Rum Olympics - Round one

Mystery bottles

As the Fringe gets into gear here in Edinburgh and the city is invaded by one man shows, Mongolian throat singers and people are slowly drowned under piles of flyers what better excuse to sample 40 rums across the city and decide which is best? 

The Rum Olympics at the various outposts of the Kilderkin Group is a blind tasting of 40 rums between now and 25th September with each bar serving 4 mystery rums in blind bottles as you can see to the right. I assume the second batch of 20 would go on at the start of September.

Now, at £10 for a 4 drink flight that's a pretty good value for 4 rums, but equally I think we can reasonably assume there's not going to be any Diplomatico Single Vintage in one of these bottles.

Mystery measures

With each rum being scored from 1-10 for aroma, taste and finish it's certainly going to be interesting what comes out on top come the end of September.


On to the first 4 rums themselves that I had at the Blue Blazer last night, as I've no idea what any of them are and the bar staff were giving nothing away I'm trying to guess what these are but may well be horribly wrong on a lot of them.

Rum one

Aroma - Grassy, hamster cages and hot melted butter with a bit of harsh alcohol. Definitely an agricole. (2)

Taste - A bit underwhelming, some burn and rawness but not much else. (2)

Finish -   Grassy and scratchy. (1)

It's definitely agricole, I'm going with La Mauny Blanc (Martinique) (5/30)

Rum two

Aroma - Toffee, toffee and more toffee, it warms up and smells like a caramac bar (3)

Taste - Immensely sweet with bitter burnt edges and a really weird mouthfeel (1)

Finish - Burnt, little harsh. This might go well over ice cream. (1)

Really not sure what the hell this is, I'll guess at Don Papa (Phillipines) (5/30) 

Rum three

Aroma - Really getting nothing here, there's some strawy/grassy notes but not much else (2)

Taste - Not much here at all, it's fine, inoffensive but nothing to really grab a hold of your taste buds (2)

Finish - There really isn't a finish, it's just gone (2)

It's light, inoffensive so probably Spanish so I'll go with Ron Cubay Anejo (Cuba) (6/30). If Coldplay could be embodied as a rum it'd  be this.

Rum four

Aroma - Coffee notes along with the usual caramel, a little aggressive (6)

Taste - Bitter edges to an overall sweet profile, little dry (6)

Finish - A little burn on the way down and a bit dry (6)

Definitely more oomph to this one, so I think it's an El Dorado 5 year old (Guyana) (18/30)

Overall it's entirely possible I'm being harsh in my scoring of the rums that disappointed me so I'll keep an eye on this throughout the events, these were interesting rums that I'm looking forward to finding out what they actually are.

If you're in Edinburgh for the festival I'd recommend giving this a go, it's a lot of fun.

I'll post updates as I go through the rest of the rums

Read about other rounds:
Rounds 2 & 3
Rounds 4 & 5