The Chase Sapphire lounge in LaGuardia and the Plaza Premium lounge in Orlando is like a tale of two lounges. In the Chase Sapphire lounge, you get complimentary restaurant-quality food, a buffet with fancy hors d’oeuvres and desserts, and a full bar with complimentary cocktails and several excellent rums. In the Plaza Premium lounge, well, you get complimentary cold pasta and a sad salad bar. They have a bar as well, but almost everything comes at a cost. My previous review was about the one rum that is free, and it’s so bad, that even free isn’t enough for me to drink it. But I did buy one drink, because I’ve been meaning to sample it for a while. I got the Planteray XO.

One thing to just keep in mind is that I saw a “20 extra old” on the neck of the bottle from the bar and figured it meant that it was 20 years aged, when actually it’s a 20th anniversary bottle.

Review

Smell

The first thing I notice is the harshness of the ethanol smell, which surprised me for such an aged blend, but there’s also vanilla, coconut, and a sweet rummy smell. I’d honestly think that this was Bacardi gold with how harsh and generic it smells.

Taste

So, literally a day and a half ago, I went to a restaurant, and all they had at the bar were cheap crap rums, and Planteray Barbados 5 year. I already had this rum, I already reviewed it, so I just ordered it and sipped it neat. It’s honestly not bad— I gave it a 7/10 when I reviewed it. Planteray XO tastes exactly like it. It’s got that distinct “bajan-but-not-quite” taste. A bit of Foursquare, but also a bit of Planteray’s own twist on it. And so, I feel like Planteray XO tastes pretty much like Barbados 5 year— except I really expected it to be smoother, but it’s just not. It’s harsh and quite bitter. I can barely make out a “20 extra old” on the bottle, so that explains the $70 price tag here, but there’s zero reason that it burns a bit more, not less.

I do remember adding a bit of sugar to The Real McCoy when I had it, and it saved it a bit. Didn’t make it great, but it made it more palatable. I added more sugar to Planteray XO, and nothing about it changed. It already tastes sweet, so I guess the dryness isn’t the problem. I don’t know the proof of this rum, but unless it’s like 57%, it has no excuse.

Verdict 5/10

(Edited from 6/10 on 1/4/26)

I am disappointed. If I wanted Barbados 5 year rum, I could just buy that. But this rum basically tastes the same, burns slightly more, is a bit more bitter, and is way more expensive. Is this a bad rum? No. It’s better than Bacardi, it’s better than some other disappointments that I’ve tried like Havana Club Anejo Reserva. Maybe I had a bad batch? It still said “Plantation” on the bottle, and I basically finished off what was left at the bottom of the bottle, so maybe the bottle was just super old, maybe it was a bad batch, maybe something changed in the formula, maybe it just sat mostly empty in a sun-bathed Orlando lounge room for a long time and the rum denatured. But, just judging based on what I had, if Barbados 5 year is 7/10, then I gotta knock half a point off for the bitterness and burn and another half point off for the value. 6/10. If someone, for some reason, had this at a party (as in, I am not paying for it lol) and nothing else but Bacardi and the Captain, yeah, of course I’d go for it, but I do not think that I’ll be buying this bottle.

January 4, 2026 Update:

Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 5 to reflect my new scoring system.