Captain Morgan Private Stock

By far, my favorite rum! Every few months I make sure to grab another top-shelf brand and have yet to find anything as smooth, spicy, and perfectly sweet as Private Stock. Reading the other reviews, it almost seems like people simply refuse to rate this highly because it's not aged (and expensive), and Captain is known for mixing... stop letting the money you spend influence your opinion of something. No, I'm not 18 and just started drinking, and I'm well aware of how people like to make claims of "complexity" in flavors to justify the high price tags... I also enjoy a nice robust cigar from time to time with some nice brandy or cognac, so I get the draw to certain really strong developed flavors.

But I also understand the psychology behind giving a product a higher (or lower) rating based on the price tag of the item, and I think that's what's going on here... There are some aged rums that have average ratings at 9 or higher, with their less-aged counterparts scored one point lower. the truth is, it's rare to find a single point of difference in aging something 10 more years. Sure, more age can make it smoother and a little more refined, but in all my personal taste testing I've rarely found something that costs twice as much that was actually 10% better... Really old rum that tastes like crap, is just "really old rum that tastes like crap" that you just spent a lot of money on and feel the need to justify the expense. This is GREAT rum, and it's affordable. Excellent for sipping neat, or on the rocks... for something a bit different, put it in your snifter and light it on fire to heat it up a bit! (maybe 10 seconds).

All that said, I am well aware that individual taste preference is a matter of qualia. My point is... This is by far the smoothest, best tasting top-shelf rum I've had to date (out of about 20 diff top-shelf options). don;t let "price" influence your review.