Zaya Gran Reserva 12-Year

Had a glass of this neat and was hoping to be wowed, especially for the price. A decent taste but not great. Looks pretty in the glass, deep color but the flavor is not rich. Not a good value.

A nice smooth tasting rum. Has a very nice taste, one of my wife’s and I favorite.

This was my third and final test of sipping rums as one shot neat for each from a well stocked bar. If you can separate yourself from the thought of what it used to be when it was distilled in Guatemala, you just may wind up enjoying it. On the other hand, the Guatemalan version must have rated as a 10 instead of a 7 here. Then again, maybe my first two stronger samples of different rums prior to that clouded my judgment.

The aroma is incredible and the taste is smooth and sweet with no burn on the tongue or throat. It has a very pleasant and unique artificial after taste which I cannot describe. It can be used as an affordable sipper at about $27 per bottle, but my shot ran me $9. I am on the fence about buying a whole bottle since I already have enough great rums in my collection. It is a decent rum, but not great. And believe me, I went searching all over some forgotten liquor stores for any remaining bottles from Guatemala with the straw on the neck and having a real cork. My shot was the version from Trinidad.

Update several weeks later: After researching how the parent conglomerate company has slowly degraded the quality of this rum since it was produced in Guatemala back in 2008, I won't be buying an entire bottle. The memory of some artificial taste in that one sample was enough to have me thinking that I would regret buying a whole bottle and having to finish it while paying a penalty each day after drinking it. Comparisons to Sailor Jerry have been made, how both start off deceptively appealing and then the next day it's "Gotcha!". That happened with my first and last bottle of Sailor Jerry. By the way, the bar where I had my glass of Zaya also has Sailor Jerry to sample because that is what the mostly hipster patrons want. I initially gave this Zaya a rating of 7 at best, but have now lowered it to a rating of 5 to match my empty bottle of Sailor Jerry. Any rum that I rate less than a 6 is one that I cannot wait to get rid of, either for bad taste or ill effects the next day.

Coconut on the nose and pallet. More alcohol on the finish than I would have expected. Not as good as others I’ve tried.

Middle sweet, vanilla, frui and tspicy a bit smoked like. For me very tasty, like this one.

Very tasty rum. The vanilla is very pronounced in this one. Sweet with a lot of caramel tones.

I went with this with a sales person's recommendation. Others mainly noted vanilla, caramel, and sweetness. I just tasted smoke. Not my favorite, and definitely not worth 30.

A little pricey but very enjoyable as a smooth sweet sipper

It's my go to rum, not too rich or too sweet, for me just right.

Velmi milé překvapení jaký rum se dá pořídit za tak hezkou cenu. Trofam si říct že je snad i lepší než Zacapa.