Newbie question about rating

It’s totally up to you :) I’d say most compare rums within a category of their choosing (even categories can get contentious). For example, a high score doesn’t just have to be an aged rum, a great light rum could be a 9 or 10 and a great coconut rum could be a 9 or 10.

I think it is very important what Andy writes because it’s basically impossible, due to the large differences that exist between the different rum types, to compare for example Agricole with Spanish styled rum. It's like comparing Cognac with Tequila. Unfortunately, there are members that for example like the sweet Spanish style and dislike Agricole or rum from Jamaica and who quite obviously still compare that rum with their sweet favorites. I believe that, for example, one must compare an Agricole rum with other Agricole rums in order not to distort the whole grading system. If someone can’t keep “apples and pears apart”, so to speak, after a number of tests, I think they should refrain from rating rum varieties that they so clearly dislike.

I would not dare rate any flavored, coconut, or gold mixers above a 6. I also would never use any rum that I have rated as an 8 or higher as a mixer. The average rating for rums on this site is just a guide to assist one on whether or not to buy a bottle. One also needs to have fellow reviewers whose taste match yours as closely as possible and read what they have written in detail. I have only one spiced rum that earned my rating of 8, which is only because it beat out Appleton 21 in a side by side taste test. Both are rated as an 8, but the spiced rum gets ranked higher in my spreadsheet.

I appreciate everyone’s input on this. Clearly I’m not the only one that struggles with this. Given so many different styles of rum makes it even more difficult. I suppose at the end of the day, all that really matters I’m having fun sipping some really great rums and discovering how great rum can be. Cheers.

If rum were as simple as vodka, this site would not be nearly as popular. Here are my 13 classifications for rum. I rank each new rum within it's proper classification and then sort all of them to see if the new rum moves up or down among all of them. My overall ranking counts twice as much as price when considering which rums to buy again. 01-Aged Dry 02-Aged Semi-Dry 03-White 04-Aged Sweet 05-Aged Sugar Bomb 06-Flavored 07-Coconut 08-Black 09-Rhum Agricole 10-Cachaca 11-Gold Mixer 12-Spiced 13-Overproof

Hi guys, I'm a little bit in the same situation. I'm a beginning rum-drinker and was looking for a good way to rate my rums. I found following link which gives me a good indication on how to rate rums correclty: https://refinedvices.com/the-rating-system This will enable me to rate a rum correctly, without any personal preference or whatever.

@Mr Coone Great site, I like their suggestion. I split the taste description in the initial and the middle taste in my ratings. In the initial taste the rum is cold and the thoungue is not affected by intensive flavors. In the middle taste the rum gets very warm and spreads more intensive and different flavors. But if you would write all flavors in order, there is no need to do that. It's just unclear where the body begins.