Plantation Pineapple Stiggins' Fancy Rum

Rating: 15/23 This is really a mixer, but it's a weird one. I think I'll start reviewing it like a spirt, then switch to reviewing it like a mixer. N: That usual rum burnt sugar bitterness and funk, but with loads of sweet tropical fruit. I get orange and pineapple for sure. Maybe a touch of banana and mango. It smells like a tropical rum, but not like a liqueur. Vanilla and hints of fireworks. Overall, a nice nose, but not all that amazing. Just tropical enough to be kind of interesting though. P: Sweet and mellow. This comes across like a 40% ABV spirit that's bordering on a liqueur. There's a nice amount of rum flavor going on here with hogo and caramel and vanilla and burnt sugar. There's also pineapple, orange, banana, and papaya. It's quite approachable and very tropical, but it's definitely weak. One could drink it neat, but it's better suited for a summery cocktail. There is a bit of nice wood with some mild tannins and maybe a hint of chocolate as well. F: Lingering sweetness from the various flavors is muddled and watery. I could go into more detail, but that doesn't seem necessary. I'm not a fan of this. - Conclusion - This is not a great sipper, but I bet it works well as a mixer. Although I would normally rate it as a neat spirit because it's technically a rum, this is so clearly a mixer that I'll rate it as that. I like how this mellows out Pusser's Gunpowder Proof (15/23) and adds a bit of pineapple and sweetness. Considering this, I'm thinking that I'll be going with at least a 15. I appreciate that this maintains the minimum spirit proof of 40% ABV, while bringing in some natural pineapple flavor. It's quite nice in that respect. Mixing it with a bolder rum and an amaretto, I get the base of a nice cocktail here. The real problem is that this needs to be the biggest component for the profile to work. That restrained pineapple doesn't compare with pineapple juice at all. I still like this, but I do wonder what its purpose is. I tried my cocktail with this, Disarrono, and Pusser's Gunpowder against Panamá-Pacific 23 (16/23) and found that the Panamá-Pacific was mellower and more mature. This is more tropical, sweet, and fun. This is a tough call, but I find the vanilla woody mellowness from the Panamá-Pacific to be comparable or better than this. So I think that this is a 15 or 16. So does some of this improve the Panamá-Pacific? It's not the most obvious call, but I'd say that it does, a tad. But very faintly. As a result, I'd give this a 16. Honestly, this struggles a tad to even achieve that. This could be a 15. The more I try this, the less I think of it, unfortunately. After all of this tasting. I'm thinking that this should be downed to a 15. How disappointing.

Nose: Light fruity aromas (peach, apricot, rockmelon) with a fragrant character, as if there is a hint of frangipani or jasmine. Pineapple is there, but reserved and subtle. Brown sugar, vanilla, and just a hint of oak cask. Palate: Very soft and supple arrival. Sweet, but not syrupy, more like nectar or honey-water. The pineapple presence is again subtle but it is pervasive. You can’t fail to notice it, but it is not at all heavy or gauche. Vanilla notes and tropical fruit fill out the sweet palate development. The texture is beguiling. Finish: Short. Sweet, fruity, mild sugars and suggestions of very soft spice. This is one of those drinks I’ve been meaning to try for a long time but kept putting off. It catches my eye every time I’m at the liquor shop but until today I’ve always reached past it, not because I didn’t think it would be good, but because something else always looked more interesting. Today it happened to be on sale so the time had come, and now I’m wishing I’d not waited so long. This is delightful. I’ve tasted a number of flavoured and spiced rums (although admittedly it’s not a favourite category) and this is without doubt the best I’ve experienced. The naturalness of the pineapple presence is captivating and akin to freshly squeezed pineapple juice that has been diluted just a little with sweetened water. Although there is a fairly hefty dosage employed (20g/litre) on this occasion it works very well and there is something about this rum that is half-way between a liqueur and a spirit. My usual preference is for big, estery rums with loud hogo and I avoid sweet rums as they are cloying to my palate. However the sweetness of this flavoured rum works because it is restrained and the texture is light and delicate. It’s delicious neat as a digestif and we have several ideas for using it in cocktails (it teams well with coconut milk) or as an addition to spritzes and sangria. My favourite ways to take it so far are either neat or as a long drink (30ml Pineapple Stiggins over 3-4 ice cubes, 100ml dry ginger ale, a slice of lime and top up with soda water). “Very Good” : 85/100 (4 stars)

I have mixed feelings about this. I got it because it had high ratings on here from both experts and users, but I found it doesn't really live up to the hype. It's not bad by any means and it has a certain charm but I'm finding it's not something I feel like drinking very often. Of course, it's pineapple rum, so the prominent flavor note is pineapple. It's pretty well done, overall, in that it doesn't taste syrupy sweet or artificially pineapple flavored. In fact it almost doesn't "taste like" pineapple at all, but there is a sort of aura of pineapple, especially in the aroma. That aroma is quite nice; it's sweet and enticing. The taste is also sweet, but only partly pineapple-ish; there is a more generic sweetness that is similar to cognac. (Apparently Plantation ages most of their rums in cognac casks; not sure if that's true of this one.) There's also a fairly strong alcohol burn, which frankly is stronger than I think it ought to be for something that's otherwise so mellow and mild. That burn lingers on the finish along with some of the sweetness. This might be useful in making cocktails, I suppose. And like I said, it's not bad. Whenever I pull it out and have a glass I think, "Huh, yeah, this is interesting, kind of nice, but. . ." I probably won't buy this again, not because I dislike it but because there are other rums I like better or am interested to try out.

Nose - light molasses, pineapple skin, apple, black pepper, decomposing grass, banana, mint, floral notes, clove, ash, honey, mild ethanol burn. Taste - light molasses, vanilla cream, pineapple, toasted coconut, banana, allspice, sweet floral notes, honey, lemon zest, grass, ginger, mint, brown sugar, mild to moderate alcohol bite, finishing medium short with molasses, pineapple, and baking spice flavors. Yet another Plantation meant for cocktails that I’m drinking neat. I’m expecting a pineapple bomb, but I’m not getting one. Pineapple is in the mix, but it’s a bitter, pithy version of it. It’s fairly herbal and vegetal as well, certainly not as sweet as I was expecting for a flavored Plantation, although the sugarcane and tropical fruits balance the experience adequately. Overall, I’ll put this about on par with the 5 Year. It’s a passable sipper, but obviously that’s not its intended purpose. I’m sure it holds up well in cocktails, but I haven’t experimented much with it outside of the occasional daiquiri and pina colada.

A deep, rich orange. Vegetal nose, pineapple for sure but sharing a kinship with rye whiskey. A twinge of spice. Sweet syrup, then the pineapple builds. Prominently features the bark: grassy, bitter, and fresh, with pineapple juice complimenting around the edges. That bitter edge offsets the sweet, with a delicate burn and spice that lingers. Really nicely done, and complex in a way that conventionally flavored rums can only dream of. Creamy coconut evokes pina colada. Gentle fruit and floral notes. Somewhere between a rum and liqueur, this is a quality option on the shelf that is not imitated by merely mixing rum with pineapple juice. Worth a try.

A flavored Rum from Trinidad & Tobabgo for the Plantation range originally created by the company's cellar master Alexandre Gabriel & drinks historian David Wondrich for Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans in 2015. To make it, they infuse the rinds of Queen Victoria pineapples in their white rum for a week then distill it & infuse the fruit of the pineapples in dark rum for 3 months. These are married together & left to age in casks for 3 months. It has an aromatic birth with notes of brown sugar & ripe banana, while a juicy life added notes of pineapple, that led to a long & spicy death. June 2017