Rum: Cruzan "9" Spiced Rum being dumped?

[Capn Jimbo]

It's a race to the bottom...

Long ago when Sue Sea and I really got into rum reviewing, we developed a considerable liking for Cruzan Single Barrel, but especially Cruzan Estate Diamond - the latter a five year rum that I complimented as a "Mount Gay Lite" (referring to the exquisite MGXO). Estate Diamond was a lovely rum held in broad favor in the rum community.

So what happened?

Cruzan - in their lack of wisdom - decided to focus even more on their flavored/spiced line and dropped the Estate Diamond (fortunately I found a failing liquor store and bought the last five bottles in south Florida).

Enter Cruzan 9 Spiced Rum.

I noted that although Cruzan wielded its marketing power to gain considerable shelf space for "9", I didn't see it moving. Indeed the price kept dropping, recently to just $12 but even that wasn't low enough. So what was next?

The appearance of $9 rebate bottle hangers!

Effectively then, you could buy Cruzan 9 Spiced Rum for a net $3! A no-brainer. Surely this will move this stuff, they must have speculated. They may be right. Even though I would not have bought this rum on a bet, inasmuch as I have little interest in what I was sure was yet another phony flavored rum, at $3 it was worth giving this rum a chance, red flags and all.

Accordingly I bought it, and Sue Sea and performed a brief, pre-review tasting. And I mean brief! Stay tuned...