It’s a sweet sugary mess. Sorry, but there’s no need or cause for pretext here, this is a bad rum. It’s barely okay as some craft liqueur meant to be used with bitters and other spirits. We understand that fermentation occurs because the yeast eats sugar, and is then distilled – but this needs about 100 more years to eat through.
The plastic you see above holding that cork was about 3 or 4 layers as if to warn us against opening and releasing this evil spirit. We did however and what we found disturbs us. We honestly can’t say it enough – unless you want to risk having diabetes – avoid this.
What they Say: “An authentic Caribbean legend, BUMBU is masterfully blended by hand from island rums and native spices chosen from across the West Indies. Based on 16th-century native recipes, BUMBU reveals its history and craftsmanship in every sip. Product of Barbados.”
Taste: 3.0 – As you know we don’t start with aroma score-wise because we think taste should be the key thing you read above all, however, we do the review with aroma first – and boy were our fears about this confirmed. This is like drinking candy, and it’s so not what you want from a rum.
Aftertaste: 2.5 – It actually ends with an almost melon-like candy flavoring among the sugar and caramel. It’s cloyingly disgusting.
Burn/Smooth: 7.0 – We can’t deny, this has no burn and goes down smooth – but then again drinking simple syrup also wouldn’t ‘burn’.
Aroma: 5.5 – Most times you can tell there’s a caramel sort of aspect to a rum. This smells like sickeningly sweet caramel and sugar. It smells like some sort of candy factory or something you’d find in a bottle labeled extract. It’s terrifying.
Honesty: 6.0 – History? Craftsmanship? You look at this thing and expect some old school pirate rum, not something that belongs in an appletini variant. The look is perfect, but it has NO correlation to the contents.
Mixability: 3.0
W/ Rocks: 2.5 – The ice opens the door a crack to what might be an actual rum underneath the sugar, but only just.
Rum and Coke: 3.5 – No one should dare mix this with the sweeter Pepsi, because even here it’s simply just far too sweet. We’re not sure why they decided this was okay, but it’s not.
Value: 3.0 – That is an insane price to pay for some candy. Maybe you are making some rum cake and want to state no added sugar because this will cover you, but no Bueno.
Google Shop Average: $37
Website: https://www.bumbu.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 1.0
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Metric Score: 30/70 |+| Metric Average: 4.29 |+| Reviewer Average: 1.0
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Final Thoughts: We struggle to think of something so far off base in terms of scores, but it’s warranted. Our objective scores mean we have to be truthful, but in our opinion there’s not only no reason you should buy this, even if free you shouldn’t drink it. That single lone point is purely for the beautiful design of the bottle.
I am shocked by this low scoring review, i love bumbu, at least as good as pm private stock. Most reviews are good on bumbu, i think you might stand alone on this.
My thoughts swell, I just recently purchased a bottle of bumbu for 60 bucks. Best rum I’ve tasted, but it is a little on the sweet side. Definitely wouldn’t mix with coke or pop. Way better by itself or on the rocks
I agree with this review. I also love this rum but as sweet as it is you just can’t have it both ways.
Its got zero carbs…Its great, I probably couldn’t even wretch down what this Rum snob thinks is good rum
????
Absolutely agree with your review. I was told to try this awesome rum and I almost gagged at the sweetness. May as well suck on a sugar cube. Terrible, Absolutely terrible.
Bumbu has zero sugars that make it through the distillation process at all. So, your comment about getting diabetes is comical and shows how unqualified you’re to review any type of liquor.