Inspired by the “is FS overrated” question I would like to expand on the value for price question.
I have not been after Rum in earnest for very long (like 4 years), but I find that even within this short period there has been a massive increase in price.
Example: Hampden 8yo costs the same as the newer 5yo Expression, and all can see what happens to FS releases, which for me started less than 60€ for an ECS.
It seems that producers or rather the salesmen try to cash in into the increased interest - it can’t really be only related to increasing shipping costs.
So I find myself wondering, if a specific offering really is worth it, if the price is due to rarity or just speculation.
See the newer regular range Hampden 11yo LROK, which goes for 125€ (even regular FS ECS releases are cheaper at 12yo than this), or the Long Pond 15yo ITP at around 200€. Usually I see some hype releases sold out in second, which means at their prices they were at least interesting for flippers and collectors, which did not apply here. For me, there was also a visible price increase in Summer 2020.
So what are your thoughts on recent releases and their prices?
I for myself just found St. Lucia Distillers and am happy their rums are good and relatively cheap, while avoiding single Barrel releases in general that usually have at least 50% price added due to their limited amount of bottles.
Well … to put all emotions aside, no rum is worth more than 100 EUR if it’s just about zipping. You can easily find good, drinkable rum around 50 EUR or less especially if you like Agricole where quality is still very affordable in my opinion.
The more expensive rum really is about emotions. May it be secret stories about chocolate casks from Panama, famous stills from Guyana that are extremely old and still in operation after being moved through several distilleries, unnaturally clean and perfect rum from Japan (oh that one is still below 100 EUR if it’s not coming from Velier), famous closed distilleries like Caroni or Gardel … I can make an endless list but usually when I drink expensive rum there is some emotion to it and it’s not just zipping the stuff away for fun.
And then … there are the flippers of course selling bottles at insane prices sometimes to each other creating a market that actually doesn’t exist (in terms of people drinking a specific rum above a specific price). The Caroni market is especially broken in this regard with so many bottles gathering dust somewhere instead of them being consumed. I almost want to go as far that Caroni rum has the worst ratio regarding bottles produced vs. bottles actually opened
That’s true and I always hesitate to buy a bottle more expensive.
And if I buy a very expensive bottle, I hardly drink any rum, which is a pity. I really love the RA EMB 1995, but I only took like a 2cl sip since I opened it (actually drank more of it at the GRF)
I think, that some releases went into the market already overpriced, like trying to ride the hype the wave, and it shows, as they are still widely available despite the limited amount of bottles.
I am curious, if the new Long Pond (thanks Chris) does warrant the price. I just added it to the RumX database…
I rated it at 86 personally (already published on the App) and there’s another 90 rating. The rum is definitely much better than the initial criticism it got on FB and other sites. However I have to admit that price is no criterion when I rate rum on the app, i.e. price-performance ratio may play a role in purchase decisions but not for my ratings unless it’s completely out of the question which was not the case here. Long Pond is just doing what HD is doing with their latest bottlings, who can blame them.
True. Especially for some 98 IB Caronis. Mediocre juice being sold by the power of the distillery name. Hey, of course it’s worth 500 bucks - it’s Caroni, stupid!
Prices are on the rise in general and some current bottles are not worth their release price
They started at €135 but there were hardly any good reviews. So the price of the 2011 LROK dropped a bit. I find the price tag of “The Younger” more fair. It costs about half, but the 2011 is nowhere near twice as good. The 2011 is a great sip as a stand alone, but it does not justify it’s price tag.
There are some independent bottlers that bottle great stuff for a fair price. I like Rasta Morris and The Duchess: you always get a bang for your buck.
The price tag also does not affect the score for me. However with “cheaper” rums it’s more likely that I keep the “value for money” criterium in the back of my head. Chances are bigger that I only have a sample when trying an expensive rum anyway
Well, I feel influenced by the price tag when scoring. Mostly, at least: there are some instances where a higher price is reasoned by either very high quality (meaning: I am blown away ) or objective rarity (like: never again will something like this be produced). Other cases however create subjective rarity (i.E. there are several options to have a Foursquare, but as Scott in his Foursquare challenge already found they are often very similar.) or hype certain regular releases, where I just expect to get something better based on the price.
) or objective rarity (like: never again will something like this be produced). Other cases however create subjective rarity (i.E. there are several options to have a Foursquare, but as Scott in his Foursquare challenge already found they are often very similar.) or hype certain regular releases, where I just expect to get something better based on the price.