Like always in my rum journey, I thought “oh, Australian rum? Like, a one-off thing like with Iceland?” and then it turns out that Australian history is as closely tied to rum as the Caribbean’s or the British Empire’s.

Note: State no color, no filtering, no additives, bottled at barrel proof

Review

Smell

Crazy strong smell. My first thought is cognac. It’s woody, oaky, maybe whiskey-like, with a bit of pear, anise, and herbs.

Taste

Extremely flavorful. Wow. Yeah, it’s 66% ABV, but when it hit my tongue, the burn of the alcohol was only my second thought. My first thought was, wow, this rum goes crazy. Very woody, oaky, strong green apple and fennel notes, floral and pear, herbal, spicy, and it’s dry as can be. I don’t have very much that I can really compare it to, but I grabbed some Doorly’s 14, since that’s the most dry and oaky rum that I have that’s pretty close to the same age. But compared to TCRL, Doorly’s tastes light and sweet. TCRL is just that deep and rich and dry and herbal. Quite frankly, it’s not easy for me to sip, despite how interesting it tastes, just because it does burn so much and it’s so dry.

But am I really going to do it? Am I going to demote this rum to a mixer, and make a daiquiri with it? It feels like sacrilege. But then, a little devil popped up on my shoulder. Well, he looked more like a fat rum pirate. And he told me to do whatever I want, and poured some HV Foursquare 2015 into his coke.

So I did it. And, you know what? It was the best daiquiri that I have ever had. In fact, I think that I actually tasted the rum better in the daiquiri, since I wasn’t burning my taste buds off, and the dilution and sweetness overall just enhanced the flavor for me. It’s everything that I love about a punchy jamaican daiquiri, but with this crazy herbal green apple pear floral 15 year australian rum instead.

Verdict 8.5/10

Like that critic from Ratatouille, sometimes I have flashbacks to a meal that I had. One of them is when I tried a $20 organic hamburger for the first time. This was before covid, so paying $20 for a hamburger was still obscene. But they hand-ground the bison meat in the shop, and served it with the craziest array of toppings. I remember ordering a burger with onion jam, a slice of green apple, and some fancy cheese that I couldn’t even pronounce, much less remember to this day, and maybe some other things. But that burger was incredible. There’s something magical about just closing your eyes and trying to understand what is even happening with this combination in your mouth.

I don’t think I can call that burger my favorite. I went and got it several more times, and over time, I just kind of got used to it, and it’s still good, but equally as good was a proper cheap greasy smashburger, and it was 4x cheaper, so I went with that most of the time. That’s Smith & Cross for me, and TCRL Australia 2007 is like the organic burger. I don’t know that I can really call it my favorite. It’s not easy to sip, except maybe with some ice and simple syrup, and it’s not very versatile for mixing my favorite tiki cocktails (even if it wasn’t $130), and honestly, I think that I just prefer the Jamaican flavor profile. But man, am I glad to have tried it at least once, and enjoyed the ride.