When taking that first sip of Centenario over ice, your tastebuds are greeted with a thick and smooth treat.  The trademarked slow-aging process Flor de Caña uses for its rums is fully realized with Centenario Gold.  The 18 years of aging in small oak barrels gives Centenario Gold a deep amber color and a complex yet smooth flavor.  Flor de Caña claims this rum is hand crafted and allowed to age at its own pace.  I’m not exaclty sure what that means, but whatever they are doing to this spirit before sending it my way definitely gets a BoozeBasher stamp of approval.  This rum goes down very smoothly, and you can really feel the almost thick texture of the spirit as it makes its way down your throat.  You can taste a large amount of oakiness paired with the rich sweetness of sugar cane from Flor de Caña’s San Antonio Sugar Mill in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua.  The flavors pair nicely and give the spirit a caramel-like taste.  The finish is dry, almost like a Scotch, but the caramel-like aftertaste really stays on your tongue and keeps you thirsty for more.  There is absolutely no metalic taste or alcohol burn that you may associate with a cheap, unrefined rum.  Flor de Caña really hit one out of the park with Centenario Gold 18.

    Since I have stated that rum of this calibur should be enjoyed without a mixer, you might think that Centenario Gold doesn’t mix well with cola.  Well, you would be wrong!  I swear the taste that comes from Flor de Caña Centenario Gold and Coke is a taste of heaven.  The rum mixes so well with Coke that it accentuates it perfectly.  It gives the cola a little boost in thickness and a wonderfully-delicious aftertaste that leaves a hint of sugarcane and caramel on the tongue.  The finish isn’t as dry as before, and you could easily keep these drinks coming all night.  Although I personally see it as a grave sin to mix this rum, I have to admit that it tastes even better with a splash of soda.  If you do decide to bring Centenario Gold to a party full of young people, they will love the drinks you make them, even if they really don’t understand the true beauty of the spirit they imbibe.

    The drunk produced from Centenario Gold was an intense yet mellow buzz.  I lost all care and worry, and I was in fantastically-good spirits for the night.  I felt immune to all the nasty things happening in my life and around me in my home, and let’s be honest here, that’s what drinking is all about, right?  I’m not so sure this would be the best juice in the world to start off a long night of debauchery, as it mellowed me and evened away any stress and excitement both, but I would highly reccommed it for a relaxing evening at home or as a finisher when coming home from a long night of excitement.  As a matter of fact, I would even go so far as to call Flor de Caña Centenario Gold the PERFECT drink for a nightcap.  I never thought I would use that term, but there it is, and Centenario Gold fits that bill exactly.

    Though I admittedly didn’t have much more than four shots worth of Centenario Gold to test the hangover, the lack of any kind of discomfort in the morning was very welcome.  There was no hangover or dry mouth.  I was a little groggy and tired the next day, but it’s hard to tell if the rum was actually the culprit there since I didn’t get much sleep.  Still, Centenario will make a nifty mid-week treat for all you hard-working types out there.  The punishment the next day shouldn’t be anything you can’t power through.  

    Most rum drinkers begin their journey into the rum world with the likes of Bacardi Silver or other sub-par spirits.  We here at BoozeBasher are here to save you from that medocrity of the masses and promote the less-advertised and perhaps less-known yet superior spirits.  Flor de Caña is definitely a less-known brand that you should check out, and the Centenario Gold 18 is the most delicious of any product of theirs that I have consumed (though I have yet to try the Centenario 21).  Even though the Centenario Gold will hurt you in the wallet at nearly $40 a bottle, do yourself a favor, and give it a try.  If it isn’t good enough to make you slap your momma, it will certainly at least bring a big smile to your face after a hard day.  Cheers. 

Sipability – 7.5

Mixability – 8.5

Drunkability – 7.5

Hangover-ability - 8.5

Bang for the Buck - 4.0

Overall - 8.0  

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     After five years of selling shirts, jackets, socks, and ash trays, the people of Sailor Jerry felt something was missing.  That something was booze, so they decided to make their own.  They knew the booze they made would have to be consistent with the bold spirit and high standards of the tattooist, Sailor Jerry.  One of the few ways to see the world in the old days was being a sailor.  The downside was it took a heck of a long time to get to see these places around the world.  That meant lots of hours aboard a ship in the middle of the ocean with no women and no bars.  But one thing they did have on board was rum…barrels of it.  They also had loads of spices, dried fruits, and other items that the ships transported, so sailors got creative and came up with their own special recipes of spiced rum.  After collecting old recipes and late nights of taste testing, the fine people of Sailor Jerry developed Sailor Jerry spiced rum, a 92-proof blend of Caribbean-style rum with vanilla, lime, and other spices.

