Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:59 pm
Please know that although I speak only for Sue Sea and myself at The Rum Project, many experienced tasters have noted unlabeled flavorings and additives, sometimes to the extreme, in many rums. These altered rums (with unlabeled flavorings, sugar, etc) are what I mean by "tweaked". This is often done to make a relatively young, continuously distilled and relatively inexpensively produced rum taste older and more interesting (again, using cheap additives and often artificial flavorings). A good example of a tweaked rum would be Pyrat XO, labeled "rum". Many rums are tweaked with glycerol, smoothers, sherry and artificial vanilla to name just a few. But they are still labeled "rum" (and not "flavored rum").
"Tweaking" is almost unheard of in Scotch and Irish Whisky, or say American bourbon, where purity and honesty in labeling is the norm. With rum, like Canadian whisky, anything goes. If you don't care what's been added to your rum, it doesn't matter as long as "...it tastes good".
The problem with this is that one really never knows which rums are honest and pure, and which have been taste engineered. Personally I am a big believer in purity and respect those rums which achieve their complexity and quality through the honest artistry of skilled fermentation, distillation and aging - an expensive and time consuming proposition, and not as the result of a cupful of liquid artificial flavoring tossed into a barrel of cheap young rum.
I'm not alone in this - there are a number of major distillers who believe in and promote purity, not to mention a growing number of experienced tasters, some of whom post here as well...
It tasted so bad I had to give it away. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions please post them within the next 30 days. You input will be greatly appreciated.
I also get mean heartburn when I drink too many Pyrat's. 
I hope Atlantico doesn't have the musty finish like Brugal.