The Island Rum Company Paraíso Black Tears (Black Label)

Black Tears is the work of The Island Rum Company, drawing on Cuban column-still spirit from the Paraiso distillery and resting it briefly in ex-bourbon casks before it is flavoured. The black label leans hard into coffee, and the honest framing is that this is a flavoured rum rather than a straight aged one, closer in spirit to an alcoholic mocha than a slow neat pour.

The nose runs coffee, brown sugar, caramel and vanilla, and the palate doubles down with cappuccino and mocha before a short coffee finish. At 40% it is soft and approachable, and it shines either neat over ice or lengthened with cola where the coffee and cacao carry the drink. Anyone chasing dry, complex sipping rum should look elsewhere, but as a coffee-forward dessert pour it does exactly what it sets out to do.