Mezan Chiriqui 3-Year

Rum tasting in Tampere with my good old friend continued with Mezan Chiriqui. Nice and unique bottle and label design. Golden color. Strong fruitiness mixed with Moscatel Cask flavors to your nose and palate when neat sipped. Surprisingly sweet ending. Not great by any measure, but oh so fruity as a rum.

Moscatel cask maistuu jälkimaussa,
pitkä viipyvä maku.

The untouched Rum

Kokeilemisen arvoinen
Otan toisen!

A Panamanian, ex-Bourbon & Muscatel cask, bottled at 40%. Stated age is 3 years.

Initially I didn't really like it. Now I can tolerate it.

Thankfully it's bottled at 40% rather than their now usual 46%. Rarely do I find a rum at 40% to be too strong, but I think this one would be if it was. It has an unsophisticated flavour profile from the lack of ageing, which is tempered with a sweetness from the Moscatel cask finish. I think a few drops of water might benefit to take the edge off when first opening the bottle. However as it is opened for longer, the edge comes off and the wood begins to come throug.

I always drink my rums straight up, but can't help but think that this might be better as a mixer. Indeed their website says "can be enjoyed neat, as well as in sophisticated cocktails."

But overall, for a brand that "represents the purest and most authentic style of the Caribbean's rums" this is a disappointment as I'm not sure that having a young mixing rum really fits in with their portfolio of having mostly exceptional rums. On their website, they have a list of cocktails, all which use the previously entry level Jamaica XO. That is a much better rum than this and can be sipped neat much more easily.

Maybe that is me being harsh, as I am a neat rum drinker, and granted, their labelling of this is very different from the usual. It is drinkable if you don't mind them young, but life's too short and there are plenty of others out there that are better for the neat sipper.