I’m only just now thinking about this. But why is “ungenießbar” translated to “inedible”?
Ungenießbar (in Dutch: ongenietbaar) means unenjoyable to me, while inedible refers to eating food: it’s so bad that you can’t eat it. Does ungenießbar translate both to inedible and undrinkable?
Nicht trinkbar/undrinkable would be better for me than merely “unenjoyable”.
Ungenießbar basically means you cant process the food or beverage. You wont be able to drink or eat it.
So its much harsher than just unenjoyable.
There are some rating systems which give points in separate categories and then add these up, like in this blog Rum Reviews « The Rum Howler Blog . This would certainly diversify the scores, what do you think?
Most importantly I think a separate price/value score would be very, very useful to have.
Regarding scoring: I don’t score. I always felt the 0-100 range with 90% of the stuff between 85-95 is just dumb. It’s very American where everything is superduper or terrific or bestever. Personally I’d be much happier with a 1-5 scale with 0/unscored inedible, 1 terrible, 2 average, 3 good, 4 fantastic, 5 exceptional (or 10 scale with similar weighing). As it is now anyone of the regular scores could give a 10 minute lecture what the difference is between a 90 and and a 93 rum, but would be very hard pressed to tell you any difference why they woudl score something not even 20-23 but 70-73. Makes no sense.
I also don’t score because unlike professional reviewers* we can only base scoring ultimately on what we like. This can be a problem; for example I really don’t enjoy the so called “medicinal/herbal” notes. Does this mean I should go and score all the Savannas I tried in the 60-70 region? If not why not? Do I score only stuff I like? Or do I score stuff I like and stuff I don’t like that the community also doesn’t like so the low score is somewhat justified?
I also happen to have aphantasia which makes these smell/taste associations all but impossible for me.
Having said that I actually find the reviews helpful. Low scores are always a decent warning about a bottle and especially if they become polarized (like the Nectar LBI for example) you know it’s something you want to try for yourself…
*I have a friend, she can just take a whiff of my lunch 3 meters away and list 4 of the 5 spices I used in cooking (the 5th she wasn’t familiar with). I’m fairly sure she could give an independent opinion on any rums’ strengths and weaknesses but we aren’t her.
Rating systems is always an interesting discussion topic! They are always inherently flawed, since you are trying to have an objective measurement of something subjective. As several people here have already mentioned, it is also extremely dependent on that the people using the system have the same notion of what is what. Should you weigh in this or that, or not…
The worst example of this I can think of is the rating in Über. There, you are expected to rate 5/5 unless something is seriously wrong. 5/5 has become “OK/average” which means that there is no way at all to tell the system that you actually thought a driver was better than normal. The scale is severely skewed. Drivers have an average rating of something ridiculous like 4.96, making the rating essentially useless.
A similar effect can be seen for Google Maps ratings, even though it’s not as bad. But I usually consider a Google rating of 4.0 somewhat OK, below that is bad. 
The RumX rating scale is probably also slightly skewed upwards. Many people probably wouldn’t think a rum rated 50/100 to be “OK/average”. But then again, what is “OK”? A difficult question.
That all said, I think the RumX rating system, and the way that most people use it, is actually quite good in comparison. In my opinion, some things contribute to this:
People will always have different tastes, and weigh in different things when rating. That’s unavoidable. But I don’t see it as a problem in RumX.
Vielen Dank für die vielen konstruktiven Beiträge. In der Zusammenschau lässt sich sagen, dass
Auf den Punkