Tony's (Mostly) Whisky Corner: Ten to One Rum
photo by Tony Sachs
These additive-free Caribbean rums make welcome additions to any bar
Marc Farrell was, until a couple of years ago, the youngest vice president at Starbucks. But he decided — wisely, in my opinion — that the world needed quality rum more than it needed another corporate VP.
So the Trinidad & Tobago native ditched the 9 to 5 world and threw himself into creating Ten To One, two new blends featuring sourced rums from all over the Caribbean. The name comes from a quote by Eric Williams, Trinidad & Tobago’s first prime minister, about the original ten-nation Caribbean Federation: “One from ten leaves zero.”
The white rum ($29), bottled at 45% ABV, is a blend of Dominican column still rum with high-ester Jamaican pot still rum, bottled unaged and unfiltered. It’s intensely flavorful and beautifully balanced, light and sweet enough to appeal to rum novices, while retaining enough of the pot still funk to keep things interesting, with big notes of caramel and pineapple. It’s one of those rare white rums that’s enjoyable to drink neat, though it’s better on the rocks with a twist of citrus peel. It really shines in a Daiquiri — with the pot still rum adding an extra layer of flavor to the proceedings — but it works in just about any rum cocktail, from drinks as simple as a rum & tonic to complex tiki standards like a Mai Tai.
The dark rum ($42), to quote Ten To One’s website, consists of “8-year old aged Barbados and Dominican column still rums, combined with high ester Jamaican pot still rum, and Trinidadian rum.” Whether all the rum is aged, and for how long if so, is an open question. Bottled at 40% ABV, its mouthfeel is a tad thin, and the low proof means it can get a little overwhelmed in cocktails.
The notable exception is a rum Old Fashioned, in which it works brilliantly. But it doesn’t taste watered-down — on the contrary, it’s a very flavorful rum, redolent of cocoa, raisins, ripe banana, a hint of pineapple, and a bit of funk from the pot still rum. Like the white rum, it has enough character to keep rum geeks interested without alienating the noobs. Both rums are free of post-distillation additives like sugar and artificial flavorings and colorings which plague so many other brands.
Rum geeks would surely like more details on which distilleries the rums were sourced from, as well as more information about the aging and blending process. But that’s not an obstacle to enjoying them both. If you can only go for one, the white is the eyebrow-raiser, the one that’ll make you say “Wow!” But they’re both worth trying, and they whet the appetite what comes next from Ten To One.