Tiki Tastings: The Scarlet Ibis

The Scarlet Ibis is a Trinidadian rum that was originally produced for the Death & Co. bar in New York City from a blend of pot-still rums aged from 3 to 5 years in oak casks. It’s sold nationwide, but the release is relatively limited. We originally picked up a bottle of this rum after getting a copy of the Death & Co. book and reading about it – not to mention the fact that we are always interested in adding a new rum to our bar.

The rum has a deliciously sweet aroma with notes of caramel, a hint of leather smokiness and plenty of fruity, peppery spice. Although the rum is bottled at 98 proof, the nose doesn’t smell overly alcoholic. When you taste it, you’ll immediately pick up on sweet honey and dried fruit notes, followed by a burst of spice and an oaky, vanilla and brown sugar body. The finish is smooth and leaves you with a touch of that leather/tobacco from the nose and a bit of cinnamon or allspice. It is, quite frankly, very delicious and very easy to drink. You can easily sip it neat or enjoy it with a bit of ice. That said, this rum was designed to be a great mixing rum and you’ll be able to tell why after your first sip. The flavors in the rum are exactly the sorts of flavors that we often find in great tiki cocktails: vanilla, spice, honey, dried fruit. It tastes like it will go with almost anything – and it just about does. With this in mind, we highly recommend buying two bottles (our local source only ever seems to have one on the shelf at a time!) if you can so that you can use it freely in your favorite cocktails and still feel like you have plenty on hand when you want a very simple drink to finish the night.

Rum Rating: 5/5

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 – unless, of course, they are also very high quality!