El Dorado Special Reserve 15-Year

El Dorado Special Reserve 15-Year Rum is a very fine rum, but not in my top 20. I rate it 7/10.

Belle robe foncé. Très doux avec une bonne rondeur, on voit qu'il a été vieillie longtemps. Sur le caramel et le fruité. Un petite coche en haut du 12 ans et pour moi, meilleur que le 21 ans.

Just finished drinking & sharing my first bottle of El Dorado 15 Reserve. Unlike others I prefer my rum poured over a large ice block. In just a few minutes the rum opens up with full notes of vanilla, dark fruit, spice and a noticeable sweetness. Not too sweet, mind you. This has instantly vaulted into my 5 O’Clock Somewhere!

One of my first bottles of rum, and at that time the one I liked most.

The time finally came for me to plunk down $45 for this bottle since it was still within my $50 limit for sipping rums. For single malt scotches, prices start at $50 and swiftly go up past $100. With fine rums, one can get some really great rums for $50 or less.

At any rate, with the three of these rums side by side in Glencairn glasses that were all allowed to breathe for 30 minutes, my test began. The ED12 is the darkest, followed by the ED15, then the ED8. Color differences between them are subtle except when comparing the lightest ED8 to the darkest ED12. The ED15 had the best nose by far, but maybe because it is a new bottle. As for taste, the ED8 had to be told bye bye on the first round, so then it became a very tight race between the ED15 and the ED12. The only difference is that the ED15 has a strong after burst of bitter flavors over the ED12. Then again, since my bottle of ED15 is new, it just may mellow out until it cannot be told apart from my ED12. Save yourself $14 or more and stick with the El Dorado 12. The ED15 loses a point for slightly bitter after taste and higher price.

Update May 3, 2018:
I have no choice except to downgrade this ED 15 from a rating of 8 to a 6. After sitting in it's bottle and breathing for several months, my ED 12 which had longer breathing time still wins. There is a saying in the distilled spirits world about being too long in the wood. Evidently, 12 years is optimum for taste and then it goes downhill. Fools and their money always part, and they got me on this 15 year old, but never on their 21 year old. The ED 12 is still one of the best rum bargains that one can find. Since it is also a sugar bomb with 35 gpl of added sugar, one can simply add a certain amount of a rather boring dry rum to it to reduce the added sugars per liter without changing the taste very much.

This is one of my 2 favorites thus far (English Harbour 1981 is the other). It is an 8.5 on my scale of 10 and is amazingly smooth with a solid oak flavor.

Very big mouth feel. Lots of molasses in the mouth, vanilla on the nose. Not terribly sweet, very complex. Still large on the finish but smooths out as it get cooler. A really super Rum.

Appearance: Dark amber
Aroma: oak, caramel
Taste: sweet, sour, slight bitter
Flavor: a lot of caramel which nicely balances the oak
Texture: very smooth
Finish: long, sweet

Vanilie, citrus og brun farin i duft. Vanilie og muligvis lidt lakrids i smagen. Ikke sprittet som 12-års har tendens til at være. En virkelig fremragende rom, som helt sikkert skal have en fast plads i romskabet. Jeg synes virkelig, den er klasse i forhold til pris, og at den bliver masseproduceret til supermarkeder, hvilket jeg synes til tider godt kan slække lidt på kvalitet og originalitet

Update, although it's not as sweet as before it now seems watered down. Are they running low on stock. OK, I just received another gift bottle. I was real ready for disappointment. I couldn't believe it. It's back to normal so I upgraded it to 5 stars. But I still suspect somethings not right here. I'm still reluctant to spend my own money on it. This may be a good thing because now I'm back in the playing field trying different rums. Hey, you never know!

I just have to update this downgraded rum. Like, what happened? This is not what I had many times before. Someone is screwing this up in an enormous way. They must think they have us, well think again. This just hit the bottom of my list with a very distinctive blast! The bite is so hard (like tiny sharks feasting in my mouth with notes of cheap wood) it makes me think they don't
care what they bottle because they have the buyers. Or, they ran out of the real stuff and need to bottle anything they can get their hands on just to use the labels they over ordered. Stay away!