Not much of a story behind this rum, other than the fact that I actually bought it back in the summer, and I forgot to take a picture of it, so I was sitting on the review until I finally just set the bottle down in front of a house plant and called it good enough.

I later learned that “black seal” is meant to describe the fact that the bottles used to literally be sealed with black wax. For the longest time, I was laboring under a misapprehension that it described the animal on their logo, and I was mildly annoyed, because it is clearly a sealion.

Note: The exact formula is a trade secret, but most likely all sugarcane molasses. Fortune.com says that the distillate for Black Seal comes from Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad, and the same may be true for Gold Seal. Blend consists of several rums from several Caribbean islands are distilled variously in pot and column stills before being shipped to Bermuda. Does not make an age statement, but the company claims that the blended product is aged in re-charred once-used American oak bourbon barrels.

Review

Smell

It smells very sweet. It doesn’t even have a strong hit of alcohol or funk, it just smells like I am smelling a freshly opened bag of brown sugar. Lots of molasses and caramel scents.

Taste

I brought out Pusser’s blue label and Myers’s for this comparison, and I would say that immediately, it is very similar to Myers’s in flavor. In fact, if I wasn’t trying them side by side, but instead ordered Myers’s at a bar, and they gave me Goslings, I would literally not think that anything was amiss. That said, compared to Myers’s, Goslings Black Seal has a bit more of a berry taste to it. It’s also surprisingly smooth, at least compared to Myers’s, but also, the Jamaican funk is a bit more muted. It also has a very slight industrial taste that I associate with Jamaican rums like Myers’s. It would not surprise me at all if the Jamaican component of this rum was from NRJ.

In a daiquiri, Goslings actually gets better, as the funk comes through more, and rather than the mild industrial aftertaste of Myers’s, Goslings has more of a mild aftertaste of wild berry punch, which actually is nice.

Verdict 5/10

(Edited from 6.5/10 on 5/15/26)

(Edited from 8/10 on 1/21/26)

I would say that I like it slightly more than Myers’s and about equally as Pusser’s, and since I gave Pusser’s an 8/10, and downgraded Myers’s to 7.5/10, that makes this score easy. It’s an 8/10. Simple, sweet, tasty.

January 21, 2026 Update:

Really, I overrated Pusser’s, Myers’s, and Gosling’s. Going back and tasting them, I’ll put them all tied at 6.5/10. They’re good, but definitely pretty much budget mixers.

May 15, 2026 Update:

Gosling’s is pretty noticeably a step below Myers’s and Pusser’s. Still not bad, but the flavor just isn’t as… there.