Tanduay 1854 - 15 Year Old | Philippine Rum

COLOR:
Tanduay 1854 comes in a lovely, slender bottle with a crisp blue and sliver label proclaiming its contents to be “Premimum Aged” 15 years. The bottle, somewhat oddly, is only 700mL rather than the more standard 750mL for spirits. In the bottle and in the glass the rum is a golden straw color. It forms quick, oily legs on the side of the glass.

NOSE:
An entoxicating aroma flows up from a glass of the 1854. Strong scents of fruits – pineapple, banana and citrus – are the first things to tickle your Nose. There’s only a hint of vanilla which is followed by a bit of a chemical scent which seems to come and go between sniffs. The chemical smell is honestly not off-putting – more of a reminder that there be alcohol in that glass.
The Nose is unlike other rums that I’ve had. It’s somewhere between a Jamaican style with its strong notes of fruit and a Spanish style rum with its clean lack of funkiness.

TASTE:
A thin, oily body to the rum is introduced to your tongue right from the get-go. The entry is only slightly sweet and full of the same banana and pineapple notes that were found on the Nose. This gives way to a light Taste of toasted sugar and vanilla. There’s a bit of a straw Taste riding on top of the vanilla before Finishing with a peppery vanilla flavor with a hint of banana. The afterTaste has a slight chemical quality to it – which unfortunately detracts a bit from the rest of the experience.
Allowing the rum to breathe a bit before sipping promotes the citrus to the forefront of the flavors while allowing the chemical notes to diminish significantly. If you’re looking to sip this rum, I’d recommend letting your glass sit for a few minutes or add a few drops of water or an ice cube.
As with the Nose, the Taste of the Tanduay 1854 seems to be somewhere between a Jamaican and a Spanish style rum. The medium-light body and OVERALL clean feeling is definitely evocative of the Spanish style rums while the fruitiness hearkens to the flavors we’ve come to expect from a rum from Jamaica – though whereas Jamaican rums tend to run heavy with flavors of overripe fruit the Tanduay’s fruity flavors seem more fresh and less funky – lending a distinctive sweetness to the rum.