Plantation is a creation of the French cognac house Maison Ferrand. The cooperation with different rum manufacturers that started in the 1990s has finally brang nice success. Plantation has gained great popularity in recent years and also started to gain a foothold in the alcohol departments. Especially in recent months in Estonia, it has started to appear more and more often next to Bacardi and Captain Morgan. Plantation 3-stars is the company’s white rum and Original Dark Rum the entry-level dark rum. Dark Rum is a blend of Trinidadian and Jamaican rums that have been matured in the heat of the Caribbean in American ex-bourbon barrels from one to 12 years. After this, they have been further matured in the south of France in ex-cognac barrels for a few months. Plantation Original Dark is priced very competitively, a 70 cl bottle costing just under 12 euros in Latvia.

In the glass, the rum is a deep mahogany color, but probably a bit lighter brown than most cheap dark rums in the market. The aroma has dark sugar, raisins, spices and ripe fruit. The soft and rich aroma lets you expect a fair amount of sweetness on the taste side. Not surprisingly, the mouthfeel is thick and the taste is almost syrupy sweet at the beginning. However, the bite of ethanol soon gives a helping hand, and various ingredients slowly begin to reveal themselves under the sugar coating: caramel, ripe banana and fig, and dark sugar. A bit of coconut and light oak aromas appear in the background. However, the main part is a sweet mass of caramelized brown sugar that leaves almost all the aromas behind. It has almost no typical molasses aroma, which rums in this price range are usually thick with. Plantation Original Dark is easy to sip, but the sweetness and rather one-sided aroma quickly starts to bore. It cannot be recommended for sipping, as you can already assume based on the price. In cocktails, I didn’t see a big difference in it compared to other products of the same price. Plantation Dark is well done and quality dark rum, and a good variation for the Bacardi Black or Captain Morgan Dark. It is certainly not a disappointment for those who enjoy their rum with coca-cola or hot cocoa.

80/100