails from Puerto Rico, which is perhaps most famous in the rum world for being where Bacardi defected to at the time of the Cuban Revolution.
Don Q as a brand began in 1934 and yes, it is named after Don Quixote. This family ran concern has over 150 years of rum making experience, making its first rum sales in 1865. The Serralles family are currently in their sixth generation of rum making and are headed up by Felix J Serralles Jr. The family originally arrived in Puerto Rico around 1820 and Juan Sebastian Serralles set up the Hacienda Teresa – a sugar cane plantation.
Bacardi re-launched this rum only last year in the UK. Until then Bacardi Gold (as it was then) was bottled at 37.5% ABV. This was increased to 40% ABV. Now the whole Bacardi line up has been re-vamped and Bacardi Gold has been re-named in a more contermporary style whilst still keeping some of the distinguishing Bacardi features.
Bacardi Carta Fuego – Red Spiced Rum to give it it’s full moniker. In 2011 Bacardi moved away from creating weird and wonderful Flavoured Rums and introduced their competitor in the Spiced Rum market – Bacardi Oakheart.
If things had went to plan then we would all be at least familiar with, if not drinking an Oak And Coke. As many of you will be puzzled by this, its safe to say that things didn’t go quite as planned for Bacardi as Oakheart failed to make a major dent in Captain Morgan’s Musket and The Kraken seem to have the Dark end of the Spiced rum market all sewn up. That’s not to mention Sailor Jerry and the numerous copy-cats which have sprung up in the wake of the success of the now deceased Tattoo Artist at the tail end of the “noughties” (00’s).
In 2011 after numerous “flavoured” expressions and a couple of rum “liqueurs” Bacardi finally released a Spiced rum to the market. Except at only 35% they aren’t legally allowed to market it as a Spiced rum so it becomes a Smooth and Spiced Spirit Drink.
Oakheart takes its name from the charred white oak barrels that the rum, sorry spirit drink is housed in. The rums contained within the blend are aged between 1-3 years. Bacardi were hoping upon its release that the tagline “Oak and Coke” would be heard in bars all over the world. I don’t think that has quite worked.
There’s probably not a lot to be said about Bacardi that hasn’t been said before. Probably, on this blog and one of my other Bacardi reviews amongst other places. It was on completing a review of Lemon Hart White Rum that I realised I hadn’t actually reviewed Bacardi Superior. I’d had the pictures taken and reviewed a few other of Bacardi products but somehow I’d totally forgotten to review their flagship offering.
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