The Great Newfoundland Rum Taste Test

8 people, 5 rums, I winner.

I have great friends who volunteer to come to my house to taste test the rums I brought back from Newfoundland. Business and pleasure is a great combination sometimes.

The Brands:

• Cruzan Blackstrap Aged Rum
• Iceberg Gold
• Old Sam
• Newfoundlanders
• Good Old-Fashioned Screech

We started with a shot of screech (to cleanse the palate of all tastebuds…) and get everyone screeched in. I didn’t have any fish, especially any unsustainable cod, but I do know what to say and by the time everyone had had a shot we were all ready for something better.

Except compared to the Old Sam we had next, the Screech wasn’t bad. Old Sam burned a lot more and didn’t have any of the caramel smell or flavour. Sure, the Screech is a bit like corn syrup, but people like corn syrup better than fire water, generally.

Then the Newfoundlanders. It smelled like a light butterscotch! Absolutely hands down the best smell, but the taste was nothing by comparison, though it was much smoother than the Old Sam. It was a bit of disappointment in that sense, but it’d be a good drink to hold and smell all night if you want to look like you know good rum but don’t actually want to drink it…yeah, I know there are a whole lot of people out there who buy rum just to smell it…

…so we moved on to Iceberg Gold. This is junk. It’s touristy junk. It burns, has no caramel, but looks real pretty in its sleek bottle. Skip it.

The Winner: I saved what I hoped would be the best for last. The Cruzan Black Strap Aged Rum was a much heavier caramel smell from the molasses. The same way there are different grades of maple syrup or brown sugars, it was a “bottom of the barrel of sugar cane” kind of rum in the best possible way. The taste even lived up to the smell, and it went down very smoothly. You can enjoy every sip of this one. Definitely the most drinkable.

If you mixed it with coke I would cry. Coke and Old Sam would be fine. Actually I have some of that cheaper stuff left, so if anyone wants it…

The Screech I brought to a fellow Newfoundlander’s house-warming party and it was gone in under 5 minutes. Proper thing.