I was in Pittsburgh this past weekend, and it was such an insane party… not a night went by where I was sober. After leaving a friend’s hotel room and heading to the elevator, I heard music thumping down the hallway. I went to check it out, and it was a complete mosh pit of a room with people dancing and drinking, and the tables were overflowing in bottles of liquor— none of which was good liquor, of course, but the kind of liquor that I grew up with. I think that Bacardí Superior is the second most consumed rum over the course of my life, after Kraken.

Review

Smell

The smell of Bacardí Superior is unmistakable— mostly a punch in the nose of isopropyl alcohol, with a hint of what I can only describe as “rum”.

Taste

Drinking it straight, it’s the same experience of it being quite hard to sip as the alcohol comes in hot, but besides the overall neutral taste of alcohol, there is an aftertaste of the pleasant rummy flavor. Doesn’t really have any particular fruity notes, it’s just “rum”.

With diet pepsi… it’s a classic rum and pepsi. I remember an old ad campaign that goes like “Bacardi and Cola: They get the job done.” That’s about all I have to say as well.

Verdict 4.5/10

(Edited from 5/10 on 12/14/25)

A few times, I’ve been asked why I even review these clearly inferior rums. And the answer is always— because I drink them; because everyone drinks them. And, I’ve mentioned before that my family doesn’t really drink rum, but they buy these fancy expensive bourbons and cognacs and tequilas, and I just never liked them. Even the most basic rum is, for whatever reason, preferable for me.

That being said, this is the most 5/10 that a rum can be. It sets the standard for being… standard. It’s got one note, but that one note is not bad. I prefer it to almost any “flavored” rum (or maybe it should be “rum” in quotes).

December 14, 2025 Update:

Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 4.5 to reflect my new scoring system. Bacardi Superior is basically like the litmus test, where anything worse than it is a 4/10 (sub-par) at best, and anything better is a 5/10 (good) at worst.