Bumbu Original

This crap is overpriced and overloaded with an unnatural sweetness. There is strong smell of alcohol, vanilla extract, and banana laffy taffy as you lift your glass to take a sip. The body is weak and sugary with a finish that is chemical tasting sprinkled with peppered bananas. This stuff is only good for maybe making mixed party drinks. I can definitely see a bad hangover from over indulging in this one due to the high sugar content. Traditional rum drinkers this is a pass. There are A TON of better rums out there for $30+ that I paid for this one like appletons 12 year rare blend.

I know each to his own, and tastes wildly vary but this should not be sold as Rum. Like the other reviews have said this is a sugary banana liqueur. Received this as a gift and as soon as I smelled it I knew something was wrong. A couple sips and I couldn't handle the sweetness and strong banana essence. Had a chemical aftetaste as well. Couldn't drink more and attempting a return. Nice bottle and claims of long heritage.

Nothing more to add. Sweet & flavoured af, not good for a sipper, maybe for cocktails. That should be placed on the label of whatever this is.

First off, this product is bottled at only 35% ABV, so regardless of what else is in there, it can't legally be sold as “rum” in most countries. Rather, it's a spiced rum or a liqueur. (Note it never says rum on the bottle, only “Bumbu Rum Company.” Very sneaky. You thought it was rum, didn't you?)
I was warned about this bottle (it has quite the terrible, well-earned reputation within the rum enthusiast community), but somehow I was still surprised at just how bad this was. The nose is full of artificial fruit flavor (though they claim everything is natural; well there must be some really crap natural ingredients out there). People say banana runts, and that’s pretty close, but it was a lot more than that. Big candy aromas—bubble gum, jolly rancher, cough syrup—with lots of vanilla. The banana comes on the middle/end of the nose. As for the palate… mostly a sickly sweet, syrupy mess. More runts, maple & cough syrups… really hard to drink.
And yet, underneath all the sticky garbage, (far underneath,) there did seem to be the faintest hint of a decent rum base. A touch of wood? Something actually resembling a drinkable cane distillate? Maybe that's just the vanilla aftertaste. In any case, there was really nothing to keep it from being, without a doubt, the worst "rum" I’ve ever had the displeasure of trying.
Putting it bluntly: This liquid is bad, and the people who market and profit from it are bad too. Since this sells for around $35–40, you're paying at least double what this is worth, just for a cool bottle (and a massive marketing campaign). There are so many great rums—real rums—out there in this price range, if you're willing to do a little research. Bumbu just gives rum a bad name. That it pretends to represent some kind of historic Barbadian concoction just adds insult to injury. Please, spare yourself from the experience. Don't support the bad guys.

What crap! Artificial banana flavoring was overwhelming, way too sweet. This was the 'top shelf' rum at my local Albertson's grocery store. Avoid, this ain't Rum.

I don't know what this is, but it isn't rum. It's a sugary liqueur filled with artificial flavours. Gross. It's a no from me.

Honestly among the worst rums I’ve tried. Tastes so overwhelmingly of banana and is a pretty adulterated rum all around.

Might make a decent cocktail but I haven’t found a good use for it yet.

EDIT: sampled again today. Confirmed all my previous thoughts; sweetened additive soup with no rum character and void of any sort of merit. Brand rep shamelessly harped on "15 years old" (wrong). Bragged about how people who "didn't think they liked rum" try it and love it, and I'm standing there biting my tongue because it ISN'T EVEN RUM. I absolutely hate this product; its producer assumes the consumer is an idiot who won't know any better, and apparently they're right because the rest of the tasting group ate it up. UGH I just can't even.

A nightmare product that encapsulates all of the rum category's problems.
-The label fails to clearly communicate that this is a flavoured product, hiding "with natural flavours" in fine print on the big X.
-Avoids labelling as "rum" while also strongly implying that it is rum.
-"Product of Barbados" is a misleading half-truth, as true Bajan rums contain no additives and are bottled at minimum 40% ABV.
-retails for approximately 200% of its actual bottom shelf value.
-no rum flavour; it's all buried under sugar and flavouring additives.
-novelty pirate-y bottle further suggests they've got something to hide.

TL:DR not really rum, more of a pre-mixed cocktail or liqueur. Leave this trash on the shelf.

Taste more like a candy than a rum. This is too sweet and almost artificial ! There are so many rum from Barbados.better than that one

The scent is dominated by banana. The palate is overly sweet and the banana flavor is overwhelming. I mixed this with various soft drinks including coke and sprite. Sprite made it tolerable and coke turned into a juice. Lastly, the price is not right. Edit: Updating my rating from 3 to 1. As the bottle waited in my cabinet to be consumed, there was always literally anything else that I did rather drink.