Lime and Sugarcane

Specs:

Distillery: New Yarmouth, Jamaica
Distiller: J. Wray & Nephew, LTD, 234 Spanish Town Road, Kingston 11, Jamaica
ABV: 63%
Age: Unaged
Distillation: Pot & Column
Additives: None
Price: $27
Appearance: Transparent

My moniker is ‘The Hogo Hoosier;’ what other rum could I have started with?

Wray & Nephew Overproof White Rum, which is apparently a name I have been jumbling for over a year, is the legendary Jamaican white overproof rum that accounts for 90% of all rum sales on the island. This bottle was the first I ever ordered because I could not find it in stores. I opened it and instantly knew what my favorite rum was.

The bottle is striking, especially against most other rum bottles you see these days. The bottle shape itself is pretty standard. The color palette, the adornments, and the harvest gold plastic screw top (which includes a plastic dribbler inside), most definitely are not. Gold outlines, at least 7 different fonts, multiple medallion awards, a banner, mixed cursive and manuscript, and big, blocky yellow, white, and black fonts all over the place. It is a mess and looks like I tried to design a rum label. I love it.

According to the Wray & Nephew website, this rum is “a full strength, full flavoured white rum that is best enjoyed blended in colourful cocktails at celebrations big or small. Made to mix and elevate fruit flavours.” Their nose description tells us that you will smell “pineapple, overripe banana and a hint of brown sugar’ and that it is ‘fruity and flavoursome.’ Upon tasting the rum, you will experience ‘dry and grassy notes at first, followed by sweet notes of vanilla, banana, coconut, and molasses.’ And finally, you will experience a ‘smooth (finish) with a long depth.’

So many unnecessary ‘U’s in this description.

Well, let’s find out for ourselves, shall we?

My Experience

The nose is incredible. It sings to me. It has the hogo, the funk, a sharp yet deep symphony of overripe bananas past their use for even baking banana bread that have been brushed with a pineapple juice mixed with a little bit of brown sugar and that background hint of acetone and citrus. If the smell does not offend you then this rum is warm and inviting. It is very fruity and very tropical, warm and inviting.

The Hogo Hoosier lives for the funk.

The taste is where you will find yourself in trouble if you did not like the smell. There is nothing subtle about this rum. This rum will always let you know that you drank it and it will ensnare you in all the wonderful organic volatile compounds like esters that give it that great fruit taste. It is not for the faint of heart and for some it will always taste like they stuck a spoon in a compost bin. But for those who love the funk, this is the experience they crave.

You get hit with the pineapple first more than the banana as the pineapple is lighter and sharper, but it immediately gives way to the deep musky overripe banana flavors all the while the acetone is omnipresent throughout the whole experience. After drinking it enough you also pick up some sweeter notes you’d associate with vanilla and citrus peels, like a mixture of both the natural oils in the peels and bit of the pith. It is more lime than lemon or orange or grapefruit.

If I was a food scientist I would say it has something to do with malic acid that is far more present in limes than other citrus. I am not a food scientist.

The finish really does go on forever. Funk is notorious for hanging around for a long time. It is a very deep flavor that you will feel at the back of your mouth and throat for a long time. How long? Well I took a large sip and 15 minutes later I am still tasting it. The heat builds for about a minute and moves about your mouth and up to your lips making you feel very warm, but as time goes on the muskiness and deepness begins to subside and you can re-experience some lovely banana flavors again, not overripe, just plain bananas with some pineapple juice sweetness. It is one of my favorite parts of drinking this rum.

Producer’s Notes & Flavor Profile

Comparing my experience to the producer’s notes, they aren’t that different from each other, which is always a delight to me because I think most producers’ notes and flavor profiles are rubbish and akin to a grab bag of marketing words people see on the back of other rum bottles to copy and paste. I don’t really experience any grassy flavors, perhaps a tiny smidge, but I attribute that more to the pineapple than I would to grass like you would a rhum agricole, cachaça or something like a clairin. The molasses is present in the flavor, but it tastes sweeter than straight molasses and more like light brown sugar to me. The finish is spot on though; we can agree to disagree on how smooth it is. I have had rums that are smooth with no burn. This is more of a controlled burn, but it is never unpleasant and it is definitely long with depth. I would be suspicious if a 63% ABV rum did not have any burn at all.

I will always try to remain as objective as I can in reviewing my rums and anything else I review here. I love rum. But I feel that full disclosure requires that I state that I think that Wray & Nephew is the greatest drink since ice water on a hot day, so my affection and biases are not a secret. I have tried to make all my friends try this rum in tiny doses and not a single one ever got what I liked out of it but loved it in whatever cocktail I put it in. However, I love this rum and the flavors so much I would drink it straight, no water, no ice, and smile with every sip.

Conclusion:

Overall Score: Read the Review; I don’t do number scores.

They’re arbitrary and not a great ranking system. I have read too many lists or sheets of people ranking rums over the other and having people come at them later with ‘well you ranked this one over this bottle with your scores but there’s no way that can be true, this is the better bottle.’ I’m not doing revisionist history on my experiences with what I drink because the numbers don’t crunch and something that I think is worse than another bottle somehow ends up with a better number score.

I want to review rums on their own as they come. Head to head comparisons are inevitable, but the fact that Rum Fire, Rum-Bar, Worthy Park Overproof White Rum, & Moneymusk Overproof White Rum exist and someone may prefer one over the others does not mean that those rums are bad or good.

This statement does not apply to flavored rums and those imposters claiming to be rum.

So, that said, here are my final thoughts on Wray & Nephew Overproof White Rum:

Their slogan on their website is “whatever your occasion, Wray is the way.” I 100% wholeheartedly agree. This bottle is a must have for any rum lovers’ rum locker. There are many other Jamaican Overproof White Rums out there, of which I plan on reviewing all of them, but this one is my favorite hands down. I do not think it can be replaced by another rum and I think it is unique and should be experienced by anybody who enjoys rum.

No bias here.