Barbancourt 3 Star 4-Year

It's quite doable. A bit sweet, rough around the edges with some alcohol burn and tingle. Nice overall taste with hints of being an "agricole" rum (though not technically I suppose...). Light fruit and peppery. Short finish that does not linger in any bad way. Spend more for the 8 year / 5-Star though. Perfectly good as a mixer.

Tasted at Laka Lono on 5/11/21. Gold in color. Bright vanilla aroma. Starts with a mild honey sweetness. Quickly shifts to a peppery palate. Quick finish. Almond nuttiness. Honey smoothness. Surprisingly good. Would be very functional in a Barbancourt Swizzle.

Suitable for the mixing maybe but no more. Too alcholic

It’s reasonably enjoyable neat. I would like to try the 5 star and 15-year, because they’re probably much better for that.

This 3-star rum is 4 years old, and has a very thin, grassy taste. Not so funny like 5 stars.

Tasted at Laka Lono 8/19/21, neat
Notes indicate a pleasant smoky caramel flavor, but apparently I was so entangled in the continuing angst over names with both years and stars I forgot to take note of the aroma.
Aroma update 7/16/23 I smell essence of brown sugar and bandaid, in the best possible way.

Rougher than the 5 star, but still drinkable, if mixed. Great budget rum.

For just a few dollars more you can get the much better 5-star 8-year-old version. This 3-star rum is 4 years old, and has a very thin, grassy taste. I used to put it in Mai-Tais along with a dark Jamaican, but there are so many better-tasting, aged agricoles out there. Not a terrible rum, just really unnecessary.

Barbancourt makes some fine aged rums. The 3 star is not quite a sipping rum, better used in cocktails.

I have gotten wrapped up in my theory that 3-4 years is optimum aging for rhum agricoles. Since I have their 5-star 8 year and like it, I figured that this lesser aged one could be better. Wrong! The 86 proof really burns the tongue and it needs to breathe for about 30 minutes to be able to drink neat. My theory may hold for Martiniquan agricoles, but not for rhums from Haiti.

Update one month later: All this rhum is good for is mixing with ginger ale similar to my same recommendation for Angostura 5 Year.