Kirk and Sweeney 18-Year

The younger brother to this rum is K&S 12 Year and was one of the very first rums that I reviewed on this site. I was very impressed at first, especially for it being so cheap. Then after three weeks, flavors of leather dominated. At that point, I bid farewell to K&S. I also figured that most of the cost goes into the fancy bottles, so that had me wondering just how cheap was the rum inside.

I have decided to give them a second chance with this 18 year old dry rum. The aroma is caramel with a faint hint of leather. On the tongue, it is peppery and thin because of only 4 gpl of added sugar. The after taste is caramel with a faint hint of leather and some complex Caribbean spices. There is no after burn. So far so good. I will check it again in about 3 weeks to see if the same thing happens to this one as what happened to my long gone 12 year old.

Update October 15, 2018: This is a good day for rum tastings since it is pouring down rain outside. It is now one day shy of the three week window that I had originally promised to allow. Guess what? This bottle has not turned into a leather bomb like the K&S 12 did. It is still very enjoyable and worthy of it's 8 rating that I originally gave it.

Update April 22, 2019: For fans of this K&S 18, the aroma and taste is very similar to South Bay Batch 18, also from the Dominican Republic. However, the after taste of the South Bay blows the woody after taste of this one out of the water. Give that one a try if you like this one. I have to special order my supply of South Bay rums to be picked up locally, but they are worth the trouble.

Update May 7, 2019: For those of you who still have the old bottles of K&S with them being widest at the top, KEEP THEM as they will soon become collector's items!!! The new bottles are totally round and look like rum versions of Chambord Liqueur. I kid you not! I at first criticized my bottle of K&S 12 as being hard to pour and needing two hands. At least the cork fits tight and the bottle is unlikely to spill on a rocking boat out to sea! After having a lot of very bad rum bottle designs, those original K&S bottles are for keeps! Hang on to them. I also dropped my rating down to a 7. It just cannot compare with the best of my similarly priced rums.

Update August 7, 2021: I grabbed another bottle of K&S 18 since the ones with yearly statements are now discontinued in favor of the Gran Reserva solera rums. I thought that I was doing good by grabbing one of these last bottles. Well, something has obviously gone wrong with their age statement rums. After sipping on it and those good memories did not return, my dog did not even want to come near me!!! On top of that, I needed a corkscrew to remove the cork and then had to throw it away. I have a large collection of replacement corks, but none of them fit. I had to transfer the entire contents to one of my favorite old bottles. Needless to say, my rating now gets dropped. No point in saying that I will never buy these aged K&S rums again because they are now all gone. This is a really sad downhill slide from a once really good company.