Rum Review: Santa Teresa Anejo Reserve

The fifth and last major standard style, the lighter Cuban rums pioneered by Bacardi, who left their facilities and quality, but not their politics, behind when Fidel lit up. Por Cuba Libre!
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How do you rate Santa Teresa Anejo (five is best)?

5
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4
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3
1
100%
2
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Total votes: 1

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Capn Jimbo
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Rum Review: Santa Teresa Anejo Reserve

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Sants Teresa Anejo Reserve: dangerously drinkable, but only if you don't know better.

..."a product of blending rums aged up to 5 years..."


Sue Sea and I had just finished reviewing the dark rich Founder's Porter Beer and a match made in cigar heaven - the 5 Vegas "A" Artisan Robusto - when we still had half a cigar to smoke and no more beer. "This needs a rum", Sue Sea said, and right she was. When you buy as many rums as we have, you buy when you find the deals, and intend to get to it "...real soon now".

How the Santa Teresa Anejo then escaped being reviewed for the next few years, I'll never know. Actually we'd bought more than one bottle of it, but not for the reasons you might think. Our first was when we didn't know better, and it was off to Miami for a famous street fair - Sue Sea and I, and our two friends managed to finish the whole bottle.

Just like Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva 15, the Santa Teresa Anejo is dangerously drinkable and sadly, for pretty much the same reasons. Basta!

Sue Sea:
"As always I like presentation. The Anejo comes in a deceptively simple tapered bottle and understated black label that shouts out "Santa Teresa" in a bright red blood renaissance typeface. For a lower priced rum, very well done.

The rum itself is a light yellow gold, clear but not brilliant. We don't report legs anymore, as rums are often so altered that they are rendered meaningless. The initial nose is actually very lovely: orange and orange rind, and dried apricot. However the palate entry was a bit disturbing in that it presented what I called a spoonful of honey. From this smooth entry emerged vanilla, and a host of Cuban style spices - ginger, clove, and black pepper, along with leather, caramel and butterscotch. The finish was classic Cuban, glowing and warm (but a bit mild).

The problem here is added sugar and lots of it. I wouldn't doubt a bit of added vanilla either. What makes this rum so easily drinkable and pleasant for most Americans is exactly why I'd never buy this one again with perhaps one caveat: it is the safest possible gift of rum to those who don't know better and who don't care.

Still, and knowing what we now do, the Doorly's Five is a true 5 year old, pure and elegant, and nearly as drinkable. And with Doorly's you be getting new drinkers off to a proper start."
Moi: It's all to easy to be deceived by a rum, even when you think you know better, particularly when the deception is well done (as it is/was with RM and this one). Let me add this: when Teresa states a blend of "up to five years", we all know what that means. Doorly's is ALL five years or more.

The Santa Teresa Anejo opened with a honey sweet aroma, over vanilla, leather and typical rum fruits, including orange. The palate was consistent, with an early and continuing leather, just the barest touch of astringency, a white pepper finish and a syrupy, lip licking aftertaste. Where's my ice water?!

At this point we were driven to pull out the Santa Teresa 1796, the Doorly's Five, the Doorly's XO and Seales 10. The 1796 illustrated what is a better rum, the Doorly's Five provided the example of an unmodified, truly aged "crisp" presentation (sugar blurs a spirit), the XO illustrated what a few additional years in ex-sherry barrels would do, and finally the Seales Ten for a similarly aged, classic ex-bourbon aged rum.

I couldn't recommend this series enough as it will proved to you beyond a wisp of doubt how sugar and to a lesser degree, ex-sherry barrels both blur a fine spirit.


Score (ten is best): 7 for a well-done fake.
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