Liquorists

Time for another funky bottle, the baquba rum blanco.
And that's the first thing you will notice, not a standard glass bottle, but like the picture shows, a aluminium blue bottle.
But how outstanding it might look, it also gave me my first problem. It's a little bit hard to pour from, and i ended up pouring really really carefull not to spill a bit.

According to the bottle this is rum is blended from ages rums, some ages for over 5 years in oak barrels. And then blended with fresh sugar cane destillate, ending with a charcoal filtering. Sounds impressive enough, but aging in wooden casks usually gives you a darker rum, and this is a pure blanco. Maybe a specific wood or barrel type. At least, there is no hint of aging due color nor smell to find. The rum is sporting a 37.5% alcohol (75 proof), so normal for a blanco.

That leaves us to the smell.
I'm getting a rather typical blanco rum smell. Meaning you can sense the alcohol right away, followed by some natural odors.
Now when tasting this, i do have to agree with the labeling. The rum does have a alcohol numbing on your tongue effect, but nothing strange. Just a little burn in the throat.
The taste itself is sweet at first, and going over in a more bitter aftertaste. And i don't know if i'm imagining things (my nose isn't working 100% at this moment), but in the aftertaste, i'm sensing just a tiny tiny little hint of a smokey, oaky thing. But only noticable when i'm trying really hard.

Maybe due the filtering that this rum has blended into a more mellow sweet rum, it might also have taken away a bit of complexity. But compaired to other rums in the same price range (around €17,- for the 100CL) it can stand it's ground.
A bit less complex, but a mild sweet rum with a somewhat more bitter aftertaste.
But i do also have to say, almost all rums in this pricerange, and especially blanco's are made mostly for mixing, not for sipping.
And thats what i thing this rum is doing fairly good. The lack of complexity won't be noticed in a mix, neither the slight bitterness in the end. So a good alternative for your cocktails from the other mass market rums, that tend to be 1 or 2 euros higher in price.

This rum is made from blended caribbean rums, but the company itself is dutch. So it's because i noticed the blue bottle in the shelves, otherwise i had never heard of this brand before. Therefor i don't know the availability in other countries.

Overall final note: because the company seems to be quitte young, and for the pricerange of this rum, i don't have anything bad to say. It won't be sipping material, but i don't think you will find any other blanco rums that are, that are comparable in price.

Find more info on: the Baquba site.