I’ve been looking forward to Flor de Caña rums for a while. It seems like the consensus has been that they are some of the best rums in their genre, but also, they come with a lot of baggage. I wrote more about it on their Wikipedia page.

The company’s history is pretty remarkable. Founded 140 years ago by an Italian entrepreneur, the company was taken over by the Sandinistas, only for them to hold elections and lose, with a relative of the Pellas family getting elected and returning everything. The Pellas family are now the only billionaires in the country and, ironically, have close ties to the socialist military dictator president Daniel Ortega, who confiscated their company decades before. Politics sure makes strange bedfellows.

They faced a number of controversies, like the horrible working conditions that were suspected to be a cause of CDK, a disease that caused the death of half of all males in the town that the sugarcane fields are in (though, to be fair, was not exclusive to FdC), and the working conditions and the use of sick and underage workers drew heavy criticism towards Ingenio San Antonio, the fields that are owned by the Pellas family and supply FdC with molasses. Then there’s the Pellas family (allegedly) using ties to the government to shoot protesters and unionizers, and, worst of all, removing age statements from the bottles, leaving the big number that heavily implies an age statement but doesn’t actually mean anything. The 12, 18, and 25 you see might as well be a 23. They even got sued for it.

But the good news is that things are improving. FdC now claims to be completely sugar-free, it has slowly re-introduced actual age statements, the conditions in the sugarcane fields have reportedly been taken seriously with real measures to address them, and they haven’t (allegedly) shot protesters in almost a decade. Things are looking up!!

Review

Smell: Bold oak and vanilla, and a touch floral.

Taste: Again, just bold oak and vanilla. The alcohol burn is light, and the finish is lightly floral. Even lighter than many premium Dominican rums. I added a few drops of simple syrup into my FdC 12 and I think it improved it. It really opened it up and I think it tastes pretty much like Bermudez Don Armando. I would definitely prefer the 12 year in a rum fashioned, and the 18 year just the way it is.

Verdict 6.25/10

Flor de Caña 12 Years Old and Flor de Caña 18 Years Old are two great rums. In a lot of ways they are similar, and in some ways they are different. The 12 tasted so similar to Don Armando, that I am starting to suspect that I know where Bermudez imports their rum from. But it definiely livens up with a bit of sweetness, and I can totally see myself sipping it, though it might not be the first rum that I would reach for. It’s nice with a bit of sugar and bitters. In the Spanish category, I agree that it’s among the best that you can get in a typical liquor store. 6.25/10. It’s more expensive than Don Armando, but I honestly thought that it was a steal for $22, and it’s very hard to find in the US, so for $29, you’re getting an almost identical product, just completely unsweetened, and you can get it literally anywhere in the US.