Sweet and interesting dark rum for beginner?

Hi Sandri, we were in Dom Rep last year, Puerto Plata duty free, $10 more than you want to spend, but try Optimus 18. If not get out and about and try local supermarkets and shops for some very cheap deals. Enjoy, graham.

Good to know, thank you very much!

Sandri: Your boyfriend has very good taste for preferring DRE over anything by Zacapa! Try El Dorado 12, which is another sugar bomb. For sweet tasting without added sugar, try Dictador 20 from Columbia at about $65 US. Since the company also sells coffee, you can expect tasting notes of coffee, which I absolutely love. If you want luxury for about $96 US, go for Dictador XO Insolent. From the Dominican Republic, I wholeheartedly recommend South Bay if you can find it. It is crafted by the president of Oliver & Oliver International, whose family originally came from Cuba. This company also produces rums under the names of Optimus and Vizcaya. All of them are very good. Just stay away from anything with the name of Brugal as the cheaper ones are worse than anything by Bacardi or Captain Morgan!!!!

Wow thank you for your advice! I will definitely keep that in mind! Its much more clearer for me now...Although I wanted to ask one more question, what do you think for example about Ron Centenario 20? I’ve read that this one is also one of the sweeter and has a very good ratings too, so just wondering...Thank you again :)

Sandri: The Ron Centenario 20 that I recently tried wound up being a nasty sugar bomb that I do not recommend. The older reviews probably did not have lots of added sugar, which is why they got higher ratings. I would call this one as a very risky purchase.

Hey Sandri, So it's funny, I do not normally like sweet things, but I am drawn to sweet and flavourful rums. My "house" rum, which I keep in an unmarked crystal decanter is Diplomatico ER. It is a very sweet one, but using that as a base I would like to recommend a few of my fav's. -(One thing of note, is that everyone has different tastes and things they like. I LOVE this website, but it has ruined a few rums I like, in the sense of reading reviews. If you drink a rum, and YOU like it, that is ALL that matters!) - Plantation XO 20th Anniversary. Great rum on the sweeter side - Parce 12yr . Not as sweet, but a great sipping rum - El Dorado 15yr Lots of dark molasses and caramel sweetness - Rumson's fairly well priced, great blended rum (terrible looking bottle....do not be fooled, its a good rum) - Zaya (The old Zaya was better, it is a different recipe now, but still was my introduction into the rum world, fairly sweet *So as a side note. I live in Canada, in British Columbia, and alcohol prices due to taxation are the highest in the country. So I really have no idea how much it would cost where you live etc. All the rums I have listed are under $100CDN (except Parce 12yr) which where I live is about $105CDN. But I would think in the USA all these rums should be around the $40-$60 range. I think buying a good to great bottle of rum costs you about $50-$150. This ia GREAT compared to if all of liked Scotch. There are soo many types, areas, distilleries and kinds of Scotch, that I think it is well worth it to Splurge on a good rum (if it is within your means). Good luck with the journey!

Hi Sandri If you look at my ratings, you will notice that I also prefer sweeter rums in spanish style. As others mentioned before, the Plantation 20th Anniversary XO is a very nice example of this style (actually, it‘s my favorite). The Centenario 20 is also in my top 5. If your budget is a bit smaller, try to find a Malteco 15, this rum is very affordable (especially in Italy), and I rate it clearly higher than the Zacapa 23.

By the way; the Centenario 25 comes even closer to the Diplomatico RE than the Centenario 20 - due to its oily note.