Kraken Black Spiced

The flavors taste artificial. I was looking for strong flavors and Kraken did not disappoint, just wish there was more complexity. The taste was overall boring to me and too much on the sweet side.

Kraken is a good spiced rum. Drinkable straight, on the rocks, or mixed. It's even got a higher proof than most spiced rums do. However, it's on the expensive side for spiced rums. If you can find it, Black Magic is also a sweet 47% spiced rum, tastes better, and is about $10 less per bottle than Kraken. Do your wallet and taste buds a favor and go with Black Magic.

The Kraken has a bold nose full of butterscotch and maple, and softened by bananas. The taste follows the nose and adds a cinnamon spiciness in the wake of a burst of alcohol at the beginning of the sip. The flavors come through in spite of the alcohol burn; and it has a very long finish. The maple flavor stays on the palate long after it has been sipped, almost as if it has some oil in it. It is not excessively sweet, and would serve nicely as that floating layer of dark rum on a Mai Tai.

I was given a bottle of this by my son for my birthday, how thoughtful is that. I started trying it with my favourite rum mixer, ginger beer, aka a dark & stormy though I believe this is now a copyrighted term, so Kraken in the enclosed advertising talk of a kraken Storm, 1 pt Kraken rum & 3 parts Fever Tree ginger beer. Not being able to source the Fever Tree drop locally, I fell back on my go to Bundaberg Ginger beer. OK, yeah/nah.Not unpleasant but I felt the ginger with the spice was a bit too much, they kind of clashed. From days gone by, I've long rated a Kiwi staple L & P (Lemon & Paeroa), a sort of lemony mineral water as a mixer & the Kraken immediately fell in love with the L & P. It was brilliant. As a control I tried it with coke, not as good as the L & P but better than with ginger beer. I'm not a rum sipper, if I want to do that it'll be a smooth aged Scotch & I don't really rate the kraken as a sipping rum.

Kraken is a diamond in the rough, a shining gem on the lower shelves of the rum selection. It's got a ton of great flavor, lots of spice coming through that serves to enhance and not mask the rum. Beautiful color, black as night. Looks cool as hell mixed. Makes a great Dark n' Stormy. I even served it at my wedding, wound up with quite the backlog and will never complain a minute about that. Great branding. Cool bottle with functional handles. Only qualm is the cap sucks, get the smaller bottles since the cap will fail on you eventually.

A very very unique rum which makes my personal favorite Dark n Stormy. Just watch out the high proof will get you.

There is a lot of sugar in this rum so it is called a spicy rum. I do not consider it a rum. Despite this, it tastes okay and is perfect to mix with cola.

The first time I tasted The Kraken I immediately donated the bottle to a friend. If one gets past the astonishingly potent first impression that it's been distilled from some kind of waste vinyl there's nothing left to say anything positive about. This is a beverage aimed at people who know nothing about beverages and, especially, nothing about rum. If they made it with straight ethanol rather than holding up this woeful pretense of being any kind of rum at all it would probably be better ... and more honest. Avoid.

Tasted at Laka Lono on 9/8/21. Pours black. Vanilla aroma, not much else. Honey and carob- strong sweetness. 94 proof burn. Shockingly, this does not suck. Slightly reminds me of the old Vandermint of the 1970s.

A lovely mixable taste you can keep on drinking and does not break the bank