The Pink Pigeon Single Estate Mauritian Vanilla Spiced Rum. That’s quite a mouthful so for the purposes of this review we will review to it as I see it noted in bars etc as just Pink Pigeon or The Pink Pigeon.

Pink Pigeon hails form the Medine Distillery, Mauritius. The Medine Distillery has been gaining a very solid reputation for its Penny Blue range of Single Estate “Pure” rums. They are very proud of being a Single Estate Produce and they are equally clear on the fact they do not permit the use of additives in any of their rums.

I’ve reviewed a few of their expressions and I have always found them to be very good products. However, even with such good core products I haven’t been in a great hurry to try this Spiced Rum. The reason? Vanilla Spiced Rum.

Now I’m not totally adverse to a bit of vanilla but some of the generic Spiced Rum brands that have sprung over the past 5 years have adopted the use of very sweet strong and very artificial Vanilla flavours. Which make for frankly cloying and disgusting drinks.

A 70cl bottle of The Pink Pigeon will usually set you back around £25-30. It is bottled at a refreshing 40% ABV. I finally picked up a bottle of this shortly before Christmas 2017 as Lidl had it as part of their Christmas rum offer. So it £17.99. I’ll try most rums for £17.99. As regular readers know I don’t shy away from the cheaper end with my reviews.

The Pink Pigeon uses “Bourbon Vanilla” which is harvested in Madagascar and Reunion Island. It is one of the most expensive spices in the world. It is sun-dried in wooden casks for upto a year. The resulting spice is then infused with the Medine Distillery’s rums for 6 months. Alongside the vanilla Orchid Leaves and Orange Peel is also added to the rum.

In the glass Pink Pigeon is a light to golden brown. It’s slightly dull to be honest lacking any red or orange flashes. Looks a bit “washed out”.

Pink Pigeon is a vanilla flavoured spiced rum and the initially nosing is overwhelmingly Vanilla heavy with strong very sweet sugar and caramel notes. Further nosing reveals a little of the base rum with some faint traces of oak spice and alcohol notes. I assume as it is made in Madagascar then the vanilla flavouring is authentic. Its difficult to tell as it does seem overly sweet.

A sip reveals some ginger and toffee on the palate alongside the overwhelming notes of caramel and vanilla. It has a decent amount of spiciness – all spice and ginger are doing some work against the vanilla. Ultimately though this is a very sweet almost atypical spiced rum. The sweet notes mean it can be sipped with minimal burn but its not really all that pleasant to be honest.

Mixed is where Pink Pigeon will be used the most. With Cola it makes a reasonable spiced rum and coke. Its quite one dimensional though as the spicy notes are lost. Its smooth and sweet. Full of vanilla and sweetness.

It works better with Ginger Ale as the spices can shine more. You get more of the nice ginger spice and a touch of oak this way.

It does have a bit more depth the more you persist with it – their is a touch of cinnamon in there the more you use this rum. It reminds me a little of Rumbullion. I wasn’t mad keen on that either.

It’s better than Spiced Rum such as Oakheart and Captain Morgan Gold Spiced but that isn’t really much of a recommendation and it is more expensive.

It’s not really for me to be honest.  Too much vanilla and sugar. A bit of disappointment because I really like the Medine Distillery’s rums but this just wasn’t for me unfortunately.