The Rum Society

A couple of weeks ago, K&L held a tasting of rums from the Rum Society, a new Pernod Ricard project featuring unaged, sourced, pot distilled rums. So far, there are three rums in the line, which is only available in Los Angeles. They are all 40% abv and their numerical titles reflect the blend numbers used internally. They do not include any additives or coloring, which makes them unusual for rums produced by a large spirits conglomerate.

The three rums we sampled were "40", an unaged Guyanese rum from a single wooden potstill, "62), a blend of the rum used in 40 with two other pot still rums from Barbados and Jamaica, and "65," a blend of four rums from Guayan, Babados and Trinidad. The 65 is the only rum with an age component, an aged rum from the Angostura Distillery in Trinidad.

These were fun to taste and had plenty of the funky, earthy notes you get in additive-free pot still rum, but seldom find in any rum in the U.S. They seemed to be designed for the cocktail crowd or the Tequila/Mezcal drinkers as opposed to rum geeks who prefer long aged spirits. Drinking them neat, the 40 was my favorite. It was the funkiest and had the most flavor. The 62 still had some of that funk (which makes sense since the 40 is one of the components) but was more mellow. The 65 had a giant candy corn nose and a lot of vanilla notes; it was good but a bit too sweet.

It's great that Pernod is supporting this effort, and there was a lot of flavor here that will likely surprise the folks they are targeting, though for my part (as someone not likely in the target audience), I would have liked to taste these at higher proof. These rums go for $35 each.

This is the second K&L event I've attended at Mini-Bar at the Hollywood Best Western. These tastings are great deals; this one cost $10 which included a cocktail and plenty of hot snacks along with the three rums.