     Sailor Jerry’s has a a very unique taste.  I’m happy to say it’s unlike any other rum I have ever tasted.  There’s a light, almost non-existent taste when it first hits your tongue, but maybe a second later, there is a hard hit of spicy caramel rum flavor.  And where most high-proof rums give you a high-proof burn, Sailor Jerry’s burn comes along with a boat load of flavor.  I couldn’t decide if I was afraid or if I wanted it to last forever.  Seeing how I drank the whole bottle…then another, I guess I didn’t want it to end.  Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly a burn.  When you drink something this strong you have to expect a burn.  The difference is this burn is backed by flavor.  And when poured over ice, that watered-down taste could cure the worst case of sea sickness.  When we start talking about Sailor Jerry’s mixed, I think I need to be Poseidon before I even speak of such an act.  To put it simply; I hope the people at Coke are paying the the guys at Sailor Jerry’s for making that stuff taste the way God himself intended.  NOTHING should be this good, NOTHING!  If you feel differently, you probably worship the devil(there, I said it).  Mated with something as simple as Cola, Sailor Jerry will change your life.  That 92-proof burn vanished; all you taste is delicious carbonated flavor.  There really isn’t a fair way to describe it.  All I can say is try it.  It’s easy to make, and it is delicious.

     Now at 92-proof, there is no question of whether or not it will get you drunk.  But if you haven’t gotten your sea legs, I’ll go ahead and tell you yes, it will.  If you can drink five shots of Sailor Jerry’s and still walk and talk at the same time, then you are a better man than I.  I was gone.  It surprised the hell out of me.  There wasn’t a single notion that I was getting drunk, but all of the sudden, I realized I couldn’t feel my legs.  That might be good on the high seas, but when you are walking through clubs and bars, things get difficult.  Hell, I even wanted to go see the original Sailor Jerry in Hawaii and get a tattoo from him.  You know you have to be a badass to get a delicious rum named after you.

     The hangover was almost as I expected.  There was a bit of headache, but I could still go to work and continue to do the stuff I hate.  For a 92-proof ass-whooping, I have to say the hangover wasn’t too bad.  When compared to the 151 hangovers where the act of crawling becomes a serious task, this one was nothing.  There was cotton mouth and a headache, but I still had the ability to eat and keep everything down.  For drinking a little more than a third of the bottle, that’s a good thing.

     As for price, unless you can’t afford to buy happiness at $23 for a half gallon, then maybe this isn’t for you.  But if you can forego buying pizza for a day, buy Sailor Jerry’s now.  No really, buy it now!  It’s really cheap and damn good.  What could you be saving the 23 dollars for?  College?  Child support?  Kid’s food? Abortions?  Wait…no, save money for abortions, they make the world a better place.  As for everything else, Sailor Jerry’s is more important.  Your mom can get her chemo money by some other means.  You need this.  I need you to have this.

     So honestly why are you still sitting here reading and not out buying Sailor Jerry’s rum?  It’s the closest most of us will ever get to true happiness.  If you aren’t afraid  to get a little hair on your chest(this goes for you too, ladies), you need to get a bottle of this rum.  There’s nothing else to say.  Go buy some Sailor Jerry’s, and you can thank me later.

Sipability – 8.5

Mixability – 9.0

Drunkability – 9.0

Hangover-ability – 6.0

Bang for the Buck - 9.0

Overall - 8.5  

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    Any frequent visitor to our site knows by now how Captain Morgan creates their delicious rums, so I’m going to opt to tell the bottle history of this one.  Captain Henry Morgan, the legendary buccaneer, was appointed Governor of Jamaica in 1680.  He and his men became famous throughout the Caribbean for their love of adventure and their taste for the finest rum.  Legend has it, they stored their high-proof rum in charred oak casks in order to give it a smooth, mellow taste.  Today, this very tradition lives in Captain Morgan 100-proof spiced rum, a secret blend of fine Puerto Rican rums and select spices.  All of this can easily be read off the back of the bottle, but now that you read it here, you don’t have to worry about all that.

