Ron Zacapa Edicion Negra

Dryed fruit, just s bit of toast. Rum itself is not that aged and rather harsh.

Definitely a strong competitor for me. A little more of a charred oak character than the 23. Pretty presentation. Slightly less smooth than I’d expect. Nice chilled.

A nice solid sipping rum. To be honest in my opinion not as good as the XO but comparable to the 23. Smooth with a slight after taste that quickly mellows out

All other Zacapa nonsense aside this is fairly enjoyable. Hint of smoke, noticeable if anything. Some orange. Heavy vanilla. Oily caramel mouthfeel. Best served over ice?

Ron Zacapa have managed to create a rum that does taste different to any other rum. That's not so easy to do. It's not that it has any one particular element that makes this happen. More it is the combination of the elements. So what you get is a strong mix of leather, smoke, charring, chocolate, oak and vanilla - with none of them pushing out the others. There is also a bit of burn in there which I like.
It's a very good sipping rum - much more bitter than the 23, whilst retaining some sweetness.
I like it very much and managed to pick up a bottle in Gibraltar for about 60% of the UK retail price.

As a part of my degustation in Antigua, Guatemala this rum initially did not impress me but I've bought the whole bottle in Flores, Peten, GT anyways as very affordable here (400 GTQ). I think they later pimped the drink with a little bit of chocolate on my palate later on in the degu and explained they intentially keep the smoke inside (instead of pulling it out - El Alma edition) the barrells and let the wood do a lot of its work here. Hence the rum has strong smokey and wooden tones, along with some cocoa and/or nuts... But it still resembles other Zacapas (same happens to me with Cihuatans from the neighboring Salvador) and is really not that dark; keeps a certain sweet-ness and is still very smooth, even ladies did like to sip it with me;)

Vanilla and cocoa aroma, sweet start, caramel and cinnamon in body, barrel aftertastr.

This one is smooth and finishes nicely! What a pleasure!

This is a great sipping rum. It's very smooth, with a husky dark flavor.

Slightly sweet and more than a little spicy (with a hint of smoke), like the Zacapa Solera, this is good but a little over rated...still prefer the Santa Theresa to this