When it costs this much you better pretend it's good
A little update
So I looked at my rum shelf and thought ... it's time for some big ballers to come out to play. I also kinda decided to stop buying new Rums to catch up with the ones I need to review. This one is kinda of a big deal. At least at my income level. Without further ado - the most expensive rum I own.
Rumview - Zacapa XO
Once in a while you kinda get tempted to see if the top shelf stuff is as good as it is priced.
I'll be honest... I bought this on a sale. I can't quite justify buying it at a full price.
The facts
Well... first of all this rum is made in southern Guatemala where they brag that it's made above 2300 m above the sea level. It is made from sugar cane honey (it is not really a honey) which is unique to Guatemala. Supposedly it gives a sweeter, fuller taste.
This is another solera system rum which means that is a blend of differently aged rums from 6 to 25 years. To be honest some of my favorite rums are made with this system.
It is aged in some oak whiskey/sherry casks and finished off aging in cognac casks. Ron Zacapa brand is widely recognized as top tier rum producers and therefore for anything they put out the expectations are high.
This particular rum is considered a high end rum and that reflects on the price it being around 116 € (138$).
The rum is packaged quite nicely with a black hard cardboard box. The bottle inside really gives that premium feeling.
The rum itself is dark brown and reminds the color of caramel.
The feelings
The smell... it really is really sweet and also a bit sharp. In Zacapa rums you can always smell some caramel and in this one in particular. It is quite pleasant but can burn your nostrils if you are not careful.
The taste starts off quite sweet hinting tones of burnt caramel but not soon after the alcohol hits and you are overwhelmed with a taste more reminiscent of cognac rather than rum. As a person who does not quite enjoy cognacs this wasn't a surprise I welcomed.
I read a lot of reviews about this rum and I can't quite just agree. They praise this for it's rich elaborate taste but I'm not just feeling it. It feels quite .... idk.. 2 dimensional... While it does what it does really well and despite it's cognac taste it goes down smoothly - I'm not feeling the richness of some of the rums I have tasted before.
At this price range it should be a rum for sipping and not mixing. So the sipping experience matters a lot.
Final thoughts
For the price of this rum I could get like 2 Ron Zacapa 23y and would have had a lot better time. This rum reinforces the trend that the more expensive the rum/ tequila is the more it tastes like cognac.
I disagree on the most of the reviews I found online. It's like they were afraid to give any criticism because of the price and reputation this rum has. After all all this is is a sweet smooth rum which tastes like cognac.
If you like cognac and bragging you drank expensive rum this is the one. But don't think this is the pillar of excellence it claims to be.
If you let this rum out to breathe I'd say if would only get better in taste as the sense of alcohol was rather noticeable at the beginning.
Seriously though... this is considered top end rum and costs accordingly however I think your money would should be spent on something you really enjoy rather than this one. I couldn't really pin point anything that spectacular that would justify the price. Buy 3x Dictador 12y instead and you will have a gooood time!
