Images

Truly great work, Stefan!!!!! I have already mentioned a few duplicates to Andy and they have already been merged. The amount of duplicates is rampant among the cheaper rums from very big corporations. However, since most rum fans will not go looking for those bottom shelf ones, any duplicates in that department are barely worth the effort to fix. Check out Brugal for one.

Thanks for all the help Stefan, it's making such a difference!

Many of the producers of rums seem to like keeping us consumers all confused. Quite often, the same rum will have different labels depending upon where each version is marketed. As a case in point, I saw a "new" rum from the Virgin Islands on the bottom shelf of a liquor store about 50 miles away from me. I left it there, but my curiosity got the best of me and I started digging through reviews here based upon country. I found it alright, but it went under two different names: St Elmo and St. Elmo's. I at first thought that this was yet another dirty rotten trick like what happened with Bacardi Anejo Cuatro when it first came to market. There were three reviews back then from the same person for that same rum spelled differently. This has been corrected for the Bacardi. But the two different spellings for St. Elmo show two different bottles in photos submitted. The same rum probably exists for each, but the company changed bottles and labels to lead many of us into believing that one of them is a "new" rum on the market. That bottle will remain on the bottom shelf.

I googled St. Elmo and St. Elmo’s and couldn’t find any proof that they both comes from the same company. But I’m not surprised. This kind of cheap stuff can be named quite similar and still be separate brands, but they could also come from the same producer with different labels but with the same “shit” inside.

Stefan: I am sure that the bottle of St Elmo white rum from the Virgin Islands is shit, but I am still on a quest to find a rum worst than my only rum that I have rated as a lowly 1: Brugal Anejo. I also do not trust the lone review on this rum and I seriously doubt that he even tasted it. Kudzey: Great photo tip, but you forgot to flip it 90 degrees to the right before submitting it.

Kudzey, Good photo tip, but to be useful as an image the photo must be taken from straight forward and at same height as the bottle stands and the bottle must stand free from boxes, glasses, etcetera. Paul, I’ve never tasted any Brugal rum, but heard that at least the Siglo de Oro is a good one.

Stefan: sure, I just wanted to present the photo I took for myself, if it is needed I can take some images of the rums I own but I doubt these are the ones that are missing Paul: yeah, no idea why some of the photos rotate regardless they are oriented ok in my gallery, I switched to another one.

Kudzey, I understood that, but wanted to clarify for everyone that it can’t be any disturbances in front of or behind the bottle. The Appleton 21 photo is excellent.

FYI the background remove system RR uses is https://www.remove.bg/ - if in double feel free to run your photos through it (on the homepage there's an upload button). If the bottle comes out looking good then it's easy to import into RR. If there are choppy edges or parts not removed, they need to be cut out by hand.

Kudzey, Yes, couldn’t be an better understatement.

Most of you that’s active on the Discussion Forum, know that I’m helping Andy and his team to replace temporary images with correct ones and that I also report doubles to him (cause I can’t fix that myself).

Right now I’m almost ready having checked all brands and bottles on the site. So if you still have temporary images in your cabinet it depends on that I don’t have enough info to find it or that it’s impossible to find an image. If you still have the bottle in your possession you can take a good photo of it and publish it here and I will fix it.

So what I do now is just to check all new ratings and replace eventual temporary images with correct ones.

But added rum without a rating goes below the radar. So if you want me to replace such an added rum you got tell me on this thread.

Please, don’t hesitate to let me know about detected problems around images or if you want me to replace any temporary image. Best Regards Stefan

Stefan, thanks for your work. Could you share the list of the missing bottle images?

Thanks Kudzey! I will do that after that I’ve gone through them one more time. I hope I can reduce it to around 90 bottles which gives around 1% which is quite good. I believe it was around 20% when I started.

Stefan:

I found another oddball: Bumbu Original versus Bumbu XO. This company is like a minor version of Plantation since they buy their rum from various locations in the Caribbean and then age it themselves elsewhere. Bumbu Original claims to be from Barbados, but it is against Bajan laws to add sugar like this rum has lots of. On the other hand, Bumbu XO is from Panama, but both are labeled as being from Barbados on here. Perhaps the best solution here would be to label them both as being from the Caribbean just like the Plantation rums. And I saw another Bumbu in a solid white bottle, but that one is a rum cream and no telling where it is from. It stayed on the shelf, but I just had to ask the clerk behind the counter. I am sure that someone else will eventually submit a review for it.

