I really wanted to give this an impartial review, and I got to taste some Puntacana Club rum in the Dominican Republic, and my thoughts were that it’s a sweet mediocre rum that is way more expensive than its quality calls for. But I only got to try a few, so I bought some sample bottles at a gift shop. I figured it’s a serious enough rum company to actually warrant me to sit down and give them a review. I’ve seen their rums in the US! It’s, in their words, Rum for Connoisseurs.

I also wanted to quickly share the description of the rum from their website:

An absolutely crystal-clear white wine. A clear, clean aroma with character. It has tropical notes, pleasant and smooth. Perfect for sipping neat or in cocktails.

Story

You know what? When they call it a white wine, I believe it. 32% ABV? Are you kidding? And in case any of yous think this is just the samples being lower ABV to fool tourists into thinking that the rum is smoother than it actually is (which is something that absolutely crossed my mind!) just look at their own website. It’s a bit blurry, but you can absolutely see it says 32% ABV. Likewise, for the Puntacana Club Black that I reviewed yesterday, the full-size product is also genuinely 34% ABV. I will give them credit for one thing, though. This time, they got the color right. This actually looks like a silver rum.

Complete side note, but what is up with that URL? temnye_romy_do_20_ti_let_premium_vyderzhka is literally the transliteration from Russian of темные ромы до 20-ти лет премиум выдержка. This is bizarre. This is the official gift shop for Oliver & Oliver products in Punta Cana, by the way.

Once again, same old tourist trap packaging: thick glass where the rum only shows in a little window. The rest is just dead space disguised by the box. ABV and fill level conveniently hidden. Even the weakest rums in the US are a full 25% stronger than this liquid, and while 50mL is not a huge amount, at least it’s enough to get a good sample. Pour it in my NEAT glass, get a good nose, take a sip, and use the rest for one or two half-size cocktails. But 20mL? God forbid I can actually get a decent sample of your severely watered down rum! This is some advanced tourist entrapment! The best scientists at Oliver & Oliver must have put in overtime to come up with this trick!

Notes:

Base fermentable: Some retail sites say molasses, but their official site says miel de la caña (sugarcane honey) which is a sugarcane juice syrup. Since they buy bulk rum from Trinidad (definitely from Angostura, which is molasses) and from Panama (highly likely from Varela Hermanos, which is sugarcane juice), as well as from various other countries, it’s probably a blend of both.

Origin: Cask Cartel says that it’s a blend from five countries. My guess is the same as the rest of the Puntacana Club lineup: bulk rum from Nicaragua, Colombia, Panama, Trinidad, and the Dominican Republic.

Aging: The claim is that it is aged in a solera style in ex-bourbon barrels, with either the oldest portion 5 years old, or 5 years is the average age. Claims differ.

Additives: European retailers indicate that it contains 8g/L of sugar. So, is it dry? Well, it’s the least sweetened product that Puntacana Club offers, so, I guess? It is also triple chill-filtered, filtered through activated charcoal, and filtered through plates of cellulose.

Please take the above information with a very large grain of salt, as Oliver & Oliver is not known for their transparency in terms of their ingredients, additives, and production, and retail sites and their distributor have wildly different claims about how it’s made and what’s in it. Not a good sign.

spec sheet (but take this with a grain of salt too because the ABV doesn’t even match)

Review

Smell

A very light smell of vanilla, and that’s pretty much it.

Taste

Very sweet. This is dry? I refuse to believe it. It is grossly sweet. And grossly artificial vanilla flavored. If the sugar results say 8g/L, then they are adding something else to it to sweeten it more. It’s sweeter than Barceló Blanco, which, according to Alko, is 13g/L. Like, I can taste that Barceló Blanco is sweetened, but it’s still within my limits because I like my rum a bit sweeter. Puntacana Club Silver Dry is like candy. It’s like I am drinking vanilla candy.

In a daiquiri, ew. Gross. I feel zero alcohol. All I feel is the disgusting mixture of artificial vanilla combined with limeade. I actually don’t want to finish my drink.

Verdict 1/10

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I like rums with a bit of sweetness. I like to add a few drops of syrup to my Foursquare rums to make them more enjoyable. So when I tell you that Puntacana Club Silver Dry is disgustingly sweet, I mean it. Official sources say it has 8g/L of sugar, but I don’t believe it. Either that number is wrong, or they’re adding something else— glycerin, artificial flavors, who knows? Because this drinks like candy, not rum.

I also put it in my NEAT glass and swirled it… sure enough, legs. Based on my research, this rum is at most 1-3 years old, likely closer to 1. Now, I did a whole post about this recently where I broke down how legs developed from additives, and I am not 100% saying that there is no way for the legs to form except by glycerin, but, given everything else about this rum, I am highly confident that this rum is heavily adulterated. The vanilla flavor is so strong that it drowns out everything else. This rum is actually disgusting. I couldn’t even finish my daiquiri. Congrats, Caribaya white rum, you have an equal. 1/10 avoid at all costs.