My first rum by the SMWS. While I like a bit of diversity, I still think it a little weird that a WHISKY society goes into rum and armagnac and such. Anyway, I put this in the bottle-share because of that novelty value, and because I wanted to taste something that is over 80% ABV (yes, eighty). 81.3% to be exact. Anyway, since it had been ages since I tasted a rum, I tried this one to get warmed up a bit.
The rum has aged for 9 years in a refill hogshead, but it doesn’t say where it matured. With rum the rules aren’t as strict as with whisky, and I know that quite some single cask/small batch rums come to the UK in casks and mature there, since the temperatures in the Carribean are too high to sustain long maturation. I know Berry Brothers and Rudd do that for example. This will have a significant effect on the maturity of the product.
Nose:
Water based paint with rotten mint plants (I know, we had them last year…). Incredibly chemical and the alcohol is very present. It has the artificial sweetness of winegums and smell like weeds too.
I wrote down: “WTF is this stuff?”
Taste:
Incredibly dry and it makes the inside of my mouth feel like rubber, or whaleskin or something. After the initial dryness has kicked in it starts building up an incredible heat with loads and loads of chili peppers. The palate is also sweet with caramel and cola. Very late a bit of wood starts showing up.
Finish:
The finish has that chemical aspect again and isn’t as sweet as I would have expected. It also isn’t very good. It is special, though. The finish lasts for ages and comes up with banana flavor, and mind, that is something else than banana. I mean the chemical stuff. Also, band-aids.
Let’s give this some points for novelty and ridiculousness, because it’s not scoring much else in my book! I find very little in this rum that appeals to me. The palate is the least bad of all steps, but still isn’t recommendable. I threw half my glass out after a second sip.
Jamaican Rum, 9 years old, SMWS, R5.1 ‘Mint humbugs’, refill hogshead, 81.3%, no longer available, but it cost € 71.
Malt Fascination 
Neus is heel apart met in de verte verf ( thinner ? ).
Smaak geeft veel alcohol, de finish is lang maar heel vervelend en vies.
Deze rum benadert in de verste verte niet de mij bekende rums, ” HELAAS “
Ben het helemaal met je eens! Jammer, maar helaas!
I reviewed this rum on Liquorature, and was intrigued by a surprising complexity of taste. At the end, however, there’s no point in the 81.3%, no matter how much the taste and finish appealed to me…it is, quite simply, too strong for any kind of sipping. As a mixing rum, it may be a lot better.
Hi Sjoerd,
Thanks for the great review 🙂
Can I use the photo in our website ?
(reference-rhum.com)
Also, if you still have the bottle, can you sample it ?
Best Regards,
Guillaume
Hi Guillaume,
I have no problems with you using the picture, go right ahead!
Since this review is over four years old you can imagine me not having the bottle anymore. I think I gave it away at some point, since I didn’t like it at all.
Cheers,
Sjoerd