I found myself in Florida last weekend and decided to buy myself a birthday present:
I've heard a lot about this, but Maryland seems to have a terrible rum market and I've never seen the bottle on a shelf. Fortunately I've never come home from Florida empty handed. I passed over Myers Legend, Gosling's Family Reserve, and a few other bottles I've never seen on a shelf and grabbed this one (mostly because it was the cheapest).
Had to wait a week for the first pour, but boy was it worth it. As soon as I put my nose in the glass, brown sugar aromas jumped up and punched me in the face. After that came a bit of maple syrup. In the first sip, the brown sugar and maple took a backseat and pure vanilla led the party, and I swear there was a hint of cinammon in thebackground. It was sweeter than I expected, and reminded me a lot of the usual favorite Ron Zacapa and one of my favorites, Ron Pampero Aniversario.
Given the sweetness present, this is definitely one I'll drink neat. The sugars balanced the alcohol nicely and there was very little burn when served at 'basement temperature' (~67 F).
This may become one of my Top 5 favorites. For a sweeter rum, this is pretty damn good, just wish it didn't have that goofy plastic pour mechanism (also similar to Zacapa).
Next up: Pritchard's Rum when I'm in Nashville next month, hopefully Zaya or FdC in June and July, and something else I can't find in MD in Aug when I'm back in Orlando. Gonna be a good summer!
