Cane Island Guatemala Single Estate 4-Year

This is one rum that has really surprised me! It starts out with a smooth mouth and throat feel which is slightly on the sweet side for me. Nice balanced flavors of oak, pear, brown sugar, and honey followed by a mellow vanilla hint on the medium long finish. Complexity is there, but needs more time to mature in order to show through.

Maybe I got ahold of a good batch, but for $20, this outpaces its price point by a mile! Pleasantly surprised!

was a sample in my 24 days of rum advent calendar (2022 ed)

Easy sipping. Nice taste

I got this as part of the Rum Ratings Tasting Kit.

A decent rum for only $24.99 (Total Wines & More). Smells and tastes of molasses, brown sugar, bourbon, and oak. A decent rum!

maybe I received a taste from a spoiled bottle or something but this stuff was absolutely terrible. Musty odor and heavy wood. Flavor was exactly the same - musty with heavy wood flavor and harsh on top of that. The 6 other reviews on this rum are pretty positive which leads me to think something was wrong with the bottle but there is no way I am taking a chance on buying a bottle to find out.

A little rough. Definitely a mixer. A little too much burn for my taste. Worth trying though.

Lighter rum, has dried fruit and brown sugar on the nose. The finish tasted almost vegital to me.

Nice nose. The taste has the notable cane sugar notes, some toffee, and a little bite. Smooth finish with a hint of burn. Overall, very nice for a 4yr. I might consider having this one on hand.

Flavor is OK. It had more flavor than the Cane Island Panama sample and was perhaps a bit sweeter. Drinkable but probably not buyable.

Straight down the middle a smoother zacapa but less sweet and heavier on toffee notes

On the nose, the rum delivers hints of butter and bananas with a slightly musty kick. By kick, I mean it has a bit of a bite that suggests a robust alcohol burst when you sip it. The nose and the flavor match, and the alcohol burst at the beginning does in fact overwhelm the nicer flavors of the rum, but only momentarily. The nicer flavors linger fora while. The flavors include sweet orange peel, and a bitter over aged sauerkraut flavor layered into the sweetness. I chose this description because I dipped into a jar of kraut yesterday that was a bit brown and mushy, and it had a similar taste. The difference is that I will toss the kraut and drink the rum. The website says it was aged in bourbon barrels, so this may account for the mystery flavor. Overall, pleasant for sipping, and would seem to mix well with fruitier drinks. It is interesting that this is designated rum and not aguardiente since it is fermented both from sugar cane and molasses. Apparently rum in Guatemala comes ONLY from "virgin sugar cane honey".