    When rums get to 100-proof, there’s not a lot of room for differences in taste.  Let’s be honest; it’s going to burn like chestnuts over an open fire.  This might be considered a good thing, seeing how the alcohol burn cancels out the burn from the holiday spirit that plagues us all this time of year.  The smell is a very enjoyable one.  It’s a sweet vanilla scent with a light rum chaser.  The taste, on the other hand, isn’t quite as nice.  It’s a weak vanilla flavor that tastes like it has been aged in a metal cask, but that could just be from the high alcohol proof.  Nothing 100-proof is going to taste like candy unless you have a serious drinking solution (I don’t like to use the phrase drinking problem because it implies something is wrong).  Another thing that this rum has in common with all other 100+ proof rums is that no matter how much you mix it, you still know what you are drinking.  The flavor stays the same even when its mixed.  Captain 100 doesn’t mix with others as much as it makes others mix with it.  I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; it’s just that metal-vanilla aftertaste doesn’t go away, and I don’t think it ever will, no matter how much you water down the drink.

    Now on to business; Captain Morgan 100 clears all the jingle bells, sleighs, and other people’s happiness right out of the system and replaces it with a whole new definition of “happy” holidays.  Captain gives the one gift that only this man in red will bring, and that’s a good drunk.  It’s a damn good drunk.  One too many shots of this stuff, and you will be decking the halls with something that you will have to scrub up in the morning.  After about six shots, I was looking at the toilet wondering if we were going to become better friends that night.  Lucky for me, we didn’t, but I was wishing that we did in the morning.  I had about four more shots that night and later realized that was a mistake.  They aren’t called 100-proof hangovers for nothing.  My headache was brutal.  My head was throbbing at such a rate that a single ‘ho’ could have brought me down.  When I looked at the bottle, my body started to cringe.  Luckily, I didn’t have to go to work, and I could just lay in front of the TV for most of the day.

Sipability – 6.5

Mixability – 5.5

Drunkability – 9.0

Hangover-ability – 3.5

Bang for the Buck -  5.5

Overall -  6.0   

Related Booze Reviews

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Introduction: 

    Not too long ago, a few of us BoozeBashers managed to take part in the pillaging of a local liquor store’s “going out of business / clearance sale.”  That’s right; we briefly lived the moment that all die hard liquor lovers dream about.  Unfortunately, the spoils could have been much greater and valuable had we reacted sooner, but oh well.  It was fun.  We took the opportunity to serve you all by daring to do something many of you are terrified of; spending money on expensive, widely unknown brands of liquor.  Well, everything was marked down 50%, so it wasn’t too bad.  Enjoy!

Part 2: Origine Caribbean Rum

    Browsing through a rack of liquors, I came across a pretty bottle of Rum of the like I’ve never seen before.  It was crystal clear, showing off the rich amber color of the rum.  Like the bottle from Part 1, I was sold just on looks and even more after reading the description.  It simply looked and sounded delicious.  Out of all the liquor purchased that day, this was the one I was most excited to bring home.  Origine Caribbean rum is made from seven craftsman rums.  At the heart of the blend is a ten-year-old rum from Barbados that includes elements of cinnamon, vanilla, and tropical aromas.

Once the top was popped we noticed a slight scent of nail polish remover once again. Fortunately, after sampling a pour on the rocks, things improved.  Origine Caribbean rum yielded a good flavor after the initial bite, which was quite strong.  A lingering sour aftertaste followed, but it wasn’t too bad.  We don’t quite recommend Origine Caribbean Rum for neat consumption. The overpowering alcohol taste puts it well into the mixing category as far as rum goes. Next, we added a splash of coke.  This produced a fair rum and coke beverage that lacked the fireworks but was definitely acceptable to me (although not all the BoozeBasher staff agreed). Some of the sourness was removed, but the lingering aftertaste remained.  Origine Rum wasn’t too bad overall, so I wasn’t dreading the drunkability test like I was in part 1.

