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El Dorado 12-Year rum

El Dorado 12-Year

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Guyana | Aged | 40% ABV | Pot and Column Still Distilled

El Dorado 12-Year Rum is composed of a blend of aged rums, all at least 12 years old. The rums are distilled using a combination of stills including coffey stills and a double wooden pot still before being aged in bourbon oak casks.

Demerara Distillers of Guyana produces El Dorado 12-year rum and is the country's last remaining distillery, with origins tracing back to 1670. The name ""El Dorado"" references the legendary city of gold that is said to be in the country's Rupununi region.

7.6/10
1383 ratings
Recommendable to most
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1383 El Dorado 12-Year Ratings

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zmancbr (BASIC) 🇺🇸 | 2 ratings
Posted 9 years ago

This rum is very excellent in the glass and the nose is very smooth. First sip will hit your mouth with baking spice and orange peel with a hint of other fruits. The spice calms down a bit and leaves a lovely caramel flavor coating on the tongue. Burn is very minimal and is a very smooth rum. The price makes this one hard to not keep in stock! I've never tried it with ice or mixed, but I imagine both would work well!

Francois (BASIC) 🇫🇷 | 106 ratings
Posted over 7 years ago

Very very fruity noise, hit of vanilla too, kind of smelled like a punch, a 10 for the smell for me.
Then very sweet, could be too much for some.

Sugar: 35 GPL

LarsF (BASIC) 🇸🇪 | 39 ratings
Posted over 8 years ago

El Dorado 12 comes in a classical bottle and the rum is delivered in a simple paper carton (picture).

When you smell El Dorado 12 you first sense som sticky alcohol but give the rum a few minutes in the glass and you get sweet aromas from fruit, honey and sugar.

I the mouth El Dorado 12 is sweet, smooth with fruit and caramel. You also get some spice and oak. This rum easy to drink, not to much of anything. Very well balanced.

The aftertaste is long and sweet with some spice and oak.

In my world this rum is a nice sipper and the perfect blender. One of the best rums in this price range and I will always have one bottle in my collection. I drink El Dorado 12 with cola. I haven´t found any better rum to blend with cola (yet).

Scott T (BASIC) 🇺🇸 | 122 ratings
Posted 11 years ago

I'm not sure where the prior reviewer is buying rum, but in my experience the 12 and 8 year are around the same $20-25, while the 15 yr is hard to find for less than $40 these days. . (Edit : The 12 yr has recently spiked a bit in price to the $28-30 range.)

And the opinion that it doesn't compare favorably to the 15 yr is not shared by many - in addition to myself, at least half the serious rum critics and aficionados I know of prefer the 12 year, though IMO the margin is slim and I love both. However, given the difference in price I see no reason to buy the 15 yr.

One thing to note - the 12 and 15 yr are completely different rums, with different components from the variety of stills used by Demerara Distillers.

Edit : I have recently knocked my rating of this rum down a couple points since I found out that it has a ridiculous amount of added sugar - 45 g/ltr, the most among any rums on the Swedish national list. The 15 yr has less sugar at 31 g/ltr, but still a substantial amount. I still like the rum quite a bit, and the potent flavors are not overwhelmed by the added sugar - but cannot in good conscience give it the 9 I formerly had knowing that it has been sweetened so much.

Michael (BASIC) 🇺🇸 | 18 ratings
Posted 11 years ago

The introduction of ED 8 kind of renders this bottle moot, in my opinion. ED 8 is less expensive and, on my palette, slightly more complex and interesting. And the ED12 just doesn't stand up to the only slightly more expensive bottle of ED15 with its caramelly wonderfulness. Save a few dollars elsewhere in your life and trade up to ED 15; or, have twice as much fun with a pair of bottles of ED8.

Kim Jensen (BASIC) 🇩🇰 | 16 ratings
Posted over 7 years ago

This is a great rum! I like the El Dorado rums.
This one is one of the best rums you can get to the cost. So much sweetnes an flavour. Much fruit in the taste.

Dave (BASIC) 🇺🇸 | 36 ratings
Posted 9 years ago

Nice sweetness and smoother in my opinion then the 15 year rum by El Dorado. Sipped straight and was very pleased with the taste. Had to have it shipped from Brooklyn, New York as Pennsylvania State Controlled Liquor Stores had a 6 bottle minimum.

Tomas (BASIC) 🇳🇱 | 5 ratings
Posted almost 7 years ago

This rum was a present from a friend of mine. In the beginning it tastes strong, now i drink it for a few times and read a lot about rum on the internet and i starter to appriciate this rum. I taste tones of vanilla and orange, some oak and something verry nice what i cant describe. For a beginner rum is this a good one and i feel like this rum starts the rum adventure for me.

JackOrion (BASIC) 🇺🇸 | 61 ratings
Posted almost 8 years ago

Too much sugar for me, but if your into the smooth and sweet your going to like it. Think the opposite of funky dry Jamaican. If your idea of rum is a mixed cocktail but would like to have a sipping neat rum this is probably a safe bet.
Once was enough for me, I'll never buy it again.

Beukeboom (BASIC) 🇺🇸 | 304 ratings
Posted over 8 years ago

Elsewhere I review El Dorado 15-year rum and found it to be an excellent all-around rum. However if you cannot find the 15-year rum, it's younger brother, the 12-year rum isn't anything but a half-step sideways. There may be the law of diminishing returns in effect between the 12-year and the 15-year rum. I find both to be outstanding but even my uninformed palate can detect some differences. Whereas I find the 15-year to be not as sweet as some claim, the 12-year definitely has a sweetness with lingering hints of vanilla. Makes me want to take another sip. As with the 15-year rum, the 12-year rum works well with anything...mixed drinks, sodas, on ice, straight. Frankly, you won't be disappointed with either.




Brand Details

Company: El Dorado
Name: 12-Year
Years Aged: 12
ABV: 40%
Type: Aged
Raw Material: Unknown
Process: Pure blend (1 distillery)
Distillation: Pot and Column Still

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