Category Archives: Spiced Rum

Spiced rum continues its move upmarket courtesy of that most massive of standbys: Captain Morgan.

The Captain saw a line expansion with a 100 proof version in 2008, and now comes the even bigger gun: Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum. This is actually an American rebranding of a product called Captain Morgan Black which the company has sold internationally since late 2011. The rum is a blend from Jamaica, Guyana, and Barbados (though the label notes only “the Caribbean”), spiced with cloves and cassia bark (we call it cinnamon!), and aged indeterminately in “double charred blackened oak” (whatever that means).

Ultra-dark and loaded with aromas — you can smell the vanilla when you crack open the bottle — it’s a clear competitor (and a worthy one) to the recent flood of high-end spiced rums, including Kraken and The Lash.

The emphasis here remains clearly on the sweet stuff. Vanilla and molasses, plus semi-sweet chocolate on the finish, it’s loaded with these dessert notes. Clove and cinnamon are present almost as afterthoughts, but you’ll catch them once your sweet tooth wears out. Finally, there’s a long, and surprisingly pleasant, finish, one which inspires one to consider girly-type cocktails but which begs to be consumed solo.

Captain Morgan has quite a winning spirit on its hands here, one which comes across at considerably lower proof than it is (and which can be awfully dangerous) and which elevates the Captain to the upper echelon of spiced rum makers. Well done.

94.6 proof.

A- / $22 / captainmorgan.com

Cruzan is the latest rum maker to jump into the spiced rum game. Its “9″ is rare in that it actually indicates what spices — nine of them, natch — are used to flavor the rum. They are: allspice, vanilla, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, clove, mace, and juniper berry.

This, by the way, is not a gin.

I had a tiny sample of 9 well before it was released and found it a bit off-putting. Whether the recipe has been tweaked or my final bottle (#233 of the first 500 made) is proving more worthwhile in a more controlled review setting I don’t know — though the latter is more likely. Cruzan 9 proves itself to be quite a capable spiced rum, a nice mix of sweet and relatively mild spices.

Vanilla is the big note here, with cinnamon and nutmeg distant secondary characteristics. Any sense of heat from pepper and the like is absent in 9, it’s one of the smoothest and most easygoing spiced rums I’ve ever had, and it could pass for a racier aged rum if one didn’t know better. I find this restraint rather a delight. 9 is one of the few spiced rums I can fathom drinking on its own, and it’s a natural companion with Coke and lime.

Give it a whirl.

80 proof.

A- / $14 (or less) / cruzanrum.com

For some reason, Drinkhacker readers LOVE spiced rum. They drink it, they comment, they debate it. They love this stuff.

And yet there aren’t that many spiced rums on the market, so when a new one arrives, they pounce on the stuff like phony handbag salesmen on tourists.

The Lash is a rum with a loaded history for its name (I’ll leave that reading as an exercise for the reader). It hails from the West Indies, where it spends four years in oak and is then aged with spices (some may actually settle in the bottle), bourbon vanilla extract, and other flavors.

The result is an intensely brown and very spicy rum. I put it side by side vs. all the spiced rums I had on hand — Captain Morgan, Sailor Jerry, and current fave The Kraken — and it handily out-spiced them all, with intense cinnamon, nutmeg, and big vanilla character. What’s comparably lacking, though, is the rum component. At just 70 proof, The Lash is considerably weaker than most spiced rums, many of which creep toward 100 proof. The Lash instead plays it safe, falling in line with the flavored rum world, a curious choice for a spirit with a picture of a whip on the bottle.

Overall, however, it’s got an excellent character to it, with an intense flavor that many spiced rums have lacking. Kraken is sweeter and more instantly engaging, but if the lack of alcohol in The Lash doesn’t turn you off, this is a solid endeavor.

A- / $30 / website not currently functional

There’s a dearth of spiced rums on the market, and a severe shortage of ones that are any good. (We’re fans of Kilo Kai, but it remains terribly hard to find at retail.)

Sailor Jerry is the personal recipe of Jerry Collins, a 1920s Hawaiian tattoo artist and apparently quite the rum connoisseur. Distilled in the U.S. Virgin Islands and bottled at a hot 92 proof, Sailor Jerry welcomes you with a ukulele-playing hula girl and a nose full of caramel. The “spice” component of Sailor Jerry is less than you’ll find in other spiced rums, but its more than made up for with that sugary, caramel flavor that makes what sounds like an overly alcoholic wine surprisingly smooth.

I tried it against Kilo Kai and it was night and day: Kilo’s citrus notes (and low proof) made it easy to sip straight, but Jerry’s caramel made it a fuller (and darker colored) spirit and perhaps a little better with Coke. Both are knockout rums, but quite different. Any rum fan — especially the spiced rum fan — should seek out a bottle. At prices like this, it practically drinks itself!

A- / $17 / sailorjerryrum.com