I have tried so many rums in the Dominican Republic! I am very sad to say that, due to our tour company being very bad and unhelpful and screwing us over so many times, instead of visiting Barceló, I got rebooked to go to some tourist trap gift shop where you get to try super sugary Oliver & Oliver rums. Yaaayy…

Fortunately I will get to briefly go to the Dominican Republic again later this year, and I’ll make sure that I go to Barceló. For now, I plan on making a big post on Brugal, though I also want to finally review my Hampden 8 marks as well, so I’ll have to find the time to compile all of my notes.

For now, I’ll have to give you another stinker from the backlog.

Review

Smell

Harsh spirit and anise. There’s not really anything else of note.

Taste

Neutral, a good bit of anise flavor, and dry since it’s sin azucar, but you can basically achieve this same taste by soaking anise in vodka.

Verdict 2.5/10

There’s nothing exciting about this. But if you like it, you like it. For a lot of people, this is all that they can regularly afford, and so, it is what it is. There’s definitely a vibe to it. I was talking to our tour guide for one of the days in the Dominican Republic, and he offered us rum and coke on the boat. It was quite bad rum— Ron Cabaret Dorado. Very harsh and sickly sweet. I told him it’s the second worst rum that I’ve had from the Dominican Republic. But, he responded that this rum and aguardiente are his two regular drinks of choice. The nicer Brugal and Barceló are for special occasions. So, I don’t feel bad for reviewing it, even if it was obvious that it was never going to score high. Aguardiente is the rum of the people.