El Dorado 21-Year

For what this rum costs (2 to 4x more than others), you are better suited to buy mire bottles if another type. El Dorado 12 is the best that they make, and they quickly go down hill with age, which is perplexing. If you prefer harsh, this is for you.

I bought this bottle because of the reviews here. Initial impressions. For the price, the packaging is a little cheap. I know that it doesn’t matter, but it does to me. I like my rum shelf to look good. Ah, vanity!

The nose of this rum belies it’s flavor. The smell is a bit harsh, at first but mellows with a bit of rest as most rums do. Notes of oak, chocolate, brown sugar and spice.

I drink most of my rum with a single ice cube, and this one is VERY smooth. Lightly sweet on the tongue, but with an artificial feel to it.

Immediately after sipping brown sugar, honey and spice meet your palate and the aftertaste is that of honey. Overall very pleasant and worthy of a spot on the shelf, despite the cheap bottle.

Update: mouth full of chocolate. All other notes disappear under the cocoa flavor. Needed another drink to get the chocolate flavor out of my mouth.

Update 8/31/20. After a few months on my shelf, this rum has changed dramatically. The aftertaste is like vomit. Nasty AF.

Best consumed quickly because time does not help this rum. I pitched the remainder of the glass.

This is definitely a dosage bottle but I'd say 15 > 21 > 12. I sip it or occasionally use in a cocktail

Ive only tasted the 15yr eldorado and i like that better. This one is sweeter tho, but it Got like a sour taste i dont like

Bright label, not dark, hate that taste, maby I'm not an old fisherman to like that as peated whyskey and drum tabacco

I get brown sugar, molasses, vanilla, and toffee. As the glass sits I can pick up orange, spice and chocolate. It smells massively complex. Sadly dulled by the ageing practices

I‘ve been lucky to enter the world of rum (me being a whisky aficionado) via very experienced friends. I encountered this 21 y/o after a few years of tasting and developing my palet through a variety of all sorts of indies bottlings. I only want to share my experience and this is just an opinion(!), but this is utterly disappointing and I don’t understand the raving reviews. It is far to sweet to my liking, it lacks complexity and the low ABV certainly doesn’t help either.

i see high ratings on this one but i found it have 22 grams of sugar per liter added and also on the label 43% ABV declared but just 37,5% measured, do i need to write more ?

OK, what happened here besides a different label? The old blue label is superb! So, I purchased another one last week. It now sports a white label and in my opinion also a different rum. One that is not nearly as good as the blue label. I will not waste my money on that again. But, if I do run across another blue label bottle I will snatch it right off the shelf! I'm sticking with the 15yr old at 2 for 1 price.

I'm not sure who's saying this stuff is smooth, it's far from it. I honestly rate this as one of the bottom rums I've ever tasted and will not be picking up another bottle again unless its for someone I don't like.