Saint James Royal Ambre 18-Mois

One of these good value for money rums you can buy from supermarkets in France.
Of course this is not for sipping on its own but more for cocktails.

Pretty decent taste for a mass market Rhum Agricole.

Pas vraiment fan de ce type de rhum très sec, pas de saveur particuliaire..moins désagréable en mix certainement...pas fan du Rhum agricole.

Aucun intérêt pour lui-même, éthylique au nez, terrible en bouche. Pour les mix essentiellement, et encore.

It's not smooth and rather punchy. Don't like the flavour

It's a taste of the island, sweet and sugar cane accent.

Cheap rum, harsh and fiery... Closer to an armagnac or a cognac than to the aged/sweet rums I'm used to sip. Never found the "notes florales légèrement épicées et délicatement fruitées" elsewhere than on the label. At that price, could be interesting when mixed but that's not my way of drinking rum...

My all time favorite. Best rum to drink straight up.

Tolerable on it’s own but not amazing. However shines in cocktails and making rhum raisin ice cream for example. Compared to the blanc you can definitely taste the influence of the aging.

Correct to drink neat directly at the bottle and enjoy the rest of the afternoon as scripted on the pic. Quality/price ratio positive

The color is a shade of light brown, not the usual caramel glow, but pleasant enough. The bottle is rectangular, label unpretentious and stylish. In a glass, there are a few thin legs.

The smell is faint, hints of chocolate together with a sharp, vegetal note like cut grass.

The flavor starts with weak sweat impression, a touch of nougat or perhaps pralines, again paired with a dissonant, vegetal note, and the unmistakable off-flavor of young alcohol (although I have tasted unaged rums like the Jamaican Rum Fire, that have much cleaner and pleasant taste). The body is extremely thin, and the finish is short to non-existent, which is actually a blessing, because a lingering aftertaste would not be welcome.

I admit that I have a bias against column still rums, preferring vastly the heavier, thicker English-style distillates; and while this rum is not outright terrible, it is certainly not good. There is conflicting information in the reviews and the title - some state the ABV is at 45%, mine, as well as other reviewers' was at 40%, which in my opinion hurts the resulting impression a lot.

The only advantage was that it was remarkably cheap - one liter bottle for just below 500 Czech Crowns (Which is like 22 dollars, approximately) is an excellent price (and I suspect it was lying in the warehouse from before the inflation craze started).

I poured the rest of the glass into diet coke, and while it did not add any interesting flavor, it sort of removed most of the sweetness, so the result tasted like rum flavored carbonated water.

Not really a fan.