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Virgin Islands, U.S. | Aged | 40% ABV
Cruzan Single Barrel Rum begins as an assortment of aged rums, distilled in column stills and ranging in vintage up to 12 years. After blending, the rum rests in a new oak barrel for an additional year before bottling. Each bottle of Cruzan Single Barrel rum is poured from only one barrel, which may increase color variance from batch to batch.
Cruzan Single Barrel rum is produced by the Nelthropp Family in St. Croix. The name ""Cruzan"" is derived from island's native population - the “Crucians."
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In the late eighties, I drank cheap Cruzan rum as if there was no tomorrow and it was still way better than Bacardi. One of my ex-girlfriends even accused me of drinking "two thousand bottles of Cruzan rum" which was a gross exaggeration. Guess what? I kept drinking the rum!
A few years ago, I happened upon a bottle of this at a music festival and tried a sample. I was quite impressed at what Cruzan could do, but had yet to enter the world of the finest rums. So this one wound up on my wish list and I recently found a bottle on the bottom shelf of my favorite specialty liquor store. A major HINT on the lowest shelf!!!!
It smells and tastes like alcohol with no added sweetness, but leaves a bitter taste at the back of my throat. Sipping neat was passable and adding an ice cube did nothing to open up the flavors. At $24, this one is also a bit expensive to use as a mixer, since Mount Gay Eclipse is a much better and cheaper gold mixer.
Update Feb 17, 2018: When browsing another liquor store for a rum that they did not have, I came across two different shaped bottles for this Cruzan Single Barrel. There was one new bottle in the shape of the Estate Diamond Dark 5 Year placed in front of the old round bottles. My old round bottle rated as a 5 due to harsh after taste. I eagerly bought the bottle with the newer shape for only $25. When I got home, I compared side by side with my Diamond Estate Dark 5 Year. This single barrel is orange in color and the other one is amber. This newer version has a wonderful after taste that out does it's faint aroma and taste. Is it worth the extra $5 over the Estate Diamond Dark 5 Year? Yes, but either one will serve the purpose as a very inexpensive sipper that will never rate higher than a 6. As with any single barrel spirit, it is all in the luck of the draw. And as bad as this sounds, this is the best that Cruzan has to offer.