How did I come across this? I checked all Panamanian rums on here for the Bumbu XO and it was not there. Since I did not feel like driving 200 miles to get more of the Frigate Reserve 15 Year from Don Pancho in Panama, I wondered what other Panamanian rums are available closer to home. I now have another bottle of Bumbu XO in my decreasing collection. Decent enough for not having to do all of that driving.

The Kaniche rums also come from multiple locations in the Caribbean, but I won't buy any more of those. Their Perfeccion is from Panama. Their Reserve and XO are from Barbados. All are labeled as being from Barbados here. They should all be labeled as being from the Caribbean. I also do believe that they are a side project of Plantation rums.

 

Hi Paul! This is a problem with, what I believe, all independent bottlers.

CDI that’s from France sells rum from most corners of the World.

The same goes for Velier from Italy and I can promise you that there are no Italian rum in their bottles.

Right now are most of the Rum companies to be found below respectively company’s home country. Except for some that’s below Caribbean, for example Plantation, but that’s not correct either cause Plantation sells rum for example from Fiji.

Maybe is the best way to handle this to use home country for the content, for example a Velier Foursquare xxx should be found below Barbados and named Foursquare xxx Released by Velier. Velier is a little like that now, but not totally.

So I think it should be good if it’s possible to search on Country (content) and bottler.

I have not brought up this question to Andy yet, but it would be interesting to hear the members opinion.

Well, difficult to say, so many locations can be involved as there are many stages of the rum production. Cane growing location can differ from the bottling place, not to mention cane pressing, fermentation, distillation and maturation. It is not rare that the maturation is split over two or more countries. The bottling place is the easiest to track and legally clear but I think that the most location-dependent factor is aging and we should sort rums by their country of maturation.

OMG!!! The few that I have suggested with this problem is just the tip of the iceberg. This is a really tough one here! So if one is looking for rums bottled in Italy, would they search for Italy or the Caribbean? Any rum made from cane juice or sugar syrup should have that country of origin. But for molasses based rums, that material can be imported from anywhere. As for maturation, would Plantation rums be classified as being from France since almost all of them reach final maturation in cognac casks over there? With the amount of complexity and possibilities here, maybe it is best to look up a specific rum and read the fine print in all of the reviews. And to complicate things further, the main description for some of these rums is not always 100% true. Hopefully, I did not open a can of worms.

Hey all, few things to add to the discussion that might help:

1) I’m the past I’ve always defaulted to what is written on the bottle for the name, including country. I found when I tried to dig deeper and change something in the name not on the bottle then members would email saying the name was wrong.

2) Initially years ago I hacked the company naming system and put in ‘Caribbean’ as a name holder for companies with brands from multiple countries. Now the system pulls a global list of countries so adding a non country name isn’t easily possible right now without coding.

3) Brands that list county origin (eg from countries with multiple countries) are simple written in the brand name field, not pulled from a separate country dropdown selector, so filters aren’t possible right now. Could look to add a 2nd brand dropdown, but then filtering might be odd - eg add 2 country filters vs default country search to brand now (current) company.

4) Open to suggestions how to improve, always been a tough one to categorize country especially with more and more bottlers coming on the scene and also more 2nd aging in another county.

Out of the 420 rums that I have reviewed on here, I have 51 different countries or points of origin. I have one from the Netherlands because that is where it was bottled and it came from somewhere down in the Caribbean. I would like these points of origin to be more accurate for my own sake, but I realize that is simply not possible. Rum bottlers love to keep us confused, which only hurts their image.

One way to counter the information chaos and overflow is to include as much information as possible. I know it's a bit out of scope of RR but I'd love to see a kind of rum-pedia, a complete set of data about each rum, followed by the reviews from this site. However I understand that this is not a good idea if we need filtrable labeling by country at the end. I would sacrifice simplicity for precision.

Jagsroy,

The picture you added is used for Cruzan Single Barrel 5-12 Year.

When I googled it I came to the conclusion that Cruzan Single Barrel and Cruzan Single Barrel 5-12 Year is the same rum.

Do you have the same opinion?

