Ho, ho, ho and 24 drams of rum!
Well, here we are again! Christmas is coming and so are the Advent Calendars from Drinks By The Dram. This is my 4th year in a row where I review and describe their Rum Advent Calendar without giving actual spoilers – it’s not that easy, you know?
The Rum Advent Calendar comes from Drinks By The Dram which comes from Master of Malt which comes from Atom Brands. Drinks By The Dram was launched in 2010 and it offers the option to get a 30ml sample rather than a full bottle in order to satisfy ones curiosity or make it easier for them to decide if to purchase something or not. In 2012 they started doing advent calendars for various spirit categories and since this is a rum blog, let’s talk rum.
The 2023 Rum Advent Calendar contains 24x30ml samples that are hand-waxed and packed into a sturdy cardboard box which can be recycled. It contains rum from 10 different countries and that’s without including the multi-country blends.
If we were to add all the samples up we’d get a 720ml bottle at 41.1% ABV – don’t do it though. Also if we were to look at the bottles the samples come from, most of them are priced between £24 and £67, although there are two stand outs that are notably more valuable at £120 and £360, with the later one being exclusive for the calendar and it can’t be found on the Master of Malt website – which got me excited! If you love numbers as much as I do, the average value of the full bottles from which the samples in the calendar come from is around £57, which is more than last year’s advent.
Now I’m just going to vaguely summarise what’s inside the advent without spoiling its contents.
All the rums here (to my knowledge) are molasses based and aged and/or flavoured. There are no agricole/cane juice based or white/unaged rums at all, which is a first for me when it comes to this advent calendar. There are 8 sweetened rums, 9 flavoured rums and 7 rums that are pretty much pure.
This year’s rum advent seems to be tailored more for the general consumer that has a sweet tooth and knows very little about rum. Nothing wrong with that, we all have to start somewhere, and I think this would offer people a comfortable introduction to the rum world.
I wouldn’t particularly recommend it to the rum enthusiasts (like myself), although there are some gems in there that I’m looking forward to try. My only personal complaint is that it’s less diverse and it has too many spiced offerings, but then I understand that’s what the average drinker enjoys – and I’m not average, you know.
The overall tasting notes would be: vanilla, pineapple, mango, caramel, dark chocolate, liquorice, warm spices, coconut, banana, charred oak and sweet black coffee.
The price of the calendar is £125 and I will say it’s a safe gift for someone who is at the beginning of their rum journey or they are looking to start it.
You can buy the Rum Advent Calendar 2023 from Drinks By The Dram by clicking the button bellow – full disclosure, if you do so through my website, I will get a commission of the sale via an affiliate program.
Like every year, I will be posting mini-reviews of the drams daily on my Facebook page when December starts. Join me so we can explore all 24 rums together and maybe compare some tasting notes!
Cheers!