Appleton Estate Reserve Blend

This is right on the border between mixer and sipping. It's not close to Appleton's better bottles (the ones with years in the name) but it's a nice step above the signature blend.
I love this in Dr. Pepper. The spice matches and it has a good balance of sugar and the body holds up.

A great addition to my bar. I found that it was a bit to harsh on the palate to drink straight but love this stuff in any tiki cocktail.

Decent run of the mill rum, better than most of your rum n coke rums but not a real Neat rum. On the rocks or in a nicer rum drink where you actually may want to taste the rum in the drink.

I picked up a bottle of this recently thinking it was something new from Appleton Estate and I was partially right. It's a new label for the same rum as the Appleton Estate Reserve rum. They changed labeling and naming structure in the spring of 2015. Confusing.

The aroma in the bottle has some astringency to it but nothing much else. Upon tasting it I notice some vanilla and caramel but that gets knocked aside by some tongue-tingling spiciness. Doesn't have much of a burn but still not very smooth. I would not recommend this as a sipping rum but as a mixer. It's usable and for the price a decent mixing rum.

Not awful, just not up to the hype. Strange fuel-like initial taste followed by a raspy finish mars the experience. Definitely not a sipping rum in my opinion and there are better as a base for mixed drinks out there. When one has lemons, one makes lemonade so methinks I'll use the rest of the bottle for rum sours.

Is an OK option if there's nothing left. Not impressed. It lacks character and flavor for being a Jamaican rum.

Nice colour and familiar Jamaica smell. Initial taste was too much funk and lacked a little depth but the after taste quite pleasant. Round two was an improvement - not sure if I will purchase again as the price category has some winners.

As a Rum enthusiast I always like to try new Rums and to me this was new, as my Liquor store usually does not carry Appleton Estate. Unfortunately at the moment it was either this, or their other less expensive options. Being under 20$ I did not have great expectations for this Rum, which is good because it was slightly below average (which for the price is ok with me). My biggest issue with this particular Rum was how awful it tastes straight or on the rocks. Could you drink this straight..? sure... would you enjoy it..? less than likely. In mixed drinks the prognosis is less grim, it blends well with orange juice, pineapple juice, and pina coladas just fine, it just doesn't enhance them like a great rum does. For these reasons, I would rate this a 4/10 if taken straight or on the rocks, and a 6/10 in mixed drinks; splitting the difference I'd round this out as a 5/10 overall. Not terrible, but certainly not good either.

Sugar: 0 gpl. Got a bottle of this as a present and quickly opened it as I thought it was something special. Must have been the new label or I had consumed too much rum already. It's okay as a mixer. It seems that Appleton is taking whatever they have left over from various barrels and calling it a reserve blend. There are some trace elements of tastes found in the higher priced Appleton's but it's my opinion that Appleton is aiming for the Bacardi section of the market with the price of this rum. It's still better than Bacardi, but the bar has been lowered. It's a fair to decent mixing rum. Spend the extra and get the Appleton 12 year old.

Was hoping for a sipper, but definitely a little harsh for that, for the price wasnt excited.