This rum is produced by the Coral Cay Distilling company of Cashmere, Washington, along with five other Tommy Bahama branded spirits in their portfolio. They source the rums for this blend from Central America and age them for a minimum of five years in American white oak barrels before finishing them in used bourbon barrels. The rums are blended to 40% ABV, and caramel coloring is added for visual consistency.
Appearance
The short-necked 750 ml bottle is wrapped in a floral design and sealed with a clear security wrap that holds the glass cork to the bottle. The cork has the Tommy Bahamas logo on top. The rum label provides barely any information about the rum. I was only able to verify the size of the bottle by finding marketing material on the internet.
The rum holds a dark golden amber color in the bottle that lightens significantly in the tasting glass. Swirling the liquid created a medium band that released several waves of fast-moving legs before evaporating, leaving a great deal of residue around the glass.
Nose
The aroma leads with a strong caramel note that is followed by wood spices, ethanol, and acetone in quick order.
Palate
The initial sip conditions the mouth with a swirl of caramel, wood tannins, and the burn of the alcohol. Additional sips reveal notes of saline, raw oak, copper, and astringent char with a medicinal cherry flavor helping form the baseline. The acetone notes drift in as the rum fades in a quick finish.
Review
Usually, a rum that has a label with so little information on it is concerning, but my curiosity about this brand in its newest incarnation was hard to resist. By design, the rum is engineered to be a cocktail ingredient and needs a strong flavor like orange juice or coffee to balance and bury elements of the flavor profile. While overall it is not unpleasant, it is not an expression I would recommend for sipping. For those who are curious, the flavor profile has nothing in common with the Tommy Bahama rum produced in Barbados and should be considered its own separate experience with nothing more than a shared name.
