The Rum Barrel Blog

The coats are out of the closet, heating is turned on in the house and Halloween is just around the corner – so basically it’s time to get ready for Christmas! Drinks By The Dram are already one step ahead of that, as they just sent me a 2021 Rum Advent Calendar, so just like last year, I will provide a spoiler-free analysis.

Drinks By The Dram (DBTD) was launched in 2010 and fall under the Atom Brands umbrella along with their online retailer Master of Malt and labels such as That Boutique-y Rum Company. The idea behind DBTD is having the opportunity to taste expensive liquid in the form of 30ml samples without having to buy the whole thing. They started making and selling advent in 2012 and in the present they have quite a big selection, most of it being various whisky calendars, a couple of gin ones and, of course, the one I’m writing about today – The Rum Advent Calendar.

The Rum Advent Calendar features 24x 30ml hand-waxed samples by 23 different distilleries from 16 countries. If you were to make an infinity bottle with all the drams you’d get a 720ml bottle at 41.1% ABV. The price-point of the full bottles featured in the calendar is around the £30-£40 range and the calendar itself costs £150 on Master of Malt.

I’ve categorised the content in sweetened (that I know they have sugar added post-distillation), spiced/flavoured, sugarcane juice based, molasses based, blend of sugarcane & juice based and I’ve made a cute little 3D pie chart because I could.

Sweetened – 6

Spiced/Flavoured – 7

Sugarcane juice – 3

Molasses – 6

Blend – 2

As you can see there’s a fair balance between the different types and rum flavour profiles. I will say the selection in this year’s calendar isn’t for the hardcore rumhead, but for the people that are getting into the category or enjoy it occasionally and want to explore some more. There are a couple of samples I haven’t tried myself so I’m looking forward to December to get them into my glass.

Overall tasting notes include leather, tobacco, orange zest, old furniture, oak spices, cinnamon, vanilla, banana and ginger.

So if you enjoy rum/rum drinks, you’re looking to expand your tasting bank and you want to experience the diversity of the rum & flavoured rum category, get involved. It’s a fairly safe collection, hard to go wrong with this as a present as well. Master of Malt are selling it or you can also have it from the guys at The Rum Boxx in 2 payments, now and in two weeks – you can also message them at hello@therumboxx.co.uk to set up your payment dates, they are fairly flexible.

I will be enjoying my calendar from December and I’ll post tasting notes and comments about each day’s rum on my Facebook page so if you get one then feel free to follow me and compare with your own notes. As always anyone can contact me if you have any rum related questions, so please do so!

Cheers!