Triton Ogletree

I like rum...shocking, I know. I kept looking up reviews for rum products and kept finding myself on this website. After about the twentieth time this happened, I realized this website was very helpful/useful in my ever expanding journey to seek out good rum and despite not participating in social media (which this is-so, don't lie to yourself,) I figured if MY knowledge could help someone else (like this website was helping me,) why not? So, I signed up and crashed through as many reviews of products that I could think of that I had tried. I quickly realized that I have drank A LOT of bad rum (a lot of it was REAL BAD,) which I also realized is probably more helpful (to others) than anything I drank that was good.

What NOT to buy is probably more important than a personal recommendation of what to buy. What's good is subjective but what's bad is more universal. Whether Citizen Kane is the best film ever is highly debatable but I think everyone can agree that Plan 9 from Outer Space is "BAD," even if it is an entertaining masterpiece of being bad (a Disasterpiece-if you will.)

Although I know the "proper" way to "taste" booze, I have never seen the point in the process of "Nose," "Palate" and "Finish" (besides for personal reasons i.e. so that I can PERSONALLY remember how a product that I will never taste again was-like a random opportunity to taste a $1000 bottle, just for instance.) I feel like that information is my personal experience and not as helpful for you. People's nostrils/palates are not the same as mine and therefore, that information is again, very subjective. "Subtle notes" are just that...subtle...in other words, hard to describe and identify for most people. I smell vanilla, you smell bananas...who's correct? If we can't agree, then why bother to mention it? My experience is mine and yours is yours.

Due to my outlook on what's "unimportant" in tasting notes, I tend to base my opinions of good rum on how smooth/how much burn a product is/has, how much bite (intense spice) it has, if it's sweet or dry (or an extreme or both-semi-sweet,) if it's complex/flavorful or more bland (without going into specific flavors that I, PERSONALLY taste,) if it smells "good" and if it's an overall "good" tasting rum (in my opinion, obviously.)

No matter what, everything in my experience is still subjective (and is not guaranteed to be the same as yours) but I believe telling you a product has a "complex flavor" and "minimal burn" is more helpful than telling you that "I taste rotten fruit mixed with walnuts in the mid-palate with a hint of intense kiwi and a nice bite of tang at the end finishing with a subtle note of light vegetation and a nice, lingering burn."

...hopefully that makes sense to you...

I feel like the aspects that I focus on are going to be more universally important and similar in most people's experience than "tasting notes," so as they seem the most helpful, those are the main things I judge when trying a product and will therefore be the main focus of my reviews. I also put value in knowing if something smells/tastes medicinal-cough syrup-ish, like kerosene/gasoline or like a cleanser (again, I feel like we can all agree that nobody wants that and we can all smell/taste those things as nothing about those smells/tastes are subtle.)

I also put very little weight into the cost of a bottle. I mean, if it's good enough, who cares how much it costs? I may comment that something is a "good value" or it's "expensive for what it is" but that in no way changes my rating of the product. It's not fair to knock off points for a great bottle of rum just because it's expensive. If it's expensive, that's good to know but it's likely that expensive for a reason and it shouldn't be rated lower for those reasons. If it's garbage, it's garbage and if it's good, it's good regardless of cost. I realize not everybody is rich (and neither am I) but that shouldn't stop you from trying things in life that you want to try! Lack of money doesn't stop your ability to explore life. Where there's a will, there's a way! I hope my rum journey helps educate you and that likewise, yours will improve mine. Cheers everyone!

"Here's to swimmin' with bow-legged women!"