Update...
Oh what differences time makes. It's always good to revisit a rum, then compare current with older notes - and all in all, we didn't do so badly after all. More importantly, what this (much) later review reveals is how one's taste and preferences grow in time.
New drinkers - including us - tend to be impressed with sweeter rums, so it should be no surprise that if the distillers choose to alter a rum, sugar and sweet is high on the list of additives. With time, knowledge and experience we have come to appreciate purity, balance and consistency. Let's see:
Sue Sea:
In our updated review of Barrilito Two Star I noted the bottle is rather ordinary: a narrowly shouldered ordinary bottle, but displaying a nice old-fashioned label that is rather intriguing in its simplicity. The Two Star features silver, the Three Star gold.
Barrilito Three Star is very different than the Two Star. This time the opening aroma was of leather over a marmalade orange. A bit of pecan, and anise. Almost a pie crust aroma. This transitioned nicely into the early palate which was, again, a deep sweet orange marmalade. As the palate develops things - still consistently - it smoothed out, dried out and a clove spice emerges. The late palate remains clovey. Three Star's finish creeps up on you for a medium long, hot finish that grows ever more peppery (white).
As I mentioned with Barrilito's Two Star, this is a rum only a few would like. I appreciated Three Star's spitfire heat, balance and consistency. It is a very different rum, a bit hard to categorize. Two Star exhibited just one of these important factors - the heat - in spades!
Me:
It is amazing what repeated fillings of your rum glass can achieve in terms of understanding and appreciation. Although our scored changed little, my conclusions have. Let's explore these:
Barrilito Three Star is significantly darker than the straw colored Two Star. It has a redness and depth than seem unearned, and the thick, scary legs that always raise the hairs on my neck. Three Star opened with a deep, deep black licorice, deep orangey leather. This rum remained entirely consistent and balanced through the palate: early sweet deep orange, then a growing astringency with a slightly cloying black peppery finish.
Three Star left an unusual drying aftertaste and lick-your-lips sweet residue and consistent clinging aftertaste. A clear-your-palate rum. Not good.
Overall the unexpected and deep color, slow thick legs and overly pungent aroma and tastes lead me to believe this rum has been altered. The Two Star would appear to be a "people's rum" - simple and powerful, but minimally altered. In my opinion the Three Star is not all that much older, but is altered or flavored. As Sue Sea so well noted, it borders on having that "maple syrup" overtone that also makes 1 Barrel so obviously flavored (though Three Star is much less artificial, better done).
To Barrelito's credit I believe they have admitted that these rums are altered - still, you'd never know it from the labels. Should you buy it? A tough one. The Barrelito's are not essential purchases, and far from being reference standards. The Two Star does represent a people's rum though, and for this reason might be an interesting and educational purchase from that perspective.
Score (10 is best): a strong 6, bordering 7.
Note: Even in our first review I had some trepidations about Ron Barrilito Three Star, and almost placed it in the Twiggie category. I won't for now, but I sure am tempted...