    To calm the nerves in the buildup to the Alabama vs Georgia football game, I felt rum and Coke could be just the right answer.  The first drink had well over one shot in it.  It was a bit rough for the first few sips, but things started to smooth out after a few sips.  Toward the middle of the first drink, I began to really enjoy the stuff.  The following three drinks went down smoothly, unlike Georgia’s defensive line.  Around the end of the second quarter, I couldn’t help but notice I drank half the bottle.  Yes, I was feeling great!  For some reason I kept thinking about Keira Knightley.  Maybe it’s because I watched Pirates of the Caribbean recently.  She is absolutely delicious!  Anyway, it was still early in the evening, so I was in for a rough night.  After I somehow inadvertently twisted my arm completely backwards, I headed out to the club.  The drunk was tainted by a few other types of alcohol, but the majority consumed that night was the Origine rum.  I enjoyed a few delicious slices of pizza and a few glasses of water before I crashed into bed.  Good decision.  I woke up early and felt the dehydration, but it wasn’t too extreme.  Without the pizza and water, things would have been very different.  The aftermath of this rum is pretty much like all the rest.  If you do the right things, it shouldn’t hurt you too bad.

    If I remember correctly, the regular price for a 750ml bottle of Origine Caribbean Rum is about $26.  I paid half that at the sale, and I wouldn’t pay a penny more.  Don’t waste your money on the rum unless you can get it on clearance.  And so ends The Albertson’s Liquor Store Going Out of Business Sale.

Sipability – 6.0

Mixability – 5.0

Drunkability – 6.0

Hangover-ability – 7.0

Bang for the Buck – 3.0

Overall -  6.0 

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    I always knew this day would come.  The day when I had to review the devil’s brew.  There’s probably not another liquor out there that has caused more memory loss, fights, bad dancing, puking, public nudity, DUIs, and just flat out stupid mistakes (like babies) all in one night as much as Bacardi 151. I’m sure everyone has his or her own story, or at least a 30-min tale from what can be recalled involving this giant of drunkness, and a few of we lucky ones even have a police report and something they call “video evidence” to help us remember our 151 nights.  Bacardi 151 holds a special spot with me because it’s the first liquor I ever consumed (That explains a lot doesn’t it?).  It was my usher for my first experince into the wasted world.  That night, I even met my first serious girlfriend, a.k.a the b!$@%.  I guess it was a halfway good night.

    I wasn’t able to find much about the creation 151 on Bacardi’s website; hell, they don’t even have it listed as one of thier products.  It’s okay.  There is a lot I can learn just from the bottle.  This stuff is strong.  Any bottle with as many warnings and danger signs printed on it has to have something good  inside, right?  There’s even a flame arrester under the cap.  A flame arrester is basically a metal grid that stops flames from getting into the bottle and turning your bottle of ‘pain go bye-bye’ juice into a molotov cocktail of death.  On the other hand, it also causes the booze to pour really slowly.  This can be a problem when you’re in a hurry to drown the problems of your day.  So again, it’s a half good/half bad situation.

    Now lets get down to brass tax.  Should you drink Bacardi 151 by itself?  No!  Don’t do it.  On to mixing this firewater…wait, what’s that you say?  Why not drink this rum by itself?  Why would you even try this?  If you have to wonder why you shouldn’t just, sip Bacardi 151 on ice, then you’ll understand why shouldn’t be drinking it.  The taste is a horrbile one.  It’s like gasoline aged in an oak barrel.  You will actually wish that your taste buds would go numb so the pain will stop, but they never do fast enough.  This liquor isn’t something people drink for its flavor.  There are only two reasons to drink 151: a) to solve problems, or b) to cause problems.

    As far as I’m concerned, mixed is the only way to enjoy Bacardi 151.  But don’t be fooled into thinking that mixing Bacardi 151 will drown out that firewater taste, because it won’t.  I mixed one and a half shots with 32oz of Coke, and the 151 still burns through.  Dr. Wade recommends taking 151 in mixed shots.  I know that sounds like a sissy way of drinking, but there are no sissies when it comes to this stuff.  There are only fools and the people who drive them.

