Rum Review: Ron de Jeremy Rum

The fifth and last major standard style, the lighter Cuban rums pioneered by Bacardi, who left their facilities and quality, but not their politics, behind when Fidel lit up. Por Cuba Libre!
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How do you rate Ron de Jeremy (five is best)?

5
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50%
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3
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Total votes: 2

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Capn Jimbo
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Rum Review: Ron de Jeremy Rum

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Ron de Jeremy: A Red Hot Latecomer...

The two hardest "gets" in spirits are: Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year Bourbon and the world's first Porn Star Rum, Ron de Jeremy. The former received the highest rating ever given to any spirit, of any cost, of any age - period! The Pappy Van Winkle line is released once a year and immediately sells out. Those few who find a bottle often resell them on Ebay for triple the purchase price of $99, selling for $300 or more.

It's that good.

The latter, Ron de Jeremy, was promoted before a single bottle was available for sale. At The Rum Project we were blessed to be able to obtain both for our exclusive reviews. Let's start with Ron de Jeremy. One of the problems with a heavily promoted new "premium" product is that the rum often doesn't live up to the hype. But that's not always true, so let's see...

Sue Sea:
To be fair I must admit that I was originally put off by the notion of a "porn star rum", but in the end reviewing is about the distiller and the rum, not the label on the bottle. Speaking of which, Ron de Jeremy is sold in an absolutely lovely squat, heavy and thick-bottomed bottle. This is a current trend that is quite attractive and reminds me of the Dos Maderas rums. The bottle features a faux parchment label with a representation of the porn star's face, and using an antique typeface.

To be fair to this rum we ended up doing three tastings, reducing the level of rum to well below the shoulders to the label. We have found from long experience that no rum may be evaluated fairly until it has the room and time to air. The intial pour was more than pleasant and revealed a simple but extremely enticing aroma of orange citrus, vanilla, leather and a bit of caramel. Very well balanced, round and extremely inviting.

Ron de Jeremy's initial palate was consistent but almost immediately taken over by rapidly growing heat featuring, in order: cinnamon - clove - and ending in a tongue shriveling white pepper. There was a touch of rootbeer in the mid palate. The tongue finish is a short, and very drying near jalapeno. The aftertaste is all heat.

Let me sum it up. Ron de Jeremy presents as an extremely pleasant, non-complex rum, but is quickly overpowered by a dominating white pepper, drying heat. It will literally leave your tongue aglow. Such a finish is not unknown to the Cuban style, but what bothered me was the strong and early entry of this element. Too much, too soon and too abrupt. In the end, great rums are all about about balance and smooth development.

As much as I love sweet heat, I found Ron de Jeremy choppy and with a quickly growing and dominating heat.
Me:

Sue Sea and I have grown to develop very similar impressions of rums. This only comes from much experience and sharing of those impressions with one another. We agree on Ron de Jeremy.

Ron de Jeremy presents as a cloudy orange-amber, with thick slow legs and a very thin green edge (more about these later). My first impression was of a very, very pleasant rum nose of Sue Sea's orange, vanilla and leather over a background of smooth clove spice. Simple but absolutely lovely.

That changed. The heat - and I mean heat - came on early like a "Red Hot" candy drop. Cinnamon and clove grew quickly and massively into white pepper and jalapeno - for a very astringent, hot and relatively short finish. Ron de Jeremy left a lingering cinnamon/jalapeno/new leather aftertaste. What was particularly unique was the tongue finish. Many rums (especially the better ones) tend to leave a subtle but warming chest finish. A glowing hot tongue finish is both unusual and not entirely welcome. Jalapeno lovers excepted.

It's like this. A great rum is like a good dinner party. Everyone arrives on time, the festivities develop smoothly and with good spirit, and the evening builds to a lovely and intimate conclusion. Ron de Jeremy is different. The guests have arrived and a pleasant evening has commenced when there's a banging on the door, and an overbearing latecomer rushes in and literally takes over the festivities, and...

The peppery party pooper prevails. Let's review: hot, overbearing, tongue teasing and memorable? Ron Jeremy? Or Ron de Jeremy? You decide...


Score (ten is best): 7
.


*******
Next: Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year Old Bourbon
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Dai
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Post by Dai »

I personally like Ron De Jeremy rum it is one of my favourite rums so far. If you are looking for a sweet fruity easy to drink rum you won't go far wrong with a bottle of Ron De Jeremy.
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