Hi Stevo! Thanks for the brilliant review. I'm a "prof" on Matusalem (15, 18 , 23-the ones of my favourites) The Matusalem 10 -a solera type of ron where 10y.o. is an average age ( from 2 to 15 y.o. blend) But we really don't know how many drops of 15 y.o. rum are there😂 Solera System gives steady stability to the taste of rums

I'm 2 years into my Rum journey... I absolutely love young dark rums especially blends. I can't even drink any Brugal or Bacardi products anymore.

I really love your country deepdives and I've been diving in for a while on your videos just to see what you are saying as it is genuinely interesting to listen to another person's take on the spirits industry. Perspective is great and I watch a plethora of channels discussing many different categories from wine to whisky, with rum being my first love😢. I love your content, and before you read ahead, I do recognise you are aiming this at beginners so please do not take this the wrong way. I genuinely don't think a lot of these rums you are trying neat and comparing neat are actually designed to be drunk neat. You can't really compare a scratch distillery in the UK, who is making a few thousand bottles with the idea from the get go, of drinking neat rum, to a larger market, mass produced product of literally hundreds of thousands of bottles designed for mixing. The two are fairly incompatible. It's genuinely like complaining your 2 litre tub of ice cream you got from the supermarket isn't as tasty as the 2 scoops you got for the same price from the boutique creamery when you were on holiday. If I'm completely honest, there are genuinely very few British produced rums I would ever consider buying, most play it so safe that the product is boring, or flavour it to the point where it could be literally any spirit behind the label.

@StevetheBarmanRumReviews

4 ай бұрын

Honestly, i'm totally with you. I know these are not "designated Neat Sippers", but by sheer definition and price, they are. If there was more than 5% of the Market drinking these neat, I'd be on board, but there isn't. And this is my problem, for some bizarre reason, many brands go after than teeeeeny weeny 5% (or less) market share! Whether they're misguided by the geek market, I don't know... but brands are deluded if then think this market is the ££$$££$$ market. And this is my major issue. YES 100% agree on the British stuff. It's obvious why i only user 3-4 brands on my Green channel. They're the ones competing. the rest are just "okay". So, take all this into consideration, AND knowing the numbers...look...anything over $35 IS a neat sipper, by sheer default. NOT to the geeks, but to the mass market. The rest is a mixing rum... and look, I don't know where you are, but our UK prices inflate a lot, so we have to compare a US mixer as a UK Neat Sipper. BUT...take price out of it., there are some UK Rums i would quite happily sip neat, over aged Caribbean Rum's. BUT, in the grand scheme of things, there are some $25 Caribbean rums, that ain't anywhere close to a British Rum either. And this is where we come to, because average joe bloggs, doesn't know volumes. They just look at price. Yes, the UK stuff is more expensive, BUT, 90% of the other Caribbean Rums are also better than the last 3 videos! I'd much rather pay for PR rum, or Jamaica, or even Nicaragua...than the DR Rums!

Luckily these don’t seem readily available here in Australia so I don’t need to worry I am missing out

@user-vn2zd2bd6p

4 ай бұрын

Trust me, you’re not😂

I brought my dad the Brugal Rum for Christmas, he loved it!

Rum (or any other liquor) that tastes good right off the still usually means it was fermented properly. This requires some extra time, love and care before distilling and requires someone who's an expert on fermenting the carbs (sugar cane for rum) properly to develop the right esters and other compounds that will then develop into all sorts of yummy flavors when introduced to alcohol during distillation. There's some other tricks as well to garner flavors during distillation all of which requires expertise and decades of learning. A lot of companies don't have that expertise.

@StevetheBarmanRumReviews

4 ай бұрын

Totally agree. I’m not saying it’s better (I mean it is for me personally) but it’s just a new/different skill set that the old school don’t possess…or are just learning.

Any plans for including Bermudez Ron Añejo Anniversario in the Dominican Republic videos? I kind of liked it. A bit like brandy. So it might also be something for you 🙂

@StevetheBarmanRumReviews

4 ай бұрын

Who now?!! Search my suppliers… that doesn’t even register! So guess that’s a no!

I started my rum journey in 1999 for professional reasons, but didn’t really engage with rum in earnest until 2015 or so because the rums I had back in the day were just not available. Then I had Brugal 1888 and everything changed for me. That led to the old Kirk & Sweeney 23 (now the gran reserva exclusiva). Wondering where you will fall on the additives scandal with these. So I have long ties to this area. But, I suspect like you, my tastes have evolved. Since I mix more than sip neat, I’ve fallen for younger rums from Jamaica, Barbados, and St. Lucia. But the next frontier is Haiti. Hoping you consider a clarin deep dive soon!

@StevetheBarmanRumReviews

4 ай бұрын

Additives don’t bother me…I know certain people in the industry like to preach, but if we get granular, aging Rum in Sherry casks is technically an additive as it’s adding a Sherry flavour! So to get preachy about adding Sugar to adjust flavour imo is no different to a brand aging in “flavoured” barrels. Thats why I love younger Rum. I like my Rum to actually taste of Rum. Not wood or finished barrels. AND…every brand world wide adds additives. E150 for colour adjusting and consistency. Yet somehow even though that’s not an additive in their eyes, it wasn’t in the Rum in the first place, so by sheer default is an additive. (Unpopular opinion I know…but it’s not a wrong opinion. It’s just not how many geeks see it)

Love the topic of ageing in casks previously used for other spirits and how that compares to additives like sugar. I think this type of ageing is very close to being an additive, especially if done with "wet" casks. However the method can vary quite a lot. In many cases, the idea behind using an ex-something cask is that the previous spirit has already drawn out most of the stronger flavor compounds from the wood so that the used cask is now "gentler" for the new spirit that enters, which in turn is good for longer ageing. But then you have the case of "wet" casks which can hold many liters of the previous spirit in the wood, that then is extracted by the new spirit. And that to me, isn't much different from adding sugar or other stuff. Personally, coming from the world of Cognac which is ripe with chill filtering, sugar, caramel coloring and other additives, I couldn't care less. As long as the end result is tasteful and not too drastically different from the base product, I'm happy. Dalmore single malt for example is looked down on by the scotch snob community. I love that brand despite the use of caramel coloring and chill filtration. Of course after a point, the amount of additives become too much. Oliver y Oliver rum has a product called Ron Quorhum XO which contains 45 grams of sugar per liter. That to me is too much, but to each their own.

@StevetheBarmanRumReviews

4 ай бұрын

I think I agree with every single word you've typed there! Spot on in my book.

@dynoroad

4 ай бұрын

@@StevetheBarmanRumReviews Cheers!

And I still haven’t seen any of these. There are obviously many rums we don’t get in my area or even know about. I feel cheated honestly. Even the online shops don’t do rum any justice. I use seelbach and they have like four rums and they are made in the states. Is there an online site that covers rums that are not over priced. Shipping is what it is but I don’t want to pay anywhere near secondary for any alcohol. Thanks for the review.

🤝🙏👌🥂

I think we both know that the title is a rhetorical question 😉

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