Update Nov. 9th 2021.

Today I unfortunately had to make a negative update and add 5 more bottles, so now it's 79 TI's.

October 21th 2021.

Around 14 days ago I promised that I should publish a list of the temporary images (TI's) left after that I've gone through all brands and bottles on the site.

It's now 74 TI's left which is less than 1% of all bottles. Before I started there were around 20% if I remember right. If anyone of you find pictures or have the possibility to take good photos of bottles on the list, please add them at this thread.

There could be some more than 74 cause newly added unrated bottles goes under my radar. So if anyone notice TI's not on the list, please let me know.

Besides this there are 27 TI's on unrated rum not produced anymore mostly from US distilleries that's impossible to find photos of. I will in my next update to Andy suggest that they should be deleted.

Here is the list of Ti’s:

1. Beausejour Traditionel Blanc 50,  

2. Caraibes Hors d’Age,  

3. Bielle Brut de Fut Premium La  Confrerie de 9-Year,  

4. HSE 2003-2006,  

5. Neisson 2016 Ed Hamilton French Limousin,  

6. Barrel Jack Overproof,  

7. Chairman’s Reserve Master’s Selection Martin Cate,  

8. Foursquare Cask Selection Warehouse 1 12-Year,  

9. Worthy Park 2011 WPL Warehouse Edition 9-Year,  

10. Private Selection X1,  

11. Private Selection X02,  

12. Private Selection X3,  

13. Private Selection Blend 26,  

14. Vigia Anejo 7-Year,  

15. Kröger & Thaler La Suerte XO,  

16. Plantation Danish Cask Collection,  

17. Plantation Trinidad 1997-2001-2010 Muscat Finish,  

18. Plantation Contrabandista,  

19. Plantation Guyana Aarhus Rommen 8-Year,  

20. Plantation Haiti XO Smugglers Cave Edition,    

21. Compagnie des Indes Trinidad Ans Port 9-Year,  

22. Malibu Tia Maria,  

23. Smuggler’s Cove Infinity Barrel June 2019,  

24. Kinship House of fine Spirits 2012,  

25. Grit City 2021 Medicine Hat,  

26. Privateer Distillers Drawer Eskimo Bros Barrel Club,  

27. Privateer Private Cask True Spirit 177 3-Year,  

28. Sugar Island Banana,  

29. Key West Rumbunctios Gold,  

30. Cedar Ridge Clearheart,  

31. House Spirits Triumvirate Original Edition,  

32.  House Spirits Triumvirate Final Edition,  

33. Minhas Coop White,  

34. Pacifica 174 Proof,  

35. Thumb Butte Skull Valley,  

36. Flagler Spirits Pirate Pete,  

37. Demerara Eldorado,  

38. El Dorado 2009 Port Mourant,  

39. El Dorado 2012 Binny’s Single Barrel 7-Year,  

40. El Dorado Smuggler’s Cove Private Reserve,  

41. El Dorado Smuggler’s Cove Private Reserve Spiced,  

42. Baluarte Extra Dry,  

43. Smuggler Multi Island Cask Strength,  

44. Pedrengo Batavias Blanco,  

45. Cadenhead’s Trinidad Green Label 11-Year,  

46. Cadenhead’s 2002 Guyana Enmore 11-Year,  

47. Cadenhead’s Nicaraguan Green Label 8-Year,  

48. Kill Devil (Hunter Liang) 1997 Guyana Cask Strength 20-Year,  

49. Crossbones Saint Christopher XO,  

50. Moose wood Gold,  

51. Moose wood Keiron wood 2,  

52. Coles Rumberry,  

53. Distillutions 2019 Coffee Vanilla,  

54. Bills Spiced,  

55. Linzgeiserder Inländer Rum,  

56. Schooner Light & Dry Caribbean Rum,  

57. Spirited Union 2021 Zoethoudertje Mammamir,  

58. Spirited Union Sweet Chocolate Temptation,  

59. William George Blend 5-Year,  

60. Rum Company Navy Rum,  

61. Rum Company Panama Port Cask Finish,  

62. N. Kroger Cask Strength 14-Year,  

63. Monkey Island Calypso Jamaica Rum Mixed Spirit,  

64. Robby Selected Dark,  

65. RomDeLuxe 2002 Batch 7 18-Year,  

66. S.B.S. Highland Malt Finish 23-Year,  

67. S.B.S. Juicy Calvados Finish,  

68. S.B.S. 1423 Indian Rum,  

69. Thorkilds 15-Year,  

70. Falkensten Oloroso Barrel,  

71. Skjold Burne Stenlöse Jule 2018 Caribbean XO Solera 15-Year,  

72. Rivière du Mat 1950 Ile de la Reunion,  

73. Garuda Gold,  

74. The Kimberly Rum Company Newport Spiced,

75. Straudwater Gold Bourbon Barrel,

76. Hampden 2021 DOK,

77. Hampden 2021 HLCF,  

78. Hampden 2021 LROK,

