“Proudly born in the Caribbean, creatively spiced on the wild Cornish coast” is what you’ll find on the Twin Fin website. It’s the result of 2 years of experimentation and it just surfaced on the UK market a few months ago. It’s made (spiced) by Southwestern Distillery, the same distillery behind the awarded Tarquin’s Gin – named after the Master Blender Tarquin Leadbetter.
The bottle is sure to draw some attention, it looks fairly interesting and I’m still conflicted about it. The colour scheme reminds me of Bruichladdich ‘The Classic Laddie’ – if you’re a Single Malt drinker you’ll know what I mean.
The rum itself is sourced from the Dominican Republic – column still distillate, and Jamaica – pot still distillate. No age statements and no information regarding that. The blend is then infused with spices such as orange, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and some other unknown ones via distillation in a copper pot still. The final product is then “rested over charred oak chips” that have been soaked in Pedro Ximenez sherry. The guys from Twin Fin were kind enough to disclose that the PX Sherry soaked chips imparted around 7g of sugar per litre (as per their lab analysis) which doesn’t sound that bad for a spiced rum. Bottled at just 38% ABV with my bottle being part of lot number 1.
On the nose, well, this is a tasting note I use sometimes, but this is dialed to 100 – bubblegum. Plenty of bubblegum, orange marmalade, vanilla, raisins, candied bananas and ginger. Smells like Tango Orange (or Fanta if you’d like) with some toffee. The flavour is intense and feels quite sweet, but I’m okay with it.
On the palate the rum definitely feels drier than it smells. Bubblegum and vanilla again, coffee, caramel, ginger, pink peppercorn and cloves. Orange zest, pink grapefruit, bananas and pineapples. There’s some sweetness, but not as cloying as expected – also with the smallest pinch of salt. The rum itself is there, I can feel some of that Jamaican pot still if I look for it, but pretty faint given the low ABV and the intensity of the spices. The finish is short with vanilla, some citrus and a slight bitterness.
The nose is quite deceiving, I was expecting a sugar bomb, but that wasn’t the case – think dry vanilla vodkas, they have no actual sweetener, the only perceived sweetness is from the vanilla flavouring.
The flavour profile is nothing mindblowing, and not on my liking, pretty commercial and straight forward, but I do appreciate the fact that they helped themselves from adding loads of sugar (or sherry) to it. A bottle of this would be around £28 on Master of Malt, if you’re a fan of spiced rums (unlike me) it’s a fairly safe choice. For a 38% ABV spirit I find it a bit overpriced though.
Twin Fin Spiced Golden Rum score:
Flavour/taste: 38/70
Value for money: 12/15
Transparency/purity: 13/15
Overall: 63/100
Cheers!