Bumbu Original

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.

Tried with rum loving friends, we called it bum juice, which is fitting. Horribly sweet, tastes full of fake flavorings, so many much better spiced rums out there. The bottle will attract many no doubt

Podle legislativy EU tohle neni rum a už vubec by nemeli prezentovat ze je z Barbadosu ... hnus

There seems to be some fuss about Bumbu so I gave it a try. I'm more than disappointed--despite what's on the label this is NOT rum, it's a low-proof ghastly-sweet banana/vanilla liqueur. One drink over crushed ice was slightly interesting as a change at first, but it didn't improve when I tried it with citrus mixers and I wouldn't risk offending even rum-dumb guests so I poured it down the drain. Don't buy this believing it's rum, I learned the hard way after coughing up $50. The artificial banana flavor is overwhelming and I LIKE other banana concoctions...I don't have sophisticated tastes. Half an hour after drinking the Bumbu I had to gargle with beer to get the lingering fake banana taste off my palate. If you want a tasty banana drink, just combine some decent aged rum like Doorly's with Giffard Banane Du Bresil or Tempus Fugit Banana lieueur and splash in some fresh lime juice, shake with ice, and you have a tasty banana daiquiri. Boycott Bumbu, it's stunningly horrible.

Awful fake banana sweetness - like child sweet shop gone horribly wrong. Save your money and avoid!!!! This isn’t rum, this is pure bs marketing

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.

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.

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.

Bumbu is a high additive mess that barely resembles a rum. If you're looking for a sugary rum liqueur, you might like it. I do not.

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.