I want to combo break from the Dominican Republic again, because I think I may have found a rum competing to be my favorite, again. I have two variants of Doctor Bird. The original one you can get anywhere, and the blend exclusive to The Inferno Room, a tiki bar in Indianapolis.

Note: It carries NAS, but The Fat Rum Pirate says that Zan Kong (marketing manager at WP) told them that Doctor Bird is a blend of rums, some of which are aged 6 years. Two James then finishes the blend in Detroit in Moscatel casks.

Review

Smell

This thing is fantastic. You take the cap off, and the rum fills the room. Very strong pineapple, banana, sweet, fruity, tropical.

Taste

Pineapple, banana, blueberry, and it melts into a caramel and buttered popcorn. It’s such a nice pure Jamaican funk, with none of the industrial notes that I get from some of the more complex Hampden marks like C<>H, but it’s not as oaky and vanilla as Smith & Cross, it’s actually very light and crisp. Is it the perfect daiquiri rum?

I made myself several daiquiris. Doctor Bird, Inferno Room, Smith & Cross, and DOKTOK split base 1:1 with Diplo Planas as DOK tends to overwhelm. Well, maybe I am just becoming a dunderhead, but DOKTOK split with Planas was my favorite daiquiri of the bunch. But it was veeery close. Honestly I should have also split base for Inferno Room because it’s challenging to drink a daiquiri that is 2 parts rum, 1 part lime, and 1 part syrup, when the rum is a 60% ABV funk bomb. But they are all delicious. I can’t emphasize enough what a fantastic break this is from so much Dominican rum. I would put Smith & Cross and Doctor Bird tied for 2nd to DOKTOK in the daiquiri tasting, and honestly, I feel like I still need to find the right cocktail for Doctor Bird Inferno Room, because the sherry flavor doesn’t really work quite as well in a daiquiri, even after compensating for the overwhelming ABV and funk.

Verdict 8.5/10

When I was trying it, I was convinced that it was a hampden. I pulled out my 8 marks and was tasting them… maybe it’s a blend of LFCH and <>H? It’s so hard to tell because it’s also definitely aged and my marks are all unaged! But dead on, it gave me hampden vibes. I was stunned when I read that it was Worthy Park, because I associated Worthy Park with that really grassy weird flavor like in Worthy Park Overproof, 109, and Hamilton Pot Still blends. Not that I don’t like Worthy Park, but I always assumed that it had this one specific profile, but that might just be a particular mark that they use in those rums but they don’t use in Doctor Bird, because this blows every other WP I’ve had out of the water. But regardless, my conviction that this was a Hampden just goes to show how good this rum is. Crazy fruity, crazy funky, and it’s incredible that it goes for the same price as Smith & Cross. For $30 I now have a choice of two 8.5/10 rums that are quite different but fantastic in their own way. It’s an insane daiquiri.