    Now just because I said drink 151 in shooters doesn’t mean you should go crazy with it.  You will get drunk, and it will come quickly, very quickly.  By my third drink, I was drunk.  By my fifth, I was walking like I was in the depths of and ether binge.  This isn’t one of those tricky liquors that you can’t tell you’re drunk from until you get up to walk.  You’ll be able to tell when that chair you have been sitting in all night starts to feel more a bucking mechanical bull (a very mean and nasty mechanical bull).  Now, I want everyone to get a pad and write this down.  I’ll wait.  Okay, ready?  Bacardi 151 isn’t a drink you want to give to that lucky lady to make you seem more tolerable or attractive.  They go from zero to puke in minutes.  You’ll be holding her hair back and listening to her cry in no time.  Secondly, it is a decent drink to start the night.  Bacardi 151 is not a drink you want to start drinking after you are already drunk.  If you do, you won’t be able to remember who you are the next day, and that’s if you can get the room to stop spinning long enough to make it to the next day.

    Since we are on the subject of the next day, let me just say, fear it.  I awoke with a hangover that made crawling an incredible task.  The worst part was that I had to work in the morning.  I spent most of the day trying to find places to puke secretly.  It was so bad I had to carry a trash can around in front of me so I could throw up and keep walking.  My head felt like that mechanical bull I was riding the previous night was rattling around inside my skull the whole time, and it continued to do so.

    Bacardi 151 comes at a easy price of around $25 for a 750ml bottle at your local place of spirit purchase.  That price is pretty fair for the amount of drunk you can get out of a bottle.  A good drunk is priceless.  If you find your days have become far too long and you just want to get really drunk in a hurry, or hell, if you just enjoy a good hangover, give this rum a try.  But be warned, this is not for the feint of heart.  It really hurts to get that fun drunk with this stuff.  Bacardi 151 will give you some fun times and great stories.  Sadly, it won’t be you telling them.  All your friends will.  You’ll be too busy trying to figure out where your pants are and why there is a tattoo of some guy’s name on your ass.

Sipability – 2.5

Mixability – 6.0

Drunkability – 9.5

Hangover-ability – 2.5

Bang for the Buck – 4.0

Overall - 5.0  

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    Bacardi Limón is easily one of the most drinkable of Bacardi’s infused rum line.  Limón tastes more like sour oranges than lemons or limes.  After swallowing even the smallest of sips, it leaves your mouth with a waxy aftertaste.  The best way I can describe it is chewing on a orange peel that has been covered in a mixture of lime juice and rum.  It’s one of those tastes that you know will leave you with cotton mouth in the morning.  The solo flavor really tastes a lot like 7 Up© without the carbonation.  So either Bacardi Limón is so weak that it tastes like a soft drink, or 7 Up© tastes like a really weak citrus rum.  No matter, I’m not a fan of either one.  Well, I’m not a fan of either one alone. Bacardi Limón turned out to be a great mixer.  It adds the perfect citrus flavor that most cocktails, drinks, and even soda may need sometimes.  It’s the garnish of the liquor world.  If you don’t believe me, next time you order a drink that comes with a lime or lemon garnish, have the waitress replace that damn piece of evil fruit with a shot of Limón.  It makes a world of difference, plus, it makes any drink an alcoholic one.  There’s nothing at all wrong with that.

    Sadly, as for getting average drinker drunk, Bacardi Limón falls short.  It took maybe 5 glasses (2 1/2 shots per cup) to even get me buzzed.  The buzz was shorter than Hunter’s attempt to become a dancer at that Coyote Ugly Saloon (don’t worry little guy, I’m sure they’ll call eventually).  I guess getting you wasted may be this liquor’s weakest point.  So I guess it makes sense for there to be barely any signs of a hangover the next day.  I didn’t wake up with cotton mouth for once, but I did have a minor headache and breath so sour and bad-smelling that it could bring the manliest of men to tears.

    As with all the infused Bacardi rums, Limón is cheap.  I found a half gallon on sale for around $20.  You can get your hands on a fifth for around $18 online if you are too lazy to get off your fat ass.  At that price, Bacardi worth trying if you haven’t already.  Since this is a liquor that can be mixed with so many things, it wouldn’t hurt to keep a bottle around the house.  We had a guest taster, Dr. Unkard (check our forum if you don’t know who he is), who gave Limón an 8 for its mixed taste, and he’s a raging alcoholic.  That makes me believe that anyone across the board can like this one.  So give Bacardi Limón a try; I doubt you’ll be let down too much.  Meanwhile, I’m going to see if I can come up with a way to make this rum into the best lemonade, ever!

