Cruzan Estate Diamond Dark

Excellent all around rum. Easy to enjoy neat (though not top shelf), on the rocks or mixed. Makes a great Cuba libre. A rum I recommend to anyone given it only has a $20 price tag.

Tonight’s Rum, Cruzan Estate Diamond Dark Rum from St Croix. Picked this one up from Total Wine & More in Washington. I’ve had quite a few of the Cruzan family of Rums including the Single Barrel. Honestly, I was not too impressed with that one, however, the Estate Diamond is a blend of 5 to 12-year-old Rums and I have higher hopes for this one. It starts off with a true Rum bouquet having hints of orange, walnut, and vanilla. Nice. On the lips it’s mild. Sitting still on the tongue it starts to develop a sweetness. Overall in the mouth, it turns a bit peppery, notes of orange, apricot, caramel, and chocolate, but following the pepper, it subsides back to the sweetness detected at that start. The throat it does not burn as I’ve seen some other Rums do; the finish is a bit dry and that dryness surprises me. Everything leading up to the final vapors would lead you to think otherwise. Think it’s a nice Rum and will enjoy the remainder of the bottle served neat. It’s a good 8 out of 10. My number 163 of 500. Only 337 to go! Cheers!

Though not a preferred brand, Diamond Dark is a good rum. Not a sipper, best as a mixer - but a winner in the Cruzan lineup.

It was on the list, but I've never been a fan of Cruzan.

Bon rhum pour le.prix, se boit très bien seul ou sur glace

I let it breathe. You get the traditional sweet nose. Little bite but goes away and warms back up at end. I get the vanilla notes and oak from barrel. Based on price you can sip but not ideal. Probably best for mixer. Relatively smooth with little bite as stated

Now this is one cheap sipper at $20 per bottle. It will never make it into my top ten sipping rums, but there is nothing offensive about this one either. The nose is alcohol with a taste like caramel and an after taste similar to rums from Mount Gay with no burn. I did not even need to add ice. No need to feel guilty if using it as a mixer. The wide mouth bottle with a cork is also reusable.

Compared to my other cheap sipper of Flor de Cana 7 for only a couple of bucks more and being much easier to find, this one loses out by a margin. Whenever I wind up going back to the Florida beaches, this one will be at the top of my list for an all purpose rum if there is no Flor de Cana 7 available..

Picked this one off the shelf at Total Wine to leave at my daughter's house. I remember that it wasn't expensive. I'm no connoisseur but I drink a lot of aged rum on the rocks. Turned out to be a pretty good option. Good taste and pretty smooth. I'd buy it again.

Not as smooth as anticipated. Initial taste has hints of smoke and oak then a sharp finish. A bit disappointed with the overall experience.

You'll still know you're drinking rum, but this has a really nice flavor, smokey and bitter. Good stuff.