Tres Hombres & Rumundco

da'rum · Post by **da'rum** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 2:12 pm

Rumundco has been a decent online rum store but recently they have been starting to creep up their prices and also promoting 'premium' rums.

The latest is Tres Hombres 12.

Promoted as high premium rum. It piqued my interest so I had a look... 80 bloody euro!!!.

At that price I'd like to know more so looked for information. Apart from a marketing write up that would of made Jules Verne jealous there was actually nothing about the rum.

It does have E150 this is easy to find out because European law forces it to be labeled. I googled around a bit and on the TH website found that it is actually a 12 year Solera.

So I sent them this:

'80€! That's a lot of money, a few question if I may. Why so expensive? What exactly is premium about this rum? What stills were used making it? Does it contain colouring ie E150? I see it is also a Solera, so is the 12 year the oldest rum in the blend or the youngest? If it is the oldest rum in the blend what are the ratios of twelve year rum to all the other young rums in the blend? I would expect a very very high quality rum for that price.'

I then did some more looking and found that the rum is made at Mardi S.A Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic -the write up from the distillery states

'Now a little bit of history on our distillery. Mardi S.A. is located in Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic . It produces high-quality rum and liqueurs for national and international consumption. Among the many products our distillery processes are but not limited to Rum Cohiba, and Hispaniola Rum.

For your consideration in becoming a future consumer of our products, we welcome any inquiries you may have.

We produce private labels for third parties according to the client specifications and are bottled in our facilities. We could provide with rum in bulk at 65% adhering to rules and regulations of the alcoholic beverage industry in Dominican Republic.'

I haven't tried this rum and more than likely I won't. In my opinion 80€ for this not so premium rum is a bit of a joke.

da'rum · Post by **da'rum** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:20 pm

They replied so pats on the back for them. They also replied in English which is another point in their favour as they are German but have made the effort to reply in a foreign tongue. This was their reply;

"Hello Marcus! It’s an excellent rum with a special story. The rum comes from the distillery Oliver & Oliver which is famous for premium rums. The blend master used 10 - 20 years old Solera Rums for the Blend – but sorry, we don’t know the ratio. The quality is very high and we are proud that we could sell these 504 bottles of this rum exclusively. The rum is also a fair transport product. That means it was shipped by a sailing ship without any engine drive. And yes, it’s not the cheapest rum, but it’s a rum with a taste of adventure, made by a distillery which know what a premium rum should taste like."

I replied;

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to reply (also in English which is very gracious of you). A couple of points though. Oliver and Oliver, as far as I know, aren't a distillery sondern a warehouse for ageing and blending. I believe this rum or rums is/are distilled at Mardi SA Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic which is a bulk supplier. It is then blended at Oliver and Oliver. Oliver and Oliver are famous for Cuban style rums that often entails mixing rum base with alcohol and aguardiente (a brandy like spirit that also uses sugar cane juice in it's wash). Their most famous product probably being Cubany rum. You say that the rums are 10-20 year old 'Solera rums', this could just be a translation issue but did you mean every rum is also Solera blended? That would make the age of this rum very hard to determine. If not then the youngest rum in this blend is actually 10 years old. Which is pretty close to the perfect age for rum. Also well done on the fair transport thing. As for the story, EVERY rum these days has a story, a rum just isn't a rum unless it was once distilled by Blackbeard or used to bolster the moral of the troops at Waterloo. The marketing people know how to spin a yarn. You have a very good online shop and I've bought from you regularly in the last year. I hope it stays that way.

da'rum · Post by **da'rum** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 6:27 pm

They also said they are very proud to sell these 504 bottles exclusively. I let that slide even though this is obviously a commissioned batch as rumundco's name is on the label.

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 6:13 am

Quite some research...

That is really quite the bit of research, and an extremely interesting reply from the Germans. As you may know the Germans were one of the big buyers of especially high ester rums from Jamaica, to make their own blends of what they called Verschnitt ("cut or blended rum"). According to Wiki, this was made with heavy dark Jamaican rum, neutral spirit and water. You really have to give them credit for their appreciation and use of extremely high ester Jamaican rum.

Of course your description of the Oliver process and components made me think of this. The magic question: So did you buy and try some?

da'rum · Post by **da'rum** » Tue Dec 11, 2012 6:31 am

Short answer..No,

would you?

It may very well be a decent rum, but then a decent rum that has been made and mocked up to sell at an exorbitant price and marketed as 'premium' with misleading age statements and a questionable back story.

I think it would be a good bet to say this rum doesn't deserve an 80€ price tag.

*******
Capn's Log: Oops, didn't note the price. Agreed. Let's face it, market driven creations rarely earn their price points.