Review: Papa’s Pilar Marquesas Blend Dark Rum
Papa’s Pilar Marquesas Blend Dark Rum is a Limited-Edition Release that will be available in October. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a bottle a little early. All of Papa’s Pilar’s rum expressions are inspired by Ernest Hemingway. Marquesas Blend Dark Rum is named after the Marquesas Keys, a group of islands just west of Key West. After a brutal storm hit during a fishing expedition, Ernest Hemingway was stranded for two weeks on these islands. Papa’s Pilar Marquesas is made from 7 hand selected rums aged up to 24 years. The rums are crafted by Master Blender Ron Call at Hemingway Rum Company’s distillery in Key West Florida located just yards from where Hemingway used to dock his boat. The rums are sourced from the Caribbean, US, and Central America. After blending, the rum is placed in #4 char Kentucky Straight Bourbon barrels to finish maturing before bottling at 88 proof. Read more 
Review: 896 5 Year Old Rum
896 5 Year Old Rum is made from a blend of rums distilled and aged for a minimum 5 years in Barbados. Sitting next to 896 5 Year Old Rum on the shelf at Total Wine and More is 896 8 Year Old Rum. Both are imported and bottled by Universal Brands in Princeton Minnesota. If you have ever visited a Total Wine and More, I have no doubt you are amazed at the selection of beer, wine, and spirits they carry. While they sell most of the top name brand spirits you would expect, they specialize in selling local craft spirits, along with spirits you just can’t find at any of your local liquor stores. Some of these spirits are hidden gems from craft distillers that would never make there way to your state if not for Total Wine and More. Others are produced or bottled by some of the nations biggest private label distilleries including the one in Princeton Minnesota that produces 896 Rum. Unfortunately little or no information is available about these products. I often stay away from these products because as a reviewer there is very little to write about other than the actual product review. I purchased this bottle because I am a big fan of rum produced in Barbados and since it was on sale for $13.99 I thought I would give it a shot. Read more
Review: Koloa Kauai Dark Rum
Koloa Kauai Dark Rum was introduced September 2009 and is one of five rums they craft on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. It is made with crystallized brown sugar from tall cane Hawaiian grown sugar cane that is hand harvested and the sugar cane is crushed in the field. The juice is collected in a tank and brought straight to the distillery. It doesn’t get any fresher. The rum is twice distilled using a 1210 gallon copper pot still with a copper column and condenser. Pure mountain rainwater from Mt. Wai’ ale’ ale and the nearby mountain peaks and rainforests is captured and slowly filtered through volcanic strata before reaching vast underground aquifers, is blended in to reduce to 80 proof. Read more