So I was in Iceland recently, and looking it up, I could find very little info on Icelandic rum. After all, Iceland isn’t exactly a country known for processing sugarcane. I checked the duty free website, and I saw that they had one Icelandic rum: Reykjavík spiced rum. So, of course, I bought it. The plastic bottle, and the fact that they produce every different type of alcohol, does not inspire confidence in the quality.

Review

Smell

It smells sweet, and with some vanilla and coriander, as well as a bit of a smell of alcohol.

Taste

Very sweet. Almost offensively sweet. There is a mild spice flavor, which doesn’t hit you hard like a lot of spiced rums (like Kraken), it’s just a mild bit of… I think vanilla and coriander. I might be getting the spice wrong, it’s a bit chocolatey, but I think it’s coriander seed. A lot of spiced rums are just a mouthful of pie spice like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice— this one is milder and I don’t really get cinnamon from it. Mostly coriander, which I think is an underrated spice in liquor. I just wish it wasn’t so damn sweet. Dumping it all into a cola… yeah, it’s pretty solid. It’s an interesting flavor that goes well with cola.

Verdict 4.5/10

(Edited from 8.5/10 on 1/20/26)

I’m not the biggest fan of spiced rum, but this was a competent attempt at it. The underlying rum is nothing to write home about. I think it’s just a generic neutral rum. The distillery doesn’t claim to distill this rum anywhere, just to “produce it”, which I take to mean that maybe they import generic rum (like from St. Croix or WIRD) and then spice it locally then bottle it. I don’t know this for a fact, though. I did email them requesting for any info on their rum, but have not received a response. The spice was nice, but it’s brought down by boring rum, and further ruined by being too sweet. It’s just alright. Drop it in some coke and forget it. 5.5/10

January 20, 2026 Update:

Not much more to add, I am just amending the score down to a 4.5 to reflect my new scoring system.