Appleton Estate 12yo Rum

Appleton Estate 12 Year Old is a Jamaican-style aged rum, and the age statement in the name is the most useful detail to start from. Rums with twelve years in oak typically show a deep amber to copper color and a nose built on dried fruit, orange peel, vanilla, toasted oak and warm baking spices. Expect the funky, ester-driven character associated with Jamaican pot-still rum to appear in a restrained form. That means ripe tropical fruit, a hint of molasses and a faint trace of dark coffee or cocoa. Styles like this usually finish long and dry. They are drier and more structured than sweetened sipping rums. This is a sipper first. Pour it neat, or with a single large ice cube, in a rocks glass or a snifter. A tulip-shaped glass such as a Glencairn also works well because it holds the aromas near the rim. Room temperature or lightly chilled serves it best, since heavy dilution flattens the oak and fruit notes. Add a few drops of water, then taste it again to see how the spice and orange peel open up. The Rum Old Fashioned is the best use. Stir it with a bar spoon of demerara syrup and two dashes of Angostura bitters over a large cube, then garnish with an orange peel. Aged Jamaican rum also suits a Dark 'n' Stormy, built tall in a highball glass over ice with ginger beer and a squeeze of lime. The ginger will cover some of the subtlety, so a younger rum is the more economical choice there. For the shaken classics, such as the Daiquiri, Mojito and Piña Colada, white or lightly aged rum is the usual specification. A twelve-year-old would get lost under lime, mint or coconut cream. If you do want an aged Daiquiri, keep it simple with lime juice and a measured amount of sugar, served up in a chilled coupe. For food, dark chocolate, roasted nuts, aged cheeses and orange-scented desserts follow the rum's dried-fruit and oak profile.