12 Year old side by side tasting take 2!


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Jimmy Cliff (PREMIUM) 🇺🇸 | 495 ratings Author Posted 20 May '23

Side by side sampling 12 year fully aged rums by accident.I just received an order of rum and champagne from Total Wine / Instacart. Without planning so I purchased three 12 year old rums that I have had many times before, so rainy Saturday afternoon lets do side by side sampling.

First up Doorlys/Foursquare Barbados 43% light golden brown color, smooth sweet very easy to drink. I'lltake it over Plantation XO. No reason to kick her out of bed in fact if every bar had this as a staple the world would be a better place. Sampling neat but could easily get washed out with too much ice.

Second batter up my old friend Eldorado 12 Guyana. First note slightly darker in the glass than Doorlys standard 40%, what's not to like here, a bit sweeter than Doorlys we all know the add sugar but nice lingering depth. If I had to pick something to be shipwrecked with this might be my first choice. Big bang for the buck, we have been married for a long time, glad to have another fling.

This is moving along quickly on to the Real McCoy/Foursquare Barbados at 40%. I typically shy away from private bottling of other distillery rums, the whole middle man extra cost thing. But this was on sale one time and I tried it was impressed. Let's see how it hold up against El Dorado, which by the way is still lingering in a great way. At the end of the day color was pretty consistent through all three rums,  El Dorado might have been slightly darker. Wow this is the Real McCoy if you excuse the pun, very good swill but how is it so different than the Doorlys each distilled and aged 12 years from Foursquare. And double the price to boot, but quite a nice expression. maybe the heavy charred bourbon barrels versus white oak barrels of Doorlys???

Here is the recap, all three are very good rums priced $25-$50 kind of my sweet spot for daily sippers. Not quite Foursquare ECS that of late are upwards of $150+ per bottle but these cask strength rums are not my daily drinkers, the ones I just tasted are. So end of the day I like the depth and char of Real McCoy best, but I also enjoy the sweetness and flavors of Greenwood still Guyana rum quite a bit. Doorly's 12 nothing wrong at all but your up against some stiff competition and at 2 for one compared to Real McCoy you have to decide quality over quantity. But in all fairness Doorley's was first so I'll double back with another tott (why knot). Yes third man out, gets the job done quite nicely but not holding fully up to the other two still quite impressive at $25-$30 US

I hope someone finds this interesting or amusing, for me I enjoy it and like to share my feedback.

KE
Kevin 🇺🇸 | 78 ratings Replied 25 May '23

I've tried all 3 but not side by side. They're all good sippers for a good price. I switch between them but often find myself liking ElDorado the best. Just tried their 8yr old and it has a bit more burn but more flavor than the 12yr. Will be sticking to the 12yr but enjoyed the 8 as well. I like their entire lineup but have become bored with the 15yr. So I find switching things up quite enjoyable.  Hopefully if I leave the 15yr and come back to it later. I might not be bored with it. 🙏

CH
Charles M 🇬🇧 | 149 ratings Replied 25 May '23

Doorly's 12yo is one of my every day rums.

El Dorado 12yo is too sweet for me, and I think it would be for the better if they didn't add sugar to it. And according to the Far Rum Pirate's list, they add a lot!!

Real McCoy 12yo. It's a nice enough drop, but I don't really get it. It is more exspensive than the real McCoy (ie Doorly's) and IIRC this 12yo is a fair bit more usually than Doorly's 14yo. The whole pricing of Real McCoy makes absolutely no sense to me, even if they have certain wood finsihes. I suspect that Seale's don't do them many favours when selling them casks.

KE
Kevin 🇺🇸 | 78 ratings Replied 26 May '23

Since the fairly new  EU regulations I've noticed quite a significant decrease in the amount of sugar added to all of the  ElDorado line up. I agree that they once   sugarbombed their products but, recently they've decreased that amount to allow for the new regulations. Although they still add sugar it's not the bomb it used to be so I went back. I'm not interested in a super dry rum. All rum needs that smidgen of sugar to bring out its profile and I believe ElDorado has met that.

