Old J Spiced

Easily one of my favourite rums! Smooth & strong vanilla cut through with an undertone of lime! Easy drinking over ice of with cola!

I absolutely love this. For me it’s Utopia in a bottle, because it’s so deliciously sweet. Some may argue too sweet, but not for me. I say the sweeter the better! Because of the vanilla, the smell of this rum alone is worth the £18 that I paid for it. And at only 35% VOL, neat with ice, this rum glides down the throat with silky smoothness and more importantly, without the burning sensation that sometimes follows with other rums. For me however, I love this rum even more with Coca-Cola as a mixer, because then the vanilla flavouring, intensifies, making this rum even more of a sugary delight.

Tried neat at rum festival, vanilla tasting, prob mix with coke the next time.

Very strong Vanilla Smell and Taste. I love Vanilla so all good with me

Superb, beautiful vanilla and lime notes, only problem, it’s too easy to drink

Still very fond of this - good mixing rum when you don’t want to drink the expensive stuff

Delicious over ice, on its own or with a cola mixer

Had it neat, nice smooth drink. Also good with ginger beer.

I enjoyed, even though it is not your regular rum taste. Very sweet and with some lime tones. It is also quite light so could be more pleasant for some who need an entry level drink.

Okay, reading all the hype about the ol' Sailor Jerry, the saint patron of spiced rums, I finally wanted to taste what the hype's all about, so I picked up a bottle to round up the sum while buying a larger batch of real alcohol.

Instantly, I am hit with a full dose of buyer's regret. The bottle and the liquid inside looks inoffensive enough, a shade of orange and a nice etiquette (different than on the picture here, though, similar to the ones on gold and silver).

However here the good things end. The smell of some distant vanilla, with something citrusy, weak and unconvincing. The taste - oh my, the taste is like a liquid candy, vanilla and citrus, and something I can't put a finger on, with a slight hint of alcohol, but it's so thin and weak and watery, and... in a hurry to go. No finish to speak of, no real spices (compared to Four Square Spiced rum, this is just so much worse).

Hello, where is the rum? Why is my rum gone? It's certainly not in the bottle, how does it even qualify - oh it doesn't, it's only 35% ABV! Well, blimey, I did not know the old man Vernon, but I bet my tricorne against two ounces of gunpowder that this hooch would get you keelhauled, if you served it to the crew.

Sigh, yeah, cocktails, but now when the virus hit, who am I gonna serve them to? Threw it into a glass of coke, the result was a ruined glass of coke. Some bloke recommended tonic, so maybe... Not expecting much, though.

Stay away, buy real rums, like Appleton 12 for only slightly more than this liquid disaster!