SelvaRey Chocolate Rum
Review: SelvaRey Chocolate Rum ★★★★★
Bruno Mars has a rum! To be crystal clear, he doesn’t actually make the rum, so let’s just be up front about that. He’s an investor and the face of SelvaRey Rum, which comes in several varieties; chocolate included. A hype-man, if you will. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m also not really a fan of his music. I have no feelings towards him one way or another. His involvement is only a curiosity for me.
A bit of background…
All four variations of SelvaRey are distilled in Pesé, Panama by Master Blender Francisco ‘Don Pancho’ Fernandez. If you’re really into rum, you no doubt know who Francisco Fernandez is. His name carries a lot of weight in the rum world. Certainly he’s a man who knows his business. The four varieties of SelvaRey are white, coconut, chocolate, and special reserve. As far as I know, all are aged at least three years and distilled in antique copper column stills.
We’ll only be talking about the chocolate rum today so when we say SelvaRey, we are exclusively referring to their chocolate rum.
So, how did SelvaRey do? I think it’s a bit of a mixed bag, to be honest. This was my first chocolate rum, but certainly not my first rum. We keep our home bar stocked with 8 or 9 bottles. We do a bit of baking with rum and have done a number of rum infused products in our kitchens. We’ve been to some rum distilleries in Central America to do tastings, as well. We’re not experts, but not novices either. We know what we like and have some experience to back up our preferences.
SelvaRey Chocolate Rum Packaging
I have to give them credit; they did a great job here. The bottle is an interesting shape. The glass is tinted brown, and it’s capped with a cork. It’s very nice looking. The bottle feels good in your hand and it’s easy to store in a liquor rack or bar.
The cork, on the other hand, I’m not a fan of. For starters, it’s less hygienic. I’ve had bad luck with other alcohols that have gone this route, mainly Patron. In my experience, corks don’t stay on. I’ve had them pop off at random times, sometime when packed away inside the bar.
In regards to SelvaRey, I’ve read some comments saying they had bottles arrive with the seal broken. No doubt this is due to the cork. I will agree that a metal cap doesn’t look as nice, but it far more functional. I didn’t experence any issues with my bottle. It arrive with the seal still intact and the cork hasn’t popped off by itself. I guess I can’t fault SelvaRey too much on this.
Happily, I was able to fit a standard pour spout on the bottle. Some bottles screw this up by thinking it’s cool to have a nonstandard spout. Probably the worst decision a bottler can make.
Severed Up SelvaRey Chocolate Rum
We taste tested the SelvaRey several different ways to see how it behaved. We drank it neat, on the rocks, and in a cocktail. All three experiences were quite different.
⫸Neat
We had the SelvaRey neat first. It has a nice amber hue and looks like a little more akin to bourbon when in a shot glass. The viscosity of the rum is fairly thin, like a rum should be, but I noticed it coated the glass as I gently swished the rum around.
The nose is very chocolaty and sweet. There’s almost no scent of rum coming through. To the uninformed they might think they are smelling Bosco chocolate syrup.
On the tongue there is strong chocolate coming through from the very start and lasting through the finish. There are strong hints of butterscotch, I might say burnt butterscotch. The rum is not so pronounced, but it’s there. If you hold it in your mouth, the rum notes come out in a much bigger way.
There is a slight burn, and it did warm my belly. It does clock in at 35%. A little weaker than a typical rum, but it still packs a punch.
For people that don’t drink straight alcohol, this might be too much. For those that do like shots, they might find it too sweet. If you’re a rum purist, you’re probably going to hate this.
I did enjoy it enough and wouldn’t mind having it neat again.
⫸On the rocks
Over ice the rum lost a lot of its chocolate essence. The edges felt much rougher and more unrefined. The butterscotch notes became more dominate, taking over the entire opening, then finishing with a mellower chocolate flavor.
It was far less satisfying and I didn’t care for it.
I’ve seen some reviewers liken the taste to a Tootsie Roll, however I disagree. It’s more like a Rolo.
⫸Cocktail
We finally put SelvaRey to the test with a classic hot cocktail; rum and coffee. It’s nothing too complicated, so it’s a great way to see how well the chocolate rum holds up.
Surprisingly, the rum gets lost in this simple drink. SelvaRey, by itself, it just doesn’t have enough chocolate or rums taste to pull through in the coffee. It comes off thin and really needs a lot of help to bring out it’s flavor pallet.
I don’t want to be too harsh, as most alcohol needs a few partners in crime to get the job done, but I thought it was going to shine here. So, I was quite disappointed.
We did end up creating a very nice cocktail using the SelvaRey. Check it out.
Our Verdict
It’s a passable rum, but it just didn’t impress us enough. At $35 dollars a bottle, it certainly won’t break the bank, but we were disappointed in how muted the flavors were when mixed in a cocktail. We had high hopes this would be a great mixer, but it just didn’t make the grade.
If you’re really keen on trying it, I would recommend getting a shot at a bar first to see how you feel.
As for me, I won’t be buying another bottle. Rather, I think I will do some more exploring. Truly, there must be a better chocolate rum out there and I aim to find it.
Where To Get
If you are still inclined to get a bottle of SelvaRey, it isn’t available worldwide as of yet. You can find it in the US and Japan. I would assume any major alcohol retailer in the States will carry SelvaRey.
Here in Japan you find it quite easily through Amazon.
You can check out the official website for SelvaRey as well.
I suppose only a Bruno Mars song would be appropriate…