Cruzan Black Strap Rum

As I started looking into the Corn N’ Oil cocktail one rum kept rising to the surface as the suggested dark rum for the drink.  Nearly everything I saw said that this cocktail is as great as it is due largely in part to Cruzan Black Strap Rum.  I’d tasted other Cruzan products in the past and loved them, but I’d never heard of their Black Strap Rum.  Thankfully that was an easy problem to solve.  I hit up the Liquor Mart and was on my way to cocktail deliciousness.

Per the Cruzan site their Black Strap product is a Navy Rum.  Their comment is a very good introduction.  “…it’s almost like a molasses-flavored rum.”  I didn’t have any experience with Navy Rum but I certainly had tasted some dark rums so I was intrigued.  The first thing I noticed was the color.  Cruzan Black Strap is much darker than any other dark rum I’ve encountered.  It’s abundantly obvious where the oil in the Corn N’ Oil name comes from.

Next you’re going to encounter the aroma.  Simply put the aroma follows the color.  It’s deep and dark and rich and wonderful.  There is an intense aroma of caramel and molasses with nice hints of vanilla.  It definitely has  a much richer aroma than a lot of dark rums that I’d run in to.

Okay, now the important bit, the flavor.  Like the aroma it’s deep, dark and rich.  The molasses aroma comes through in the flavor as well, but really pleasantly.  The flavor is also sweeter than most dark rums, but again not overly sweet.  The sweetness definitely doesn’t overcome the other delightful flavors.  Behind the molasses notes you’re going to encounter more caramel as you did in the aroma.  Finally vanilla makes an appearance in the finish.

Overall a tremendously pleasant dark rum.  I definitely look forward to trying it out in other cocktails.  I think it would make a tremendous Dark and Stormy or for that matter as a float.  Given it’s complexity and smoothness I’d even pour it over ice and simply sip.