896 5-Year

Light golden color like Doorly’s 5 & 8. Exceeded my expectations for a $15 rum but not my thing. Good to have for novice rum and coke or soda drinkers. The 8 year is far superior.

Complex, rich & spicy
Hints of caramelized nuts, cedar, mocha. Aftertaste of banana ?
Recommend for sure especially as this price point . Better mixed

Never heard of this rum and still not sure who makes it, but this is a good / inexpensive Barbados rum.

This rum has a nice golden colour. Unfortunately, the sweet rum scent was overpowered by a smell of rubbing alcohol. I was surprised that it tasted fairly mild (little burn) when sipped straight, and even better with some ice which took some of the harshness away.

This rum makes a really good "clean and simple" rum and cola.

Decent sipper, good mixed with coke. Vanilla, sweet.

Decent rum, better as a mix than sipping. The 896 8 year is a much better sipping.

at first i was iffy, but the more i drank it, the more i liked it. definitely a little different then what i was expecting / used to, but not bad. probably won’t buy this specific blend again, but i don’t dislike it. so 6/10 seems fair. 100% a mixer to me as well.

This rum was nice and makes a good mixer, but it does not stand up to it's older brother.

I was so impressed with my new bottle of 896 8-Year after a month that I went back to Total Wine to restock that one and get this one to compare side by side. Well, the 8-Year still stands head and shoulders above this one. Then it came time for the overall ranking of this one. I compared it to my Doorly's 5 Year, which narrowly edged this one out, and at half the price. I no longer see any reason to buy this rum unless the store is out of Doorly's 5 Year and 896 8-Year. It still rates as a 5, but there is simply way too much competition out there.

Update: This is the first rum that I have tried that can ruin a perfectly good coconut water and a perfectly good cola (separate drinks, of course). Since it is not good enough to sip neat or on the rocks, I desperately tried mixing it with a very good ginger ale. That saved it. So I cannot recommend this rum, but highly recommend it's 8 Year older brother. The two are like night and day.

Rating for this one reflects the taste and a $15.00 price. Flavor was okay straight, with a strongish afterburn, but when combined with coke and the price, the rating gets better.