Appleton Estate Extra 12-Year

Nose: Quite soft. Light toffee that acts as a harbinger for a more distinct yet still soft acetone. The funk easily gives way to strawberry skins, dried mango, and baked bananas - interlaced by brief hints of earthiness. Mint chocolate. Turmeric and cardamom show up near the end.

Palate: Still delicate, beginning with honey and cacao. Dried figs leads a transition to coconut husk and chocolate rocks before a more refreshing layer of ginger ale and the strawberries and mangos from the nose. Bubbly mouthfeel with a medium body.

Finish: A very pleasant burst of singed wood, dark chocolate, and dried blueberries. The finish rarely surprises me, yet this one does.

I was given a bottle as a gift and I did enjoy it enough to purchase one more. But I found I do not enjoy it enough for the little extra cost.

It's a nice rum if your are in the mood of not a sweat rum but an honest oak tasting rum.

Jamaican blend of various 12 to 30-year rums aged in oak barrels. I got to taste a bottle before its redesign. I really like the way it looks.
The rum is rather ligher in color. It is one of the less sweet rums and rather dry. However, it is extremely smooth, with notes of caramel, wood, walnuts. Slight notes of fruits. The rum is slightly thicker in consistency.
The aftertaste is medium to long lasting. One of my favorite aspects of this rum is its unusual, nuanced, sweet aftertaste.
This rum is extremely pleasant to drink due to its smoothness. The taste notes are very interesting with an unusual, sweet ending. Good price to performance ratio and overall a pleasant experience (coming from not a very experienced rum-drinker).

This rum is oily and funky in a way only Jamaican rums can be. This makes it very tasty, but I feel like it could offer more in terms of complexity. Please note that this is of an older bottle, so I would be interested in seeing if the new bottle design brought a change in the blend with it. Great value for money.

Smell: After it opens up – with some air in the bottle and month + past opening. Juicy dark floral molasses, ripe/stale bananas, ripe pineapple, gentle oak very well mixed, old black tea, caramel, honey. With time in the glass, the smell gets more complex – burned wood notes appear, bouquet of herbs, cinnamon, slight black pepper.

Taste: Mild sweet molasses sugar, strong black tea, gentle yet bitter wood, ripe bananas, burnt toffee, well balanced not too sweet – quite pleasant and taste desert. Great balance – clean quality without much if any added sugar – Jamaica rum. For 12 years old, it shows its age – there are some complex notes in both the smell and taste. Very classic/genuine (nothing artificial), pleasant sipping rum.

Nothing to scream about, but a nice solid addition

Nice spices when drunk neat. I haven’t yet found a mixer to accompany it

This was a very smooth and flavourful rum. It was a great value compared to many of the other rums I have tasted over the past year. I appreciated the flavour without the heavy alcohol taste that accompanies many of the others I have tried. I consider this to be a "must have" for my cabinet.

Appleton 12 je taká základná a umiernená Jamajka. Je to nedosladzovaný rum. Vonia po vanilka, dreve, mede a niekde na pozadí cítim aj citrusy a sladké korenie. Chuť je príjemná, suchšia a alkohol jemne štípne. Prevláda vanilka, tropické ovocie, med, karamel a sud. Dobrý, poctivý rum za férovú cenu. Povinnosť ochutnať!!!