Smith and Cross Traditional Jamaica Navy Strength

Good to keep in your rotation, sometimes you just want something to warm your insides.

As only my second Jamaican rum, S&C blew me away with its unstoppable ester funk and high proof burn. I foolishly sipped some straight out of the just-opened bottle and blew out my taste buds. Then I made a Mai Tai without splitting it with another rum—mistake number two. So why such a high rating? Because when properly yielded, it is masterful in cocktails. Whether blended with a lighter rum, stirred with ginger beer, or balanced with citrus, it’s a superb mixer that manages to both showcase its own unique character and also elevate its fellow ingredients. I will always keep a bottle to represent some of the best in the Jamaican style.

Absolutely cracking rum as it really brings the funk and a real complex flavour . Not a sipping rum for me unless In an old fashioned. Great in painkillers and a daiquri with it is quite the experience. Upon first taste I wasn’t sure but with time absolute loving the overripe banana funk of it

The nose has a hint of banana but mainly dark muscovado sugar and raisins with that classic fermented jamaica funk. It’s not very complex, but very nice. In the mouth I pick a powerfull oaky profile mixed with overly ripe banana and raisin fading into a mouth warming, fermented and spicy sensation. It’s a powerfull rum but still relatively rounded, especially considering the low price and high alcoholic content. Works both neat and mixed. Great value. This one never lets you down.

If this was scotch I’d call it peaty... like an islay malt. Sinus clearing.

A unique and tasty rum with loads of tropical fruit, some spices, a little caramel, chocolate, and a unique funkiness with so much agave on the nose it can be mistaken as a tequila in a blind tasting.

Pot stilled brilliance, real rum bottled at 57% so needs watering in the glass and a rest before drinking but is a taste explosion. A beautiful thing on it's own or with a full bodied cigar. Not for sugary liqueur rum lovers. A real rum gem.

This rum has a lot going on and definitely is Jamaican. Have it neat and if you want a twist try some Mole Xocolatyl bitters with it - very nice way to end an evening

Intense, well made and fully immersive experience.

I feel like assigning this rum a score is a bit of a lost cause. This drink truly doesn't give a shit.

The aroma is hard to pin down. There's a bit that's a little reminiscent of Appleton, maybe leaning a little more on the banana. I smell still funk and something not dissimilar from white wine? There's a good amount of alcohol on the nose, too. Not more than there should be, but a good amount. Almost whisky-like, all told.

The flavors hit you all at once, and I mean all at once. It's an experience. Smoke and spices, leather and rotten fruit, molasses, metal and fire. It's like you can taste the whole distillery. As you mull it over some of the flavors peter out and you're left with a long, medium bodied, bonfire sweetness, with a weird bilious undertone. The aftertaste is gentle and tastes something like rust and mango rind. Strange but pleasant.

I haven't tried this mixed yet, but I imagine something to give the flavors more space will be an adventure all on its own. This is one for every rum lover to try once, but I imagine once will be enough for many. Others might find themselves keeping a bottle in reserve to spice things up now and then.

Oh! And the bottle was an absolute steal. For less than Appleton's 12 year you get something both bolder and more complex, even if it ends up a little challenging because of that.