Paul B avatar image
Paul B 🇺🇸 | 472 ratings Replied 26 May '23

Before joining this site 5 and a half years ago, ED12 was my absolute favorite rum. I have since found out about the evils of added sugar and can no longer go back to any rum with 20 gpl or more of added sugar. However, I still buy their ED 8 Year whenever I can find it. It only has 8 gpl of added sugar.

I tried one bottle of Doorly's 12 Year, which was after 3 days of doing cannabis gummies in Las Vegas more than 3 years ago. I absolutely hated the bitter taste and never bought another bottle. I still buy their XO and 8 Year.

As for The Real McCoy 12 Year, I am lucky enough to live close to where the store owner has chosen his own casks for bottling. This adds another $5 to each bottle, but I do keep that one in stock. I now have one of those bottles opened.

And side by side taste testings is the only way to go!

WA
wayoutwest 🇬🇧 | 101 ratings Replied 27 May '23

I have recently bought both Doorlys 12 and ED12 after a year or so since first trying them.

First time round I preferred the ED12. It was my first Demerera and I was beguiled by the the richness and complexity, and that unique, slightly dirty vibe. In comparison, the Doorlys I found to be very drinkable but simple and slightly disappointing. 

It's funny how my pallet has evolved though. This time around, the Doorlys is still perhaps a little one dimensional but I can't think of anything else that, for the price, best sums up unsweetened blended rum.

The ED12 still has the richness, but in the time since my first try, I've come to prefer pot still rum, and to really like the 15 year old, and the 12 is just too column still for me. I ended up mixing most of the bottle, 50/50 with an independent bottling of Port Mourant, which worked out great!

The Real McCoy. It's nice, but really just tastes like R L Seale 10 year old with a bit of extra barrel char. Not worth the extra cash, I would say. I'd take Doorlys 12 every time.

CH
Charles M 🇬🇧 | 149 ratings Replied 27 May '23

@Kevin - interesting. Might get myself another bottle, and if not great, I can always use as a base of a blend.

@wayoutwest - tbh I think our tastes do change. I started on Mountgay Eclipse, and drank far too much of it. Shitty job in a bottle shop and I used to do 3 bottles a week (not mixed). Not sure I could do that. Then I moved into quite sweet rums, but now I far preffer au naturel - no sugar, no colour, no chhill filtering etc.  As for your thoughts on the Real McCoy, they seem to echo mine. Doorly's/Seale's  (so a very good base rum) with some barrel ageing and horrendous pricing. 

Jimmy Cliff avatar image
Jimmy Cliff (PREMIUM) 🇺🇸 | 495 ratings Author Replied 27 May '23

I love all. These post especially Paul B "After 3 days of doing Cannibus Gummies" I finally doubled back to a bottle of Pussers 15 straight Guayana blend in a different price range but if you like the Greenwood still flavor that hints in ElDorado this is full blown, more of an evening sipper. Sampling The new Foursquare Touchstone now another 60% bourbon smack like 2008, 2009, 2010. Really loved Isonomy but it was expensive in Florida and hard to re acquire. 

Paul B avatar image
Paul B 🇺🇸 | 472 ratings Replied 27 May '23

Jimmy:

I was so damn glad after those 3 days of being stuck in my Las Vegas hotel room from trying different combinations of gummies. In the end, 20 mg of Hybrid worked best for me and got rid of my knee problems. I took full advantage of this pain relief on my fourth day and hiked my favorite trail in Red Rocks Canyon further than I had ever hiked it before. When I returned from that hike, that is when I opend up my bottle of Doorly's 12 Year Rum, so my judgment may have still been clouded. When I got back home, two of my auto mechanics told me that my knee pain would return after 3 weeks, and it did.  Since then, Delta 8 gummies are now legal in most states and they are much better than what I had in Nevada. No paranoia and no muchies, but the pain relief only lasts for 48 hours, with a 6 hour buzz that renders one unable to drive anywhere.  I also do not want to touch my rum collection at all during this time. I still prefer my rum collection to gummies.