I am back from a month-long hiatus! Honestly I just kind of burnt myself out on rum, and reviewing well over 100 rums in a year means I drink on average every 3 days, and that’s on top of trying other rums alongside the rum I am reviewing as points of comparison… I just decided to take a break for a bit.

Anyway, one of my friends from Quebec spent some time there, and brought this bottle back with him to NYC. Since he knows that I like rum, he let me take a sample of it to try and review. I was in Montreal this past Christmas, but for the most part, I saw imported agricole rums in SAQ, so this was an interesting discovery, as this rum claims to be made in Quebec.

Note: This rum is a distillate of a blend of molasses cane sugar.

Review

Smell

This rum smells strongly of whiskey. Oak, vanilla, and overall just strong Scotch or Bourbon vibes. I have said before that Bajan rums have really strong Bourbon notes, and Real McCoy 5 also smells kind of oaky and Bourbony, but it has less of an apple juice note, and instead has a distinct bajan note that Comont lacks.

Taste

Like the nose, on the palate it’s a pretty strong whiskey flavor, and quite sweet. I actually took out a bottle of wild turkey 101 to compare as well. It’s definitely not that strongly flavored, but the taste is extremely similar, but much lighter and sweeter. I might describe it as a mild column still rum blended with a bit of Scotch or Bourbon and a touch of apple juice. Medium harshness, definitely a bit more than I expect from an aged 40%, but it’s not bad. Then, going from Comont to The Real McCoy 5 feels like a mouthful of Pusser’s. So much rum flavor, and charred barrel notes in particular, and it is actual rum flavor. Then, going back, it’s just it tastes like harsh Bourbon.

Comont in a daiquiri is… fine, if maybe a bit off. There’s nothing I can quite point to, other than the fact that it just isn’t a particularly good daiquiri rum. Real McCoy 5 doesn’t make my favorite daiquiri, but it’s better than Comont. I actually taste rum and it’s just fine. Back to Comont and it’s just not quite right. Again, it’s like an apple juice and whiskey daiquiri.

Bajan rums typically are better for me in a Rum Fashioned, and with Comont, it’s also just okay. Comont itself just doesn’t deliver much flavor. Bitters, sweetness, alcohol burn. Real McCoy 5, on the other hand, is actually tasty. I’m impressed by how good of a Rum Fashioned it makes. The rum and charred barrel really pop. Coming back to Comont, it’s weak on flavor despite burning just as much, and again just tastes like bourbon and apple juice. It’s not bad, but it’s just weird.

Verdict 5/10

Maybe it’s unfair to compare an 18 month aged rum to a 5 year aged rum. Just as a sanity check, I knocked the competitor down to a 1 year aged rum: Bacardi gold. The burn is about equal, but Bacardi gold tastes more like what I recognize as rum. Comont tastes slightly better than Bacardi gold, but tastes less like rum. I guess I slightly prefer it in that case, I’d rather it taste better than taste “right”. It’s in the same league as Bacardi 8, where it tasted ok, but it just doesn’t quite taste right, and doesn’t really justify its price point. 5/10.