Smith and Cross Traditional Jamaica Navy Strength

I tried this when I first started my journey and hated it but last night I retried it and enjoyed it ... Plenty of Jamaica's love and funk in a strong rum .

At 57% ABV (114 proof) this navy strength rum will kick your ass. I will stomp a mudhole in ya and walk it dry. Definitely not a rum for the uninitiated. Initially upon sipping one gets a taste of sweetness...molasses...a little vanilla...and then the burn hits...a burn which feels like a layer of skin is being eaten away in ones throat leaving a little tingling on the tongue. But that all fades rather quickly enticing one to take another sip. Almost as a double-dog dare. This is he-man's rum. The amber color belies how little aging goes into this rum. I really cannot identify the aroma in the bottle but it's a good aroma. Admittedly this is the first overproof rum I have sampled so I really have no frame of reference but from the flavor I would seriously think it would work well in mixed drinks especially frozen and fruit-based drinks. Quite an interesting rum.

[UPDATE: A day after posting my initial review I tried this rum with Coke Zero. For whatever it's worth I used my normal 3oz of rum mixed with the 16.9oz bottle of Coke Zero knowing full well this was going to have more of a "kick" than the normal 80 proof rums I normally use in Coke Zero. Although it wasn't horrible, it wasn't good either. Ended up tossing it and fixing another rum & Coke Zero with an 80 proof rum. I will try it again someday but with half the amount of the S&C Navy Strength rum and see how that works.]

Alcohol content overpowered taste for me. May try again using like 151. Pricy.

It's great at what it is meant for and that's in Tiki drinks. Straight? That'll take you a while.

edit- 2 years later? Well, damn if I didn't come all the way around on this one. Enjoyable with a bit of water, but I enjoy it most as an addition to fruit-based drinks.

It's a kick in the ass, but, if your mouth is ready (I mean, with no tastes in your tongue), and you let the time to your brain to understand what's happening, I think you can really enjoy it. It's not exactly my kind but I can't deny how good it is.

Excellent as a navy strength mixer. As a standard mixer for cocktails, I'm not a fan of the higher proof options, but that is a personal preference.

The nose hits immediately with plenty of Jamaican funk - strong aromas of overripe banana and nutmeg mix with stinky gym socks but also something like Juicy Fruit gum. Pretty interesting! The palate is lighter and smoother than I expected, with spicy, alcohol heat that starts things off, which then subsides to reveal dry ginger and pear, before going out on a long finish. You can taste something like ginger ale 2 minutes after. With a few drops of water, the aromas and palate smooth out and even off, without losing their original components. This is very good rum but I think I’d prefer it as a mixer, or in punch, instead of sipping too much of it. It packs a wallop at 57% abv. A quality rum.

For me this is a little to much bite to sip on, but great for mixing in drinks that require navy strength

taste - 7.5/10
smell - 8/10
sweetness - 7/10
price/value rating - 8/10

Personally the rum is probably to strong but it has a real nice after taste. I bought it for a punch and the flavors are perfect. Reason for a 7 is that it is quite expensive in the Netherlands. Would it be cheaper it would be a 8.