Zaya Gran Reserva 12-Year

After reading a post on the discussion board about how Zaya has become undrinkable swill under new ownership, I finally opened a bottle I had picked up last year while on vacation at what I thought was a great price of $25.

i have to say I agree 100% with the guy who made that post. This stuff basically tastes like vanilla extract. I found an unopened bottle stashed in my cellar of the old stuff with real palm leaf wrap around the neck, and though it is a sugar bomb it at least tastes good. The new stuff either has a paper wrap around the neck or a metal screw top and collar. My newer bottle has the metal, but according to the guy who wrote the post the paper wrapped bottles are terrible too.

I have heard this rum was awesome back in the days it was from Guatemala, unfortunately that was before I got interested in rum. The garbage stuff says "a blend of 12 rums" in the little round label on the bottle instead of "aged 12 years" on the older bottles. Classic bait and switch, avoid the newer bottles. I wouldn't buy this again at any price.

A lot of people like this one so I bought it with a lot of expectation. Nope. Even mixed I could barely swallow. Got to try them all. Right?

Very smooth, not overly sweet. It tastes like its spiced though which is a slight turn-off.

This is not a good rum. It can not be sipped neat. It's not even the best mixer. It tasted good mixed with vanilla cream soda. I taste artificial vanilla. I find this to be similar to Kraken although, it tastes like there is more artificial sweetness in Zaya. I hear the recipie used to be good, it's a shame they had to change it.

The first time I tried this rum I was overwhelmed. It was rich, smooth, the aroma itself was intoxicating.
It paired incredibly with a spicy, full bodied cigar as well. I swore by it and highly recommended it to rum-drinking friends, and non-rum drinkers, too.
Recently I purchased another bottle to replace my well-shared empty one. The first thing I noticed was the different label, bottle style and cork that had been replaced by a metal screw cap. They were omens of a tragedy yet to come.
The aroma is way off. Instead of the delicate and sweet smell of vanilla and coffee, it smells like artificial vanilla in a tin can. The flavor is just as disappointing. Gone is the complexity of select blended and aged rums. This is flat, almost stale tasting, and where the previous incarnation left a smooth, warm finish, the new batch just tastes cheap and amateur; think watered-down Kalhua thinned with mineral spirits stored in a beer can!
I blame myself for this bad purchase. Not only is the label design different, it is telling. The original Zaya Gran Reserva label stated "Aged 12 Years." The new label merely claims it is made from "12 selected rums." Caveat emptor.
Now I must find another spiced rum to fill the void left by a poorly but cleverly disguised imposter.

Wonderfully smooth with vanilla and sweet notes to it. A mild but well bodied flavor, which is very enjoyable to sip neat or use in a mixed drink.

**Update 1/18 - "new" formula Zaya. What a disappointment. I used to like this one a lot. Now I find it hard to even sip, as others have noted, due to it's astringent, cough syrup/vanilla extract rude-slap-in-the-palate taste it now possesses.
I'll manage to mix this in my mai-tai and it's okay to drink in a mixer, but not stand alone. I will not be buying this one again, sadly.

Zaya Gran Reserv recently changed in many aspects - Packaging, and mix. It went from a really enjoyable experience and is now a nasty tasting cheap bottle of rum.

The way I can tell the difference is the packaging - if the bottle has the real weaving, and a cork - that is the good stuff. If the bottle is a screw top with printed weaving - do not waste your money!

$36. Mediocre. This rum does not prove itself as a good sipping rum. Heavy smoked oak notes predominate, followed by a hint of vanilla. Pyrat is outstanding for sipping: I haven't found another to match Pyrat. Yet.

We enjoyed the original parent of this much less deserving offspring...We are so sad. The original Zaya was from Guatemala, but due to Zaya losing out regarding distribution rights to another Solera Method rum company (which I will not mentioned, but it is way overpriced and not nearly as good as Guatemalan Zaya was), at last the demise of what Zaya truly was, a world-class rum. My husband and I have tried many many rums, and the original Guatemalan Zaya was in a class of it's own--flavor, richness, smoothness, subtle bouquet that came out all along the palate from start to finish and with a delectable balance...oh we so miss those days. Anyone here who may remember the original Zaya absolutely knows what I'm describing. Our crisis with Zaya's change began suddenly we noticed a distinct change in flavor with an unbalanced forward sweet (too sweet) and vanilla flavor, like it was artificially flavored or something. My husband also started getting headaches from it. We finally noticed the color change with the Trinidad version being darker, and also it was not nearly as smooth as the Guatemalan version. Lastly, it had a new "paraffin-ish" off-putting mouthfeel too. We stopped drinking it and then went on an exhaustive search for our beloved original Guatemalan Zaya, but everyone else who also knew about the switch had already bought out all remaining stocks; everywhere!. As luck would have it, we just happened to find a bottle of the original Zaya at a total dive liquor store. It was sitting way back on the self in it's own location without anything else around, almost like it was going to be discarded; and it had accumulated a copious amount of dust from sitting there so long. We immediately snatched it up and quickly took it home to enjoy! That was the last time we had our beloved Guatemalan Zaya...and we relished every sip! It was oh so good...We really wish Zaya would somehow be reproduced to its original glory from Guatemala.

This rum was very disappointing to me. It seemed way to sweet and tasted of added vanilla and had no legs. I gave it to my wife for her baking needs. Rum in chocolate banana bread is good stuff.