A note on scoring

All our reviews feature an overall Rum Social Club score. Although we follow a standardised tasting process for all our reviews to be as fair and objective as possible, these are always going to be somewhat subjective, and therefore shouldn’t be taken too literally. This is why we want to encourage all our visitors to go beyond the scores and read our reviews, as they provide a lot more context, details, and might help you get a much better sense of where the reviewed rums might fit in your own rum experiences.

Given the vibrancy of the rum world, it’s also worth noting that we feel that we’re still discovering and stumbling across new rum profiles, new distilleries and new bottlers constantly, and trying to sample new rums all the time. We think this allows us to expand our horizons, and have a broader taste and framework, which in turn should mean we’re constantly becoming more objective when reviewing a new rum. This also means that, from time to time, we might go back to early reviews and re-adjust scores that, with the benefit of hindsight and added experiences, we feel needed to be revised.

We also want to provide a bit of context for our Rum Social Club scores. When reviewing a new rum, we will assign a score to:

The bottle

Taking into account the quality and beauty of the container, the quality and level of information provided on labels and the overall presentation. We feel presentation, information and transparency are important factors of the rum experience.

The nose

Exploring how the rum looks, feels and smells when poured in a tasting glass. We’ll typically have a first take after pouring, and another one after the rum has been able to breathe for a moment. Whilst this is not necessarily as critical as the rum’s taste, this is nonetheless an essential part of the enjoyment of rum.

The mouth

Arguably one of the most important aspect, this covers how the rum taste, how short or long the finish is, how complex and balanced this rum is. This is the main reason we are rum enthusiasts!

These three factors are ultimately combined, with different coefficients (x1 for the bottle, x2 for the nose, x7 for the mouth), to create our Rum Social Club score, out of 100.

Also, to help convey how we feel about our scoring scale, we want to provide a tongue-in-cheek insight into what, broadly speaking, each ten-point range equates to in our mind:

• 0 – this liquid shouldn’t exist

• 1 to 9 – probably best used as a drain cleaner

• 10 to 19 – shouldn’t be called a rum

• 20 to 29 – truly awful

• 30 to 39 – this is very bad

• 40 to 49 – still a bad experience

• 50 to 59 – not-so-good rum

• 60 to 69 – this is starting to get pretty good

• 70 to 79 – very enjoyable

• 80 to 89 – all-round great spirit

• 90 to 99 – an exquisite experience

• 100 – this is the impossible rum, like if Richard Seale and Alexandre Gabriel collaborated on a limited release