Sipability – 5.0

Mixability – 7.5

Drunkability – 5.5

Hangover-ability – 7.0

Bang for the Buck – 8.0

Overall – 6.5

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    Maybe it’s the cousin that shows up to the family reunion on a chopper wearing ass-less chaps.  Maybe it’s the sister that goes into the adult film industry and wants to show grandma what she does for a living.  In Flor de Caña Black Label’s case, it just didn’t measure up to the standards we have come to expect from Flor de Caña.  Having sampled and enjoyed the rums on either side age-wise, we expected something that mixes well in a cocktail and could be consumed on the rocks without making gargoyle faces.  Sadly, this rum suffers from the middle child syndrome and the Black Label just did not cut it in either case. 

    Flor de Caña Black Label is the middle child of the slow-aged family, spending 5 years in a barrel used only once prior.  This aging time is spent in their original barrel houses which were constructed without air-conditioning, electrical ventilation, or humidifiers.  This provides a natural environment for this line of rums to rest in comfortably.  Compañia Licorera, the parent company of Flor de Caña, has even trademarked this process and believes that it produces the finest family of rums on the market. 

    The aroma of Flor de Caña Black Label is not especially entrancing, as it is dominated by a strong alcohol odor, but it does have hints of sweet molasses and oddly a hint of cotton candy scent.  The flavor on the rocks is not really unpleasant, just disappointing.  It provides the same sort of feeling you get when your son drops a promising law career for one with a group of traveling folk singers.  Yeah, you will lie to your neighbors about his new profession, but you will feel bad about doing so.  It has nice oak flavors with a little bit of pepper, but the aftertaste is a little dry and metallic.  There are no caramel, molasses, or fruit flavors to entice me into another sip.  In fact, the taste is a bit delicate, and when we tried mixing it with cola, it was pretty much obliterated.  Ginger ale is a better mixer, but the Flor de Caña Black Label does not add much to the drink. 

    Well, it doesn’t add much other than an 80-proof dose of liquid courage.  Though even in this category, it was not as effective at the other Flor de Caña products we have enjoyed.  It will still get you nice an tipsy.  Unfortunately, the next day I had a persistent unsettled stomach that lasted for the majority of the day.  Again, this was just one more area that the Black Label did not stack up to its siblings.

    A bottle of Flor de Caña Black Label will cost you about $21, but honestly, I suggest you spend a little less and get the Gold or a little more and get the Grand Reserve.  The Black Label is not a bad rum; it just lacks the extra bite to mix well and yet does not have the smooth bold flavors to be consumed on the rocks.  We are not going to kick it out of our happy little family, but it is going to be relegated to the kids table at supper time.

Sipability - 6.0

Mixability – 6.5

Drunkability – 7.0

Hangover-ability – 5.5

Bang for the Buck – 7.5

Overall -  6.5 

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     Bacardi Razz is a carefully crafted product that infuses Bacardi rum, aged one to two years, to the essence of dark and sweet Marionberries and slightly tart red raspberries.  That raspberry flavor can be easily tasted, even from the smallest sips.  This raspberry daughter’s scent is a great one.  Bacardi Razz has almost a cotton candy-like scent.  It’s just a little bit of extra joy you get when drinking this rum.

     Unlike its soft, sweet scent, Razz’s solo taste is harsh.  The raspberry flavor is far too strong.  It’s drinkable by itself, but I wouldn’t recommend it.  The taste leaves a really sour, bitter aftertaste in your mouth.  It feels like cotton mouth except without all the fun of over-drinking the night before.  Even with all of this, it’s amazing what an equal part of Sprite© can do.  It’s a perfect cut for Bacardi Razz.  The raspberry flavor isn’t as strong on the tongue this way, plus, the added sugar and carbonation gives Razz the perfect accent to transform it into a delicious cocktail.

