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On the nose: I get unnaturally sweet and fruity aromas. There are these coherent fruity floral aromas that makes me think of Korean pears, pineapple syrup, banana flavored-candy, a sweetened drink with lemons and apples mixed with caramel and honey. The name Don Papa is a reference to activist Dionisio Magbuelas, who was also known as Papa Isio, as a tribute to his leadership in the Philippine revolution. Papa Isio was widely regarded as a local hero for his role in driving the Spanish away from the island of Negros in 1898, so his image felt like the perfect fit for the brand to convey the spirit of the island on the label. It is considered the country’s first sipping rum. For an enthusiastic and uncritical perspective by a “lifestyle writer” (I will not use the term “journalist” because that would be like saying Don Papa is a real rum) I direct you to this Forbes article from May 2017. It’s just another in a spate of recent rum-themed articles that are written by people who seem to want to advertise that they really know nothing at all about the subject. I hate this so much right now! I was actually given this by someone who had it gifted to them. They couldn’t actually drink this.
Don Papa Aged 10 Years doesn’t really develop onto anything meaningful. Beyond the sweet/bitter orange on the initial sip you only really experience sweet saccharin notes on the mid palate. There is something which is trying to be oak ageing in there but its just overwhelmed by all the nonsense they have added to this putrid mess. Established in 2012, Don Papa Rum is a relative newcomer in the spirits space. But in its decade on the market, it has already made its mark as a premium rum. The brand, founded by Stephen Carroll and Andrew John Carcia, proudly embraces its home in the Philippines by highlighting the history and majesty of the region in the rum’s label, story, and bold flavors. Quoting Foursquare’s Richard Seale “The holy grail for the big multinationals is a product that can be mass produced but sold for a premium price - hence the need for vodka brands and gin brands in the portfolio.” You can use a heavy Jamaican rum instead of scotch, a medium-bodied Barbados rum instead of Irish whiskey, a Venezuelan rum instead of cognac, or a light Puerto Rican rum instead of vodka." What is the best rum? It hails from Sugarlandia (I kid you not), Phillipines and Don Papa is a tribute to Papa Isio. His legend was instrumental to the independence of the island during the Revolution of the 1890s. The figure of Don Papa on the bottle is inspired by Papa Isio.Don Papa Rum carries the long-standing traditions of Filipino rum making as a first-rate, expressive liquid that has amassed a cult-like following with spirits enthusiasts and industry insiders – a testament to its ability to transcend the rum category. The complex and delicious tasting rum offers a new taste that rum drinkers, brown spirit aficionados and newcomers to the spirit category can all enjoy.
It’s popularity is fuelled by a natural human love of sweetness and complete ignorance of what rum actually is. We are sadly still in an age where rum is perceived as sweet as it is produced from sugar. It is not produced from sugar. It is produced using the by products of sugar production. From the sugar cane. During distillation all the sugar turns to alcohol. Rum is not naturally sweet – at least not to the extent that rums such as Don Papa might lead you to believe. I get the appeal of this to the less informed drinker. Like in mass produced food brands and beverages, the sweetness entices a person. The sweet character makes it easy to drink and enjoy. But you won’t be enjoying the hangover you get from drinking artificially-flavored stuff like this. Just to set the stage: I honestly thought my amigo Henrik, in his savage takedown of the rum, was exaggerating his despite. However, intrigued, I begged him for samples to save me buying them, and he was prepared to gift me the whole bottle except that his luggage was already full of stuff he was bringing to Berlin (for me). And just to see if its claim to being a “premium aged small batch rum” held up, I tried the Don Papa 7 year old (and its brother the ten year old) four times: once with a flight of eight Jamaicans, then with a flight of seven Demeraras, a third time with a raft of agricoles and then with yet another one of nine Bajans. The brand recently released a new premium bottling, Don Papa 10, which is aged for 10 years in re-charred American oak barrels. The aged rum is darker and bolder, offering flavors of dried fruits, cacao, and vanilla. To highlight the maturation of this rum, the image of the man on the label now has a longer beard to signify the extended aging. Some of Don Papa’s label designs come from an art competition.
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The presentation and advertising and marketing of this rum is all about fancy bottle and label design, gorgeous visuals, and words to make you giddy with anticipation. It nails all aspects of those. Everything else is secondary, except the rum itself, which is tertiary. As much as we love Italian wines, there’s no denying that an occasion sometimes calls for something a little different. All right, so by now it’s clear that I’m late to the party here and all the discussions and post mortems have been done on this industrial grade spiced Phillipine rum, which it doesn’t admit to being, but which I say it is. And while there was a firestorm of online vituperation which greeted the release of the rum, making you believe that the majority of the rumworld absolutely hates this thing, the truth is actually more prosaic. Reviewers hate the rum…but most casual imbibers at whom the Don Papa is aimed are actually quite tolerant of the rums they scarf down, and the amount of people in the world who truly want a more detailed sense what they’re drinking — or have access to and desire for what we term top class hooch — is still a minimal part of the rumiverse in spite of all us bloggers’ doing our best to raise the bar. But everyone agrees on one point: bad or good or in-between, the makers of the Don Papa should absolutely have disclosed its adulteration. Maybe they thought the age statement would allow them to skate around such petty concerns g/L of additives as per the Hydrometer Tests and paid laboratory tests have shown 2.4 grams per/liter of glycerin and 359 milligrams per/liter of vanillin. There is also information out there to suggest that the rum also has a mixture of sweet fruit flavourings added to it as well. So lets see how this one tastes……
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