Barcelo Imperial

Très bon rhum. Sur le caramel. Facile a boire. Excellent rapport qualité-prix

Had a bottle in my collection - Finally got a chance to drink some last week in Miami. Very smooth, ending up drinking a couple of bottles while I was in town.

En meget middelmådig rom, der mangler dybde og kompleksitet.

I felt mellow tones of bourbon, cinnamon and new spices, the taste is light and dry. Like this one. For connoisseurs...

Obviously it is one ot the best Barcelo's rum. It's more smooth, more fruty, more flavourfull than the other their rums, but among the others Dominican rums it very average. The only great thing in it - is the nice bottle! 8)

Vůně dřeva, tabáku a kůže. Chuť nevýrazná. Ujde, ale nezaujme.

I found this rum and it's younger bother Gran Anejo today. The only way to compare them is side by side. The Imperial was $29 and the Gran Anejo was $17. The Imperial is definitely worth the extra $12 and worth buying again.

The Imperial is an almost reddish orange color while the Gran Anejo is a pale yellow in color. The Gran Anejo is full of burn and not much taste at all. The Imperial has very little burn if allowed to breathe for a while as one should. The Imperial is super smooth and somewhat viscous. I can't pinpoint the simple flavors, but I would say caramel and nutmeg with some cinnamon. There is no oak after taste like it's competition Matusalem Gran Reserva 15. Since this Imperial is a tad better than my beloved affordable sipper from Matusalem, Imperial also gets a rating of 7. And you guessed it, I also did a side by side taste test against my Matusalem Gran Reserva 15.

Update almost six months later: This rum has still retained it's flavor because it is not a sugar bomb. However, it is rated at 16 gpl of added sugar and tastes like it has much more sugar. Maybe this is why I still have most of the bottle left after almost six months. Now it tastes almost disgustingly sweet. My rating still stands at 7, but I won't go out of my way to find another bottle.

Update February 25, 2020: I saw another bottle on the shelf hundreds of miles away from where I live. So I told myself that since it is only $30 and I have not had it in two years, why not buy it. Well, from the looks of the bottle, it looks like a rum that would cost more than $100 US. Basically, this is a rum to impress those that know little or nothing about rum. With all of the added sugar, it qualifies as being semi-dry or sweet. The added sugar disguises the cheap rum underneath. It is not bad, but only needs to be enjoyed on the rocks. If you are on a tight budget and want to impress a first date, then by all means go for this one. If you want to impress rum connoisseurs with this one, you will only be laughed at. And since this one still goes down so smoothly on the rocks, it still maintains my original ranking in my upper 25%. Not bad at all for a doctored rum, but I can only wonder what this company is truly capable of producing without added sugar.

I give it a 6 because it tastes better than it smells...rather a 5.5 though...

Don't get me wrong...it is drinkable...not complex though...just pretty honest.

Had it right after the Flor de Cana 18 years...liked it a little bit more...

Bought it on sale for EUR 22 which is a bargain.

Ve vuni lehce bourbonove, susene ovoce, cukrovy syrup, vanilka, drevite taniny. V chuti tenci, ovocne a mene sladke, nez by napovidala vune. Vanilka a misty horka cokolada. Zaroven prijemne svezi s probleskujicimi citrusy. V dozvuku vanilka a drevite tony, ovoce, koreni - az na to koreni celkem rychle odezniva.

Decent rum, but nothing to add. Pretty straightforward, flavor is spiced caramel, aroma - rum barrel. Not well balanced trip from smooth in start to finish dryness- meddle is missing