     When a drink tastes this good, it’s easy to put 1 or 15 down in a short amount of time.  I personally drank half the bottle.  I could have stopped a quater of the way down, but I was on the prowl for what many of the infused Bacardi girls tease you with but never give you.  That’s right; I wanted to get drunk.  Sadly, this effort ended as it does for me with most ladies, I got nothing.  I barely got a buzz, and that’s just sad.  It’s 70-proof, but I couldn’t tell.  I admit I am a more seasoned drinker than most, but for half a bottle, I should have gotten something more.  Since I went to bed with no kind of drunk, I awoke with no hangover.  If it weren’t for my horrible breath in the morning, no one would have known I had been drinking the previous night.  I had a very faint headache, but that probably came more from me trying to get drunk than the Razz.

     Another little plus about Bacardi Razz is that it’s really one for the girls.  What I mean by that is the female gender seems to be crazy about this stuff.  Be sure to offer it to any of your female friends, or guy friends if they like the girl drinks.  There’s nothing wrong with a guy being a girl-drink drunk.  At least he’s drinking, right?  Now if you catch him watching “Sex and the City”, it’s time to start asking questions.

     As with most Bacardi flavored rums, the price tag isn’t a very big one.  $18 for a 750ml bottle seems to be the standard for all the infused Bacardi girls.  Razz makes for a great starting drink for either a long night of drinking or a short one around the house.  Just don’t expect to get drunk.  Offering mixed drinks made with this rum might help you make some new friends, no matter if they are causal drinkers or full blown alcoholics.  I’m not going to say this is a bottle that you are going to need around the house at all times, but if you are having a party, dinner, or any social gathering and really want to ease someone into drinking, this is a good bottle to have.  I’ll go ahead and put Bacardi Razz down under the win column for Bacardi.  With so many of these infused Bacardi rums out there, I wonder what else they can find to mix into their rum.

Sipability – 4.5

Mixability – 8.5

Drunkability – 2.5

Hangover-ability – 8.5

Bang for the Buck – 4.0

Chick-appeal – 7.5

Overall – 6.0  

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     Bacardi Select (previously known as Bacardi Black Label) is a blend of select aged rums that are charcoal filtered for smoothness before mellowing in oak barrels.  It’s a dark amber in color and is medium-full bodied.  They claim a very complex palate containing notes of caramel, toffee, honey, and even leather.  The finish is supposed to be buttery and long with an oaky taste.  That sounds pretty promising for a rum that will only cost you $17 for 750ml, so we put it through our BoozeBasher tests.

     The smell of Bacardi Select is rather pungent.  After a sniff, there is no doubt that the dark-colored liquid in the bottle contains alcohol.  After repeated sniffings and a few burned nose hairs, some of the intricacies of the aroma, like the toffee and honey, become more apparent.  However, the alcohol smell still overpowers everything.  The taste of Bacardi Select on the rocks really runs along the same lines.  All of the infused flavors mesh together and assault your taste-buds at the same time with a bit of a burn.  There is just too much flavor up front, and the taste quickly gives way to an extremely long finish.  This might be a good thing if the the rum were to finish as advertised.  Unfortunately for Bacardi, it really doesn’t.  I didn’t notice much if any butteriness in the finish, and the slight barrel taste was utterly consumed by a dirty metallic flavor that lingered far after the sip.  The aftertaste just ruined the sipping experience for me because it made it taste like a cheap and unrefined rum.  The taste is still far better than RonRico, but that’s not saying much.  I wouldn’t recommend drinking Bacardi Select on the rocks.

     Hoping for a good mixing experience, we mixed Bacardi Select with cola.  The cola really didn’t do much to quell the dirty metallic taste.  It took away some of the bite and burn, but it really just seemed to water down the beverage.  The taste is adequate for a rum and cola, but you can make a much better one for about the same price using Flor de Caña Gold.  I supposed mixing Bacardi Select makes it easier to drink, which is quite important for anyone looking to feel the happy tingle of intoxication.

     A shining bright spot in the assessment of Bacardi Select is its ability to bring that happy tingle.  In Select’s case, it’s more like a blissful numbness.  This rum excels in the intoxication department, even for an 80-proof liquor.  The drunk it gave me was very sloppy, and slurred speech was prevalent.  The effects of this spirit were very similar to what I have come to expect from tequila.  For all you kiddies out there, I wouldn’t recommend bringing this stuff to a frat party unless you feel like cleaning blood, broken sandals, and ripped pink polos up the next morning.

