As some of you know I am a rum geek, I love the stuff. Well last night I got to try the reformulated version of the already "new" Zaya rum.
First off a little background the Original Zaya was produced in Guatemala and in my (and many others) opinion was one of the best rums on the market. It had an excellent blend of sweet and smokey very smooth with a hint of heat.
As is usually the case in business not sure as to why but the original distiller sold the brand to Trinidad Distillers and production was moved to Trinidad. Unfortunately the sad part is the only sold the name not the recipe. As they couldn't quite hit the profile they took the original hint of vanilla and made it the dominant flavor of this new version. While not horrible it became and very sweet vanilla rum. Great over ice cream and the ladies loved it but the true rum lovers revolted!
So now a few years later and they have reformulated it once again, and I got a chance to try it last night from a friend who is a distributer and got an advance bottle. So in the glass it went, up to the nose and I really couldn't place the scents. While I got a lot of butterscotch it just seem to all run together which really concerned me. So this muddled scent lead me to believe they were actually trying to listen to the market for this spirit and bring back the original profile. So I take a sip, now I am really concerned what is this? I did get some remnants of old but something else was there something not good. So in all fairness I give it a few more sips and it hits me, synthetic! This new version is an abomination! It actually has a chemical taste to it. I can honestly tell you this is one of the worst tasting rums I have ever had, and let me tell you I have had some bad ones.
So heed my warning and steer clear of this monster! It's actually very easy to spot, they have changed the bottles so the newest incarnation now has a raised "ZAYA" in the side of the bottle.
Please consider yourselves warned!
First off a little background the Original Zaya was produced in Guatemala and in my (and many others) opinion was one of the best rums on the market. It had an excellent blend of sweet and smokey very smooth with a hint of heat.
As is usually the case in business not sure as to why but the original distiller sold the brand to Trinidad Distillers and production was moved to Trinidad. Unfortunately the sad part is the only sold the name not the recipe. As they couldn't quite hit the profile they took the original hint of vanilla and made it the dominant flavor of this new version. While not horrible it became and very sweet vanilla rum. Great over ice cream and the ladies loved it but the true rum lovers revolted!
So now a few years later and they have reformulated it once again, and I got a chance to try it last night from a friend who is a distributer and got an advance bottle. So in the glass it went, up to the nose and I really couldn't place the scents. While I got a lot of butterscotch it just seem to all run together which really concerned me. So this muddled scent lead me to believe they were actually trying to listen to the market for this spirit and bring back the original profile. So I take a sip, now I am really concerned what is this? I did get some remnants of old but something else was there something not good. So in all fairness I give it a few more sips and it hits me, synthetic! This new version is an abomination! It actually has a chemical taste to it. I can honestly tell you this is one of the worst tasting rums I have ever had, and let me tell you I have had some bad ones.
So heed my warning and steer clear of this monster! It's actually very easy to spot, they have changed the bottles so the newest incarnation now has a raised "ZAYA" in the side of the bottle.
Please consider yourselves warned!
