This is a review that should have gone up last week and it’s another white rum – DonQ Cristal. DonQ is the product of the Serralles family who have been distilling what they tout as “the finest, best-tasting rum in the world” for six generations. Now, that’s an impressive claim to make about their product and one could chalk it up to the inherent pride of Puerto Ricans, but six generations is nothing to scoff at though so maybe it’s more than bravado.

DonQ employs a multiple distillation system for their Cristal in order to “produce a cleaner, more refined, and more delicate flavor profile.” Cristal is then aged in American White Oak Bourbon barrels to smooth it out a bit. DonQ goes so far as to say that you can substitute their Cristal in vodka drinks and most won’t know the difference. To be fair though, most drinks containing vodka are so wrapped up in other flavors that you might not notice the switch at all unless you really swapped in a more flavorful booze.

In the bottle this rum is clear. Crystal clear… Cristal clear? It looks like vodka. Hell, the bottle looks like a vodka bottle. Silver capping, blue text, a few gold medals, and their signature Man of La Mancha logo. The packaging is simple and clean. The only thing they didn’t do like a vodka is frost the bottle.

Once in the glass it could pass for water if it didn’t cling to the walls so much.

The nose is crisp and clean with a faint citrus tinge reminding me of lime zest and soda water. Oh and alcohol… of course there is alcohol in the nose. And that’s about the extent of the scent experience for Cristal.

The drinking experience…

First let me say that when I picked up this bottle, my wife told me not to. She said it was terrible (and this is coming from a woman who worked in a Puerto Rican restaurant and rum bar for the last few years). She told me that it was good for mixing, but bad on its own. I had to try it though, it’s my self-appointed job.

So, no offense to my lovely wife. But I’m not finding this to be terrible on its own. It’s warm, but there’s no overpowering burn. A slight tingle on the tip of the tongue and some heat at the tail end of the drink, but it’s not uncomfortable. Because everything else is so reminiscent of vodka I was half expecting a slightly medicinal experience, but the flavor is smooth and slightly sweet. There’s a small touch of something savory – perhaps a phantom of the oak. Overall, there’s not a whole lot there to discover. Again it’s like vodka. DonQ was accurate in calling this a clean, refined, and delicate flavor profile. I’m just finding it hard to remember this is a rum.

So while I might not choose to sip this rum all by its lonesome, I think this has great potential as a mixer that wont overpower a drink and could convince some non-rum drinkers to try something new. I can easily see myself enjoying this with a little lime and an ice cube on a hot day.

In fact…. BAM! Caipirissima!

Very nice. Delicious. I give myself a round of applause.

And if you were wondering why the liquid in the bottom of the drink is a bit more of a brown color, it’s because the simple syrup I used is made from a delicious unrefined cane sugar and I failed to mix it as well as I thought prior to the photo.

Anyway…

The Rating – based on the New Rating System

Package: 6 – If it had been next to the vodka I would have never given it a second glance.
Appearance: 8 – Clear is what they want, clear is what they got. A bit uninteresting, but there you go.
Nose: 7 – Better than I expected
Taste: 8 – I wish there were more to the flavor, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

Overall: 3.9 out of 5

Tags: Caipirissima, DonQ, DonQ Cristal, Puerto Rico, Rum, rum review, vodka, white rum

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