Black Magic Black Spiced

I stumbled upon this rum in a local liquor store, and decided to take a chance on it, even if it wasn't on RumRatings. I was pleased by its smoothness and sweetness, and have enjoyed it more than once just to sip. But I love it with ginger beer, a great tropical-ish drink.

I found this one nestled in between the Captains Dark and The Kraken. It seemed like s knock off but the price was right. It is actually quite good, a bit sweet and heavy on the vanilla. It makes a satisfying beverage on a budget. The graphics on the bottle are fun and interesting as it challenges you to see two different pictures at one time, possibly aided by a few drinks to free your minds eye. This to me is a good rum to introduce to your friends who don't drink rum.

I came across this one next to kraken and saw it was cheaper and came with a 2 liter of Coke and a shot glass. So why not? It seemed very similar to kraken but taste and aroma told me they were different. I didn't get swept away with the sweet smell that seeps out of kraken. It indeed had that aroma I pictured potions from Harry Potter would emit. For price taste wasn't that bad. not a kraken but for a black spiced rum I think it was enjoyable.

I believe everyone that comes across this will see it as a discounted kraken. If you were to do a blind test you would easily be able to differentiate between the two. For price it's really not a bad rum.

I actually preferred this one neat rather than mixed. As soon as you crack this one open you detect a moderate maple aroma and hints of vanilla greet your tongue. A decent price for the product as well.

Initially tried it on its own and found it to have a strong burnt taste that was hard to get down. I enjoyed the vanilla in it tho and found that when mixed with coke it tasted like good cream soda.

Like a mix between Kraken and Rebellion. Nice very sweet flavour, well spiced with a warming aftertaste.

Not your usual spiced rum that overpowers in vanilla... Suttle and clever in flavour but still a mixing rum

Very sweet with strong caramel and what I guess could best be described as a very sweet vanilla. Maybe a hint of what reminded me of chocolate candied cherry.

In the mouth, comes on very sweet, very thick and syrupy, and surprisingly very smooth. The spiciness kicks in with some oak on the finish, but still pretty smooth. To me though, it seems the smoothness comes only as the result of sugar.

I tried looking this up on the added sugars list but it isn't on there. I'm guessing based on the sweetness there is a lot of sugar added to this rum. While smooth, unless you are into sipping maple syrup, this rum is too sweet to enjoy except as a mixer. At that it does a pretty decent job. In Coke with a splash of lime juice it did very well. But I'd buy Kraken over this.

Edges to a 9 due to the price point. I have a sweet tooth so love the caramel taste with vanilla that is evident and I find easy to drink neat which I can't say for Kraken. If you don't have a sweet tooth then Kraken would be more your taste.