Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced

Don Q Oak Barrel Spiced is a flavoured rum from Destileria Serralles in Puerto Rico, built on a column still molasses base aged around six years in ex bourbon casks and then spiced. Bottled at 45%, it pairs the clean Puerto Rican distillate with added vanilla and spice, sitting clearly in the sweet, accessible spiced rum category rather than among dry aged sippers.

The nose is dessert leaning, vanilla, nougat, chocolate and orange, while the palate turns to fudge, cocoa, creme brulee and burnt sugar, finishing spicy and peppery with cocoa and a biscuity note. The flavouring is upfront and the sweetness obvious, so it is best understood as a vanilla forward spiced rum rather than a complex spirit. That makes it versatile and undemanding, equally at home as an easy sipper, in baking, or lengthened with tonic in a long drink. The extra strength and oak give it a little more grip than many entry level spiced rums.