That Boutique-y Rum Company Blended Rum No.1 – Jamaica 9 Year Old Batch 1. Nice short and snappy name for this particular rum from the sesquipedalian orators That Boutique-y Rum Company. Anyway I’ll get my head out of my Thesaurus and get this particular rum reviewed.

For the purposes of brevity I think we’ll call this one Blended Rum No.1 – Jamaica 9 Year. It’s a bit less of a mouthful. The SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) might not like me not using the full title but bugger it for this review.

So lets see what he have hear. Well we have a blend of 9 year old Pot and Column distilled rums from multiple Jamaican Distilleries. It has been bottled at 55% (probably Cask Strength or thereabouts). 486 bottles of this rum were available on release. Master of Malt which is the main stockist of That Boutique-y Rum Company products is now sold out. Apologies for being a bit late with this review. However their website also reliably informs me that their rums are stocked at the following retailers so you may get lucky and score a bottle here.

When released the rum which comes in the standard 50cl size bottle used by That Boutique-y Rum Company retailed at £48.95. Artwork of a particularly scary looking Dunder Pit, which are used in Jamaican rum production at Hampden Estate (so perhaps a clue as to at least one of the distilleries in the blend) is provided yet again by the indiosyncratic Jim’ll Paint It.

I arguably could have pestered Peter Holland (Brand Ambassador/Consultant) for That Boutique-y Rum Company for some more information on the blend but I decided just to review this “blind”. Albeit it with a fairly good idea of what might be contained within.

As this is Batch 1 I figure that further batches of a very similar rum may become available soon. So whilst you might have to go to the secondary market to source a bottle of this batch – my review might give food for thought when the next batch is released. God I hate reviewing rums when I’ve not reviewed them before they sell out! Grrrrr

Anyway lets take a look at this particular offering and see how it goes.

In the glass we have a very light coloured straw like spirit. It doesn’t look like what you might expect for a 9 year old rum. So no colouring has been used. It is also likely a lot of the maturation has been Continental rather than Tropical.

The nose is strong, rich and pungent. Glue, pineapple, burnt banana, nail varnish and some pear drops (English boiled sweets). I’m immediately thinking Long Pond or Hampden Estate or perhaps both. Even a bit of Monymusk is mixed in there as well.

Beneath this I am getting some softer more rounded notes of toffee and milk chocolate,. Might there be a bit of Worthy Park in there? I wouldn’t hang my hat on it but maybe.

The nose isn’t at ridiculous DOK like levels of ester heavy stupidity. It is perhaps more a LROK or HLCF level. Which is fine with me as I think they are far better rums – so much better balance.

Sipped it has less of the nail varnish and pear drops than I was expecting. It has an almost savoury kind of note. Avocado perhaps and some vegetal grassy notes as well. The initial sip is fiery but quite manageable. The initial entry carries a fair amount of sweetness which gives way to more of the grassy, vegetal like notes. These don’t last long however. There are notes of mango and burnt banana. Pineapple juice – slightly fermenting.

The mid palate returns us back to the glue and varnish that was present on the nose. A huge rich array of spices and woody notes also mingle in. Curry Leaf and some deep dark molasses notes move in and out of the mix.

Further notes of Menthol Sweets and vanilla also arrive on the scene the more you sip.

Finish wise the rum is long and very satisfying with just the right amount of fade. It is quite a dry style of rum so the finish isn’t hugely long but this just makes you want another sip.

This is a real flavour bomb of a Jamaican rum. It would be fantastic mixed in a Rum and Cola or in most cocktails. It will add a real funk to anything. I wouldn’t say it is a huge Jamaican rum but it’s mid tier and all the better for it. The balance is just right and it all rubs along beautifully.

A really great efffort. Steve over at Rum Diaries Blog reviewed this almost a year ago. I’m a bit lost off as to how I missed reviewing this at the time. I must have been sitting on my sample for quite some time!

Steve did approach Peter Hollland for more information on the blend which is contained in his review. I only re-read his review after writing this review. I don’t think I did too bad though to be fair there aren’t that many distilleries on Jamaica.