Captain Morgan Dark Rum

Captain Morgan Dark is a widely available blended dark rum, made to a familiar, inexpensive recipe and aimed squarely at the cola glass rather than slow neat sipping. It is honest about what it is: an everyday mixing rum, not an aged sipper, and the copy treats it that way.

The nose carries sweet molasses, caramel, cocoa and a roasted edge with a clear alcoholic note, and the palate is woody and sharp with a treacle sweetness and a little burn, finishing on toffee, roasted notes and that same sharpness. Taken neat it reads rough and simple next to characterful aged rum, which is why it belongs in long drinks. In a rum and cola or a casual cocktail it does the job it was built for. If your reference point is a bar rum and cola it will feel right at home; drinkers after depth, balance or funk should look elsewhere.