This one doesn’t really have a deep story. I was just walking around liquor stores in my neighborhood, taking stock of what rums they have and for what price, so that I know what is available here vs what I have to go to Astor Wines to acquire, and one of the stores that I hit up had small sample bottles of Copeland rum. I saw that it was Irish, and thought— ah great, a rum that tastes like Irish Whiskey. Gross. Oh well, maybe it’ll make for a good review, at least.

Note: This rum is a blend of column still rum from Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, and pot still rum from Barbados. NI portion aged in Pinot Noir barrels, Barbados portion aged in bourbon barrels. No age statements for any of it.

Review

Smell

Very grassy and funky. Kind of similar to a Jamaican funk with the banana and pineapple notes, but I am also getting some citrus fruit, like lime, and something vegetal.

Taste

Very much outright funky. As with the smell, you taste what is very similar to a Jamaican funk, with the banana and pineapple, but there is a strong citrus note to it that I don’t get from other Jamaican rums.

To better compare them, I made my favorite Jamaican mix of 3 parts Appleton Signature and 1 part Wray & Nephew white OP. I definitely don’t get the aged barrel notes from Copeland, so if this rum was aged at all, it wasn’t for very long. However, there is a distinct zip, a citrus tang, that I just don’t get from the Appleton/Wray mix, and I quite like it.

For a 40% rum, it’s not particularly smooth, but it’s also not particularly harsh either.

It makes a very good funky daiquiri. Of course, the citrus notes are lost in the lime of the daiquiri, but it’s still a good young rum with a bold pot still taste.

Verdict 6.5/10

(Edited from 8/10 on 1/3/26)

I was completely wrong about how this rum would taste. I was absolutely not expecting tropical pot still, and it was a banger. Absolutely, I prefer it to many Jamaican rums that I have tried. I really feel like it lacks the complex aged notes that you get from Appleton Signature, and so it doesn’t quite beat the 3:1 mix that has become my staple, but I wish I still had some Planteray 3 stars to compare to this, just to decide if this might be the one rum that I would keep if I could only have one rum forever. I’m not sure. Either way, I don’t know how much that means to anyone, as I have yet to acquire some of the heavy hitters that I have been recommended, such as Smith & Cross, Worthy Park, Hampden, El Dorado, etc. and by the sound of what people are saying, I may need to expand the scale past 10. So, I will leave it at this: if you love Planteray 3 stars, you might love this one just as much. Except it costs twice as much, so there’s that. And, once again, the 50mL costs less on a per-liter basis than the full bottle— what’s up with that?

January 3, 2026 Update:

Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 6.5 to reflect my new scoring system.