Kasama Small Batch

ARRRGH! The crew member who "gifted" me this bottle of rum will be doin' hard labor on barnacle duty for the SCREW CAP on this bottle! Perhaps even while the ship be at sea. ಠ_ಠ As for the rum, she has a sweet smell about her. Not sugary tho. Pineapple comes aboard hard and fast, with a bit of banana, then oak, maybe some vanilla, and just a hint of smoke. Me first mate says she smells of jackfruit, but I ain't never had no jackfruit, so that means jacksquat to me. On the tongue, she not be sweet, but she not be dry either. Any sweet you might be expectin' from the pineapple smell tastes as if the pineapple were wrapped in candyfloss and burned at the stake. What follows is a bitterness that has a wee bit of grassy taste on the finish. Aye, this rum literally has a bitter end. There be little burn goin' down the hatch, which be a plus, but as for it be a decent sippin' rum, this not be any sort of rum I be hidin' from the crew. Now, as disinclined as I am to be mixin' rums with anythin', I says you need to be mixin' THIS rum with better life decisions... or maybe pineapple and coconut juice. This not be a terrible sippin' rum, but it not be a great sippin' rum either. Arrgh!

I know it's wrong, but ima gonna want to drink with this on crushed ice with Coca Cola.
Let's talk flavor. There's a lot of it here: toffee, caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, pineapple upside down cake... probably not blueberries but a lot of the other happy flavors ❤️
My rating on this just keeps increasing the more I sip and contemplate the goodness
🌴
EDIT: found my tasting notes from July 3, 2022 (above was likely from around 11/22)
5/5 bottles (I will retain the 8/10 original score)
from the notes "Why is this not a candle??? LOVE the tropical aroma!!!"
and "I LOVE this rum"
four doodled hearts accompany this review in my passport

Tasted at Laka Lono on 4/11/21. Aroma of bananas, acetone, and vanilla. Citrusy. Candy. Flavor is surprisingly smooth and easy to drink. Bubble gum. Fruit flavors. Peppery finish with only a slight bite. The vanilla sweetness lingers on the tongue. Is there a unique Phillipine rum signature?

Good pineapple flavor. Lighter rum in taste and color

Very interesting, a bit sweeter than what I like (very pineapple forward smell and tasre) but it is different and worth a try. I bought it based upon a podcast and the story and i was very intrigued. Something I can do periodically but not a lot so I'm going to try it in some cocktails for the fun of it.

I tasted this without knowing anything about it and was immediately hit with sweetness and pineapple (in a good way). I scoured the bottle, looking for the label to mention being a pineapple rum (that's how pineapple-y this is), but found nothing. They are clearly adding quite a bit of sugar and most likely some flavoring, but it is still a fun sipper and I enjoy it. This isn't super complex but it isn't meant to be. In terms of mouthfeel, she's a thicky. If using this to make a cocktail, keep in mind the sugar content and reduce other forms of sweeteners.

I was searching for basic but aromatic rum for Mojito. The choice in the store was only between Bacardi and this one so I decided to give it a try.
Od course this isn't a to product but It's much better than I expected.
Aroma is very pinapply with hints od chocolate so I had to double check if It's not spiced.
The taste is a bit sharp but as an additive for drinks It's more than ok.

This caught my eye along with a bottle of Vida Cana 9y. Never heard of either brand, so I decided to try them both. The bottle is pretty, I also like the cap, but the actual rum is so-so. It was certainly overpriced at the store I got it from, but they are a small start up and not a chain, so I'll cut them some slack.

Nose: Quite creamy, smells like a vanilla-orange-cream float. Or put another way: if you opened a fresh bottle of cream soda and added a little bit of citrus, that is damn close to this aroma. Pineapple aroma is there if you nose for a bit more, seems to dissipate fairly quickly if you let it sit a minute or two, and just leaves the creamy citrus notes instead. The smell is quite promising so far honestly.

Taste: Banana at the forefront. Not particularly juicy, but still a pleasant note. A bit more cream and vanilla, pineapple is mostly gone or very hard to discern. Some caramel on the finish, finish is fairly long and is mostly caramel or molasses with a hint of banana. A wee bit more burn that expected, nothing concerning but a bit less smooth than most 7-8y's that I've tried.

I want to like this more, but this is in a weird spot. This is not that great as a sipper, but if it's intended to be a mixer then it needs to come down quite a bit in price. If you want some of the pineapple or banana notes, you are better off getting Stiggin's Pineapple. Cheaper and a much more prominent pineapple / citrus flavor. I'll give this a 5.5 to a 6 on the condition that it's $30 or less. Above $35, I would easily pass on this. There are too many good mixing rums under $30 atm, and plenty of sipping rums from $30-40 to make this worth buying regularly.

Interesting subtle pineapple undertones. Ok as a sipper better as a tropical mixer.

This is not labeled as a pineapple rum but it kinda is. It says it is infused with Filipino joy and optimism but it tastes like pineapple gone a little odd. Drinkable and probably would be a decent mixer in the right application.