Don Papa Rum 70cl - 40% ABV Dark Aged Sipping Rum: Distilled in Sugarlandia, Philippines | Expertly Matured in American Oak | Great for Cocktails

Product Information

Whether you prefer the light, bright notes of un-aged white rum or something darker and decadent, there really is a rum for everyone. To help you choose the best rum for you, we’ve included our top-scoring white and dark rums below, and categorised them as follows: Just to set the stage: I honestly thought my amigo Henrik, in his savage takedown of the rum, was exaggerating his despite. However, intrigued, I begged him for samples to save me buying them, and he was prepared to gift me the whole bottle except that his luggage was already full of stuff he was bringing to Berlin (for me). And just to see if its claim to being a “premium aged small batch rum” held up, I tried the Don Papa 7 year old (and its brother the ten year old) four times: once with a flight of eight Jamaicans, then with a flight of seven Demeraras, a third time with a raft of agricoles and then with yet another one of nine Bajans. If so, they were mistaken. Even bumping it up to 43% for some added bola ng bakal didn’t do much. It had the same nasal profile of sour cream, yogurt, some sweetish fruits, and over-generous helpings of vanilla, bubble gum and yes, there it was again, that distasteful excess of soda pop sprite and fanta and pepsi masquerading as “rumminess”. And no tart raspberries this time, but some dampened down dark grapes, overripe ones, plus a twist of licorice. Oh joy. My glass runneth over. As much as we love Italian wines, there’s no denying that an occasion sometimes calls for something a little different.

Cyril at DuRhum had this run through a lab test and that evaluated it with 29g/L sugar, 2.4 g/L glycerol and a massive 359 mg/L of vanilla. This is a rum produced from molasses and aged for 10 years in American oak barrels. Ex-bourbon barrels.

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Just to confuse matters, there’s also spiced rum, which is blended with additional fruit and spices. How we test rum It smells like a liqueur – it is ludicrously sweet. It is as far away as a 10-year-old molasses based rum from say Barbados or Jamaica as it is possible. The very idea this can even be labelled as a rum is frankly, a complete embarrassment to the category. For an enthusiastic and uncritical perspective by a “lifestyle writer” (I will not use the term “journalist” because that would be like saying Don Papa is a real rum) I direct you to this Forbes article from May 2017. It’s just another in a spate of recent rum-themed articles that are written by people who seem to want to advertise that they really know nothing at all about the subject. The presentation and advertising and marketing of this rum is all about fancy bottle and label design, gorgeous visuals, and words to make you giddy with anticipation. It nails all aspects of those. Everything else is secondary, except the rum itself, which is tertiary. Pour yourself a glass of the rum and you will be immediately overcome with a stunning bouquet of aromas that perfectly complement the exotic location that the rum calls home.

Our panel – made up of 10-accredited spirits experts and rum-loving consumers – put 36 white and dark rums to the test, comparing the supermarket steals to the big-branded bottles. years ago, for 99% of the french population, rum was a strong harsh booze made in the french caribbean just good to be cooked with. End of the line. Seriously. The last 1% knew rum could be more than that because they travelled to Guadeloupe or Martinique or had family living there. This rum is a cynical cash grab concocted by corporate marketers and ad men attempting to appeal to the discerning drinker. And by "discerning" I mean: has money and knows diddly squat about spirits, especially rum. On the nose Don Papa 7 Year Old delivers huge wafts of cheap Cream Soda. It smells a lot like a vanilla and lemonade ice cream float. Only with a bag of sugar added just to make sure its plenty sweet enough. On the nose: I get unnaturally sweet and fruity aromas. There are these coherent fruity floral aromas that makes me think of Korean pears, pineapple syrup, banana flavored-candy, a sweetened drink with lemons and apples mixed with caramel and honey.Don Papa Aged 10 Years doesn’t really develop onto anything meaningful. Beyond the sweet/bitter orange on the initial sip you only really experience sweet saccharin notes on the mid palate. There is something which is trying to be oak ageing in there but its just overwhelmed by all the nonsense they have added to this putrid mess. It hails from Sugarlandia (I kid you not), Phillipines and Don Papa is a tribute to Papa Isio. His legend was instrumental to the independence of the island during the Revolution of the 1890s. The figure of Don Papa on the bottle is inspired by Papa Isio. The kind of flavors I get here can’t even be found in the most well-made distillates that give off lots of fruit flavors like grappa and some pot distilled rum. It’s just unnatural. Even aging a spirit in new oak won’t get you this kind of sweetness. It is a tribute to the late and great Papa Isio, who was the charismatic leader of the Negros Island in the 1890s. This Philippine island was the subject of an invasion and colonisation by the Spanish earlier in the 1800s. Papa Isio played a crucial role in organising the rebellion against the Spanish, which ultimately resulted in the island, specifically Sugarlandia, earning its independence. Fortunately because your taste buds have been assaulted in such a way you probably won’t even notice the finish. It’s very much a blink and you miss it kind of affair. A tiny hint of something sweet and woody – and its gone. All that is left on the palate is artificial bitterness.