     You definitely wouldn’t be happy helping with the cleanup efforts the next day if you partook in drinking a resonable amount of Bacardi Select with the soon-to-be-violent fraternity boys.  The hangover for me was a total killer.  My head felt as if it were being pounded with a massive sledgehammer.  My mouth and throat were both so dry that it almost hurt, and the nausea had me fearing that I would soon be praying to a porcelain alter for most of the next day.  This rum is a weekend beverage, plain and simple.  Although Bacardi Select was an overall disappointment, the high drunkability factor and the consumable mixed taste might make it appealing to some drinkers.  If you are craving some rum and a hardcore buzz, you may want to try Bacardi Select; just don’t say I didn’t warn you about the death that is sure to follow.  

Sipability – 5.5

Mixability – 6.5

Drunkability – 8.0

Hangover-ability – 3.0

Bang for the Buck – 7.0

Overall - 6.0 

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     Myer’s Rum is produced in Jamaica using a continuous pot still distillation method, a process that creates a full-bodied and more flavorful rum.  This is the traditional method of rum production and the way Myers’s Rum has been produced since 1879.  As a dark rum, a portion of the molasses used in the initial production is retained in the final product.  This final product is aged in white oak barrels for 4 years.  The end result is one of the darkest rums I have ever experienced and also one of the more unique.

     I’ll admit, I was as giddy as a schoolgirl about trying this rum because of that entrancing dark color and the almost cult-like adoration of this rum.  Before the BoozeBasher staff could gather, I couldn’t resist cracking open the bottle just to get a whiff of its contents.  The initial sniff was a mix of strong smokey and tobacco aromas.  A few more sniffs and I was detecting  a sharp metallic odor, the first indication that Myers’s would not live up to my expectations. 

     When tasting it on the rocks, the initial flavor was actually pretty bland.  When the flavor did show up, it was an amazing molasses buttery taste that warmed me up nicely.  If Myers’s could reduce their rum to just that buttery flavor and bottle it, I would be stocking up by the case.  Unfortunately, that wonderful taste was fleeting on the palate and quickly faded into a sharp, dry, metallic finish that was downright unpleasant. 

     I had originally though that Myers’s would make for a optimal mixer in tropical fruity drinks best enjoyed in a hammock on a sandy beach.  We whipped up a cocktail consisting of fruit juices and rum that, unfortunately, looked like sewage water and honestly did not taste much better.  Either I was wrong about my original idea, or we are failures at inventing tropical fruity drinks.  After that debacle, we decided to go with the keep-it-simple-stupid method and tried again with some cola.  Myers’s Rum is not bad when consumed in this fashion.  It added an almost exotic flavor to the cola and the undesirable finish is cut to a resonable level.  Sadly, the best asset of this rum, that buttery flavor, was annihilated in this mixture.  I still think that Myers rum would be nicely complimented by some tropical and Caribbean flavors, possibly a Planter’s Punch, as it seems to be the most popular use of this rum.

     The dissatisfaction with the rum continued when I got around to having a few drinks.  I seem to be completely immune to the alcohol in this bottle of rum.  The bottle claims 80-proof.  I don’t want to call the producers of Myers’s Rum liars, but after a number of drinks, I was stone sober.  I am not even the alcoholic on the BoozeBasher staff; Wade has that position on lock-down.  The good news is that where there is no drunk, there is no hangover.  I had a little cotton mouth the next day, but nothing a glass of water could not fix.

     I was pretty disappointed by Myers’s Rum, possibly because my expectations were so high that I was guaranteeing myself a letdown.  I think it could be spectacular in the right drink, and since I have not given up on it yet, let us know if you have any good recipes.  If you are looking for something a little different, Myers’s Rum is only about $23 a bottle.  I doubt it will get you drunk, but you might find that you are a fan of it’s unique flavor. 

Sipability – 5.5

Mixability – 5.5

Drunkability – 3.0

Hangover-ability – 7.5

Bang for the Buck – 5.5

Overall - 5.5 

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