Old Monk Very Old Vatted XXX Rum

     My visit to California last week for my 50th High School Reunion found me in quite a dilemma, there was virtually no sipping rum at any to the bars or liquor stores that were around the hotel.  At the bar I had a choice of Bacardi, Captain Morgan or Myers.  These are fine for mixing, but I was looking for a sipper.  I walked into a liquor store just down the  street from the hotel and ran across the usual suspects, but off in the corner was a bottle of "Old Monk Very Old Vatted XXX Rum ".  This is a rum that I stock at the Rum Bar, and I remember that it was a good tasting and smooth rum that had been lost in my mind, because it just really wasn't that well known about.  

     I went ahead and bought the bottle and took it back to my room where it became my drink of choice for the remainder of the weekend.   This is a very shippable rum that has notes of sugar cane and then comes the real surprise.  This is an overproof rum with 42.8% ABV making it a bit warm on the palate.  There is a peppery  flavor initially and some fruitiness that leads to the mild burn of the finish.

     It’s a classic 7 year blended dark rum, from the first drop of Old Monk Rum, the sheer aroma of distilled cane sugar grown in lush green fields of India, stirs up the age old legend. Old Monk Rum is a form of the legendary “Som-ras” of India's centuries old scriptures--The Drink of Gods and Lords of India.

     For me I found it to work well over the rocks, but I really enjoyed this rum the best with some sugar free Vita Coco Coconut water and ice.  I found myself sipping this blend most of the evening as I reminisced with my classmates.  The reunion was a memorable event in my life, but the Old Monk Rum did a wonderful job of providing me with a good rum in an almost "rum free" area.