Bacardi Reserva Ocho Rare Gold 8-Year

This rum is meant for mixing and not to be sipped. Good for a rum and cola.

This is a fairly middle of the ground rum. Nothing about it is overly offensive, but nothing stands out either.

As a mixer, it’s very good. I don’t find it overly sweet, and the hint of rum is a nice addition.

Solid sipper, smooth. Not overwhelming smell or taste but a great value. An every day drinker

This rum ist very good for the price of 23€. This is a gift from Don Facundo to the world.
It reminds me of bacardi special in the distillery.
The nose is great, there are some heavy metal aromas.
The taste is also very good, it has some aromas from a younger rum (like bacardi blanco).
It's not as balanced as the Diez (10y), but I like the more intensive molasses taste.

Since 1862 Bacardi uses the La Levadura Bacardi – the oldest cultured Cuban yeast strain. Facundo found it growing in the sugarcane fields outside Santiago de Cuba.
Ocho is still made to the old recipe.
Bacardi utilizes a parallel distillation process using column distillation, and the fermented mixture is actually distilled twice. The first liquor is stronger in flavor and the second is light. After 8 years both of them are blended.

Smell: Molasses (typical Bacardi, coffee, salt), apple, caramel, some heavy aromas like (gum, stainless steel), vanilla
Taste initial: molasses, vanilla, caramel
Middle: white oak, vanilla, stainless steel and dark fruit (plum)
Finish: wood, spice, light bitterness, liquorice
Aftertaste: firmint

Sweetness: 2/5
Fruits: 1.5/5
Spice: 2.5/5
Mildness: 3.5/5

I haven't had Bacardi in about 25 years...maybe this needs to age another 25 years. Thought I would try this one, but disappointed. Opened the bottle to the smell of alcohol and a similar after-taste. As a mixer it's passable after two drinks. I won't dump it out, but thought about it.

Light and easy to drink.
Not sweet.... good flavors, but, the distillate is not very refined.

Let me start by saying I kept away from Barcardi, as a white rum for decades.
This however is a completely different beast.
Bought in Sharm, Egypt, duty free, $28, £22, absolute bargain, for a litre bottle.
Great to dip neat, makes a great rum and coke, it’s a drink for all occasions. Drink it anyway you want.
Enjoy,
Graham.

Purchased to complete the ingredient list for Trader Sam's Shrunken Zombie Head (and standard Zombie) cocktail. No other reason.

Smell can trigger strong memories and this did. Opening the bottle and taking a strong whiff, I smelled molasses and suddenly remembered something from my childhood.

When I was very young we had an inflatable tepee for a time in our living room. It was fun to hide and play in. It was similar in design to a swimming pool raft and made of vinyl.

AND THIS SMELLED JUST LIKE IT. Wow. I was smacked by a forgotten memory and was nauseous from the odor.

Okay. Just opened. So how does an 8-year aged rum taste? Citrus, spice and molasses, reminding me strongly of Pyrat rum... and vinyl.

Mixed in a cocktail it's mostly tolerable, so this is only the second worst rum I've ever tried. (The first being Wray and Nephew since nothing covers that funk and I threw it away.)

I'll work through this and probably try Don Q 7-year next time.

But come on. Who is ranking this to a 6? I like Bacardi's cheap gold better than this.

Barely anything on the nose… like is there alcohol in there? Then tasting, initially a very light caramel flavour that very quickly gets overtaken by a pure alcohol burn. Very little after taste except for some smokiness. I bought it for cocktails but im wondering if camouflaging it in a cocktail will make it better. This was the first and definitely the last time of picking this one up from a store.

My local bars have no good rum, so when I stopped in a bar which had this on the shelf, I was surprised and very happy. Typically grassiness from Spanish style rums, nice toffee and caramel notes. Nothing exceptional, but also really nice if there’s nothing else around. Has a special place in my heart. You did good kid, you did good haha.