The old Flensburg rum industry was destroyed by bad luck, economics and a shitty non caring government. When that happened the major players moved away and into the bigger cities of southern Germany.
Now that rum is returning as a trendy thing there are a couple of houses re opening up in Flensburg and are producing some fine Verschnitt as well as some other rum based concoctions which they package artfully and sell at a highish price to tourists. The Germans are yet to fully embrace the return of these historical rums but that isn't a mark on the quality it's merely a trait of Germans, they change and move slooooowwwwllllyy. If some famous American endorsed it or it was made cool by a movie then the stuff would fly off the shelves. But I digress.
The Braasch 54 that I have is bottled as pictured and at 54% abv. The number is only relative to the abv but the salesman, when pressed and fearing the loss of a sale started a long and convoluted bullshit spin about the ageing casks being from 1854 or some such rubbish and without directly lying insinuated that some of the rum may be that old. Crap. This is clearly a young Jamaican pot still rum in the region of 3 or slightly more years old.
Watered to 42-44%
This rum is very reminiscent of Smith and Cross with the distinct Jamaican pot still esters leaping out at you. It is slightly more subtle though and has a more prominent vanilla foreground but that vanilla is till in balance with the rest of the rum. It has the ripe fruits of Jamaican rum but not as heavily ladened as S&C it has also less caramel notes and a drier finish. All this is present in the aroma and confirmed on the tongue.
This is a fine rum, well blended and with little or no colour added.
At 30€ for 50cl or a half litre it's not too bad but getting up on the edge of expensive. The marketing spiel is a bit much as well.
All in all it's worth a 8/10 and can comfortably sit along side the Trinidadian Scarlet Ibis and the Jamaican Smith and Cross without feeling like a poor copy. In fact it would be a great rum for those who find the super high ester S&C a bit too much and wanted something wound back a notch.
Highly recommended
8/10
