Tasting

What does Old Monk taste like? Trade blogs describe it as a dark brown rum with vanilla, caramel, and burnt sugar, soft and sweet on the palate with little bite. The nose isn't a fruit basket the way long-fermented rums often are—it's more of a warm, cake-like aroma with wood.

Three houses make for a solid comparative tasting: Old Monk from Mohan Meakin, McDowell's No.1 Celebration from United Spirits, and Old Port from Amrut. Tasted side by side, the differences in sweetness and the role wood plays become clear.

The right glass is a small tumbler or a tulip-shaped nosing glass that concentrates the aromas. The rum should be at room temperature; served too cold, it tastes flat and overly sweet. Nose it neat first, then take small sips, and finally add a few drops of water, which releases the sweetness and lets the wood come forward.

Drinking it neat pays off especially with the more mature bottlings. The basic standard rums are clearly built for mixed drinks and dilution, where their sweetness and caramel notes really come into their own. A rum that tastes great with cola and lime doesn't need to disappoint neat in the glass—it's simply made for something else.

When tasting, three questions are worth asking: How sweet is the rum before any water is added? How prominent is the wood, and how long does the finish linger on the palate? With basic standard bottlings, the finish is usually short and sweet; with more mature rums carrying more oak, it runs longer and drier. Anyone tasting several samples in a row should jot down impressions separately, since after the third pour the differences start to blur.