79. Hampden 2020 HGML,

 

 

 

 

 

Stefan I originally rated the Cruzan Single Barrel (5-12 years) in the original post. There are now 131 ratings in It but the original bottle has changed twice since then which is now the one I provided you the pic. The taste has not changed one bit so I thought the pic should be updated. I now see the pic I sent you with 2 ratings in it.   

Jagsroy,

The image is now updated and I will report to Andy in my next update that "Cruzan Single Barrel" and "Cruzan Single Barrel 5-12 Year" is the same rum and should be put together.

Stefan:

I just bough a bottle of Bombarda Falconet today and mine was in a black bottle. On this site, the same rum is shown under two different names. Three reviews are for the Falconet with the wrong picture, which should be the black bottle. Zero reviews are for the correct bottle and it is named Bombarda Falconet Midnight. Nowhere on my black bottle does it say Midnight. By the way, it is crap!

Hi Paul!

I checked the Bombarda homepage and both bottles are present.

In the description of the rum it seems like it's the same rum. Maybe the color is different, but I can't see that.

Cause both bottles are present at their homepage I don't think we should delete any of them. I think someone used "Midnight" just to describe the black bottle.

 I have now renamed it to "Falconet (Black Bottle)".

/Stefan 

Today I unfortunately had to make a negative update of my post from October 21th and add 5 more bottles, so now it's 79 TI's. All 5 are pretty new releases that should have needed added photos or at least more info when it comes to the 4 Hampden's which I actually think are Habitation Velier's.

Doh! I apologize for the less than useful photo. I'll get a better one shortly. 

Althaur:

Which Total Wine did you find this one at?

Paul, in Laurel, MD. 

Althaur:

Thanks! That is way too far for me to drive to get it and it cannot be shipped to Louisiana where I live.

Savor it!!!! When this one is gone, don't expect to find very many more.

And I just checked this store. There are no more from this one!!!! You scored a good one!

 

 

Althaur,

Good photo!

The TI is now replaced with your photo.

The Barcelo Anejo is enlarged in the cabinet and you see the enlarged white background

Foglialuce,

Saw that in my own cabinet and don't know why it happened, but now it's fixed.

To all rum enthusiasts at this great site,

use this thread if you recognize any problems around images.

If you have a temporary image in any of your cabinets, please add a useful photo to this thread if you have the bottle or know where to take a picture of it.

Hi Paul,

I've tried to find a picture of the whole bottle, but can't find any.

So if you have one, please add it.

If not, I will keep on looking for it now and then./Stefan 

Stefan:

The rest of this bottle as well as the bottle are now both gone. I wound up pouring the rest of it down the toilet. I seriously doubt that anyone else can find this rum, let alone feel the need to post a review. I should have rated it as a 2 or 3 instead of a 5, but I can forgive this distiller for this one goof up.

Paul,

OK! Do you remember in which store you bought it or/and what does WU CRU stands for?

Stefan:

I bought my bottle from Martin Wine And Spirits, and they have several stores in SE Louisiana. The closest one is about 25 miles away from me. The clerk told me that they had just gotten this one in. There is still no picture of it on their website. I read all of the fine print on the bottle, and there was no clue as to what WU CRU stands for.

Jimmy,

Couldn't find any better by moment, so I used it as you can see.

 I change the ABV.

Hi all Rum Lovers!

Just post this as a reminder.

When you add a rum rather new or rare, please add a good photo of the whole bottle from straight forward.

As for example all the Chairman's Master Selections and Single Casks just released for one shop or bar.

Quite many of those are impossible to find images of at the web.