Don Papa Small Batch Rum 7 Year Old: A Disappointing Sip, But Perfect for Cocktails – A Review

Don Papa Small Batch Rum 7-Year-Old is a Filipino rum with a lot going for it. It has one of the most beautiful and enticing labels ever made, but when it comes to the rum itself, we are on a much lower level.

Of course it is Philippine rum, so forget the Antilles completely; it has a completely different terroir; it is commercial rum, not agricultural rum; however, the sweetness of this distillate is a ballast that is hard to appreciate.

It’s not well-balanced, elegant, subtle, or evocative. Instead, it’s sweet, cloying, mellifluous, and not very sharp on the nose. In the mouth, it’s also weak and short-lived.

It is one of the few clamorous failures that we felt like giving full marks.

But let’s go straight into more detail.

Bouquet

Very pushed nose with ripe notes of banana and tropical fruits, very heavy spices, and a trace of vanilla that distorts and flattens any possibility of aromatic development.

Caramel, toffee, honey, flowers, and hints of citrus are immersed in molasses. The main issue is that it always stays on one track, that it is a constructed rum, that it does not open up, that it is not ambitious, and that the aging of wood inexorably affects it.

The consistency is pretty good, but the variety is boring and uninspired. In fact, this makeup is too slick and seductive, and you can’t even feel the raw material. It’s a kaleidoscope, sure, and it’s explosive, but it doesn’t have a precise direction. Zibaldone.

The taste of Don Papa Small Batch Rum 7 Year Old

And here comes the disappointment: all the extreme, boundless, cloying sweetness, all this appearance on the nose, leaves almost nothing on the palate.

Rotondo is round, but it has no body; you don’t feel push, variations, speed changes, or spicy peaks. On a calm sea, you can’t see a wave even with a telescope. The variety does not exist in this Don Papa rum, the alcohol content is bland, and the persistence is not the most egregious. In short, born not to amaze,

Price

35 euros.

The disappointment was burning; we don’t want to hide our disappointment from you. After so much hype, this Don Papa rum disappoints, for the simple fact that for 35 euros a bottle, it is not possible to drink such a somniferous and soulless rum.

It’s a standard product; we’re not criticizing the product because it’s pimp, sweet, and plump, but if you offer it to me as a quality product, I expect impeccable rigor and cleanliness on the palate; I want depth; I’m not saying a rainbow of fireworks, but not such a flat thing.

But above all, in this form and at this price, it is marketed as a tasting rum; however, when consumed neat, it lacks the proper deepness; the story changes when used to make cocktails. Its spicy, zappy and flamboyant. That lovely vanilla taste is great for many meaty or tropical rum-based cocktails and you can experiment a lot with it.

We also made an ice cream cocktail with Don Papa 7-year rum, the Spartacus cocktail, and it’s really delicious, rich, and sumptuous. There is only one problem: its price is exaggerated, so it is difficult to place it as an over-the-counter product and to understand why one should buy it… 35 euros for rum to be used for spiced cocktails is an exaggerated price. Too bad.

Ok, the Pina Colada is very good, but you can’t burn it like this…

What cocktails to make with rum Don Papa is 7 years old.

Cuba Libre, Dark and Stormy, Basito, Pina Colada, Planter’s Punch.