Last week, it was Kenny Chesney’s Blue Chair Bay white rum, this week, we turn to his Spiced Rum, a favourite variety of mine. I love what different distillers do to give the rum a good blend of flavours in the spiced rum. And where Chesney’s White Rum was just fine, his spiced is quite enjoyable.
WHAT IS THE RUM
Much like the white rum, Blue Chair Bay Spiced Rum is a standard 80 proof blended rum from various Caribbean distilleries. Unlike most other rums, there’s nothing about the rum itself on label. It’s got the same Kenny Chesney spiel about dropping anchor and letting time fly that was on the white rum label. At least give us something, man. You’ve got entire song about a keg in the closet, but you can’t give us like… 15 words about the rum?
HOW DOES IT TASTE
It’s a pretty standard spiced rum, nothing REALLY stands out about it. It doesn’t separate itself from any other modestly priced spiced rum you can find on the shelf, as far the taste goes. The dominant flavour is certainly the vanilla. You can tell they tried to lean into the sweet of it all. It works, and it’s a fine taste. But it’s not really a stand out.
BEST WAY TO DRINK IT
Sipping on it neat, it definitely has full flavour that really lingers on the taste buds. You’re going to catch the vanilla all the way through. Pouring it over ice just pops that vanilla and overall sweetness of the rum. For just basic mixing, it’s not gonna make for an interesting spin on the dark and stormy, but will definitely hit the right notes in a rum and coke. And I would put emphasis on the Coke. Most other colas are much sweeter than Coke (lookign at you Pepsi), so that’s just too much sweet going on.
Getting into cocktails, this is a perfect daiquiri spiced rum. It will add the right kick and sweet to balance out the tartness of the fruitier flavours.
DO I RECOMMEND
I have a long, storied history with spiced rum. It’s my favourite variety of rum. I’ve been drinking it for years. I’ve had top shelf high quality ones. I’ve had Lady Bligh. This is definitely a middle of the pack spiced rum. It’s nothing special. I definitely wouldn’t make a point to get it. But about a year ago I was making a big rum punch for a Halloween party we were hosting. I needed something that wasn’t reliant on its strong proof (looking at you, Sailor Jerry), but was a good modest price since we were opting for a bulk purchase. This certainly fit the bill. The rum punch was a hit, and I keep it on reserve for such occasions. It’s a rum that tastes OK and certainly has its uses. I could never recommend it as a great rum in general, or spiced rum specifically. But it is a good rum. It’ll get the job done. And I think that’s true for the full Blue Chair Bay line.
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