Tiki Tastings: El Dorado 3-Year Old Demerara Rum

As much as we like El Dorado Special Reserve 15 Year, it’s not our everyday rum – both because it is a sipping rum and we make a lot of cocktails – and because its a touch pricey for an everyday drink. We use El Dorado 3-Year Old Demerara Rum a lot more often, and it is an outstanding choice of white rum to add to your bar. The rum is made of a blend of rums aged at least three years. This fact may come as a surprise to those used to seeing aged rums with a bit of color to them, since this one is crystal clear. The color – or lack thereof – comes from the fact that the rum is charcoal filtered after aging. It is great to have white rums around when you’re making tiki drinks, since there are many cocktails with great natural color from jucies that you don’t want to muddy with a caramel-colored rum.

The rum has a light, fruity scent to it and you can pick out notes of coconut, melon and vanilla, as well as a subtle overall sweetness. It almost reminds us of gin in terms of texture, with a very pleasant lightness to it. At the first sip, you’ll notice a distinct caramel flavor, as well as the tropical fruits from the nose and some intriguing spicy citrus notes. The finish is smooth and sweet, with the smallest hint of the oak that the barrels that the rum was aged in.

You might not think of white rums as sipping rums, however this one is excellent to drink on its own. That said, it is also a supremely mixable rum and it makes excellent cocktails, so that is how we use it more often than not. It has enough complexity to improve almost any fruit, herb or liqueur that you might want to add to it, yet it is so well-crafted that it won’t overwhelm even very delicate flavors. We’re a big fan of using it in the Missionary’s Downfall (which we’ll share our version of in our upcoming book!).

Rum Rating: 4/5

Rum Rating Scale:
0/5 – Is this even rum?
1/5 – Bad. Not worth buying and not worth drinking
2/5 – Not very good, but could be covered up with mixers.
3/5 – Good, versatile rum.
4/5 – Great rum, with complex flavors that is outstanding on its own or in cocktails.
5/5 – Amazing rum. Don’t even think about covering it up with mixers.