I grew up in Toronto, a first generation Canadian in a Guyanese family, which meant that even in my youth I saw plenty of the usual suspects in regards to rum at family gatherings, though nothing specifically ever had my interest.
Other than typical drinking during university, I didn’t learn or know much about spirits; I began collecting random discounted liqueurs and mixers when I could, occasionally showing up to parties with a duffel bag of sticky oddities.
After straying from my second career path, my interest in bartending began to grow beyond just a hobby and I did what I could to learn, joining forums, reading books, and getting bartenders to dust off bottles to make me awful recipes I’d read about in obscure texts.
As I delved deeper into spirits, I noticed a very popular stubby Bajan bottle in the rum forums that only had a distillation date for a name; by late 2018, I had sought out and purchased it, my first high-quality rum. Just a few weeks later, a friend introduced me to my first high-ester Jamaican rum and between these two incredibly different sips, rum grabbed me by the tongue and pulled me straight down the rabbit hole.
I almost immediately began harassing my local rum bars to hire me, and by the middle of 2019 I began work as a barback at a tropical, rum-focused bar, Miss Thing’s here at home in Toronto, and the rest is history.
Bias
Although I am involved in the industry, I’m not connected to any brands or products and therefore feel I can be impartial in expression. I pay or trade for samples out of my own pocket and do this work purely out of passion. In that respect, I will always mention when I feel like there may be a conflict of interest and endeavour to offer provenance of samples I come by.
This blog will mainly focus on spirits created to be sipped. In this regard, I am biased towards spirits that reflect not just the hand of the maker, but also the terroir, heritage, and culture of the place they come from, pure and distinctive, free from post-distillation additives.
Scoring
I use a 100 point scale, but I will endeavour to use the entire scale and avoid the use of a bell curve. Although my personal palate and experience will dictate a score, I will always attempt to contextualise what I review. Here is a breakdown of how to interpret my scores.
<10: Good for disinfecting wounds
10-19: Undrinkable
20-29: Unpalatable
30-39: Consumable
40-49: Shooters
50-59: Mixers
60-69: Cocktails/budget sippers
70-79: Decent quality/craft cocktails
80-89: High quality
90-95: Amazing, nearly perfect
96+: Exceptional, subjective perfection
Acknowledgements
I would be remiss to not mention that this site is made possible only with the guidance and assistance of a strong, international rum community, who have been happy to share their special finds as well as knowledge. Within the pantheon of reviewers, a great thanks to Lance at The Lone Caner, John at Malt-Review, Marius at Single Cask Rum, and Ivar at Rum Revelations, all of whom have helped in their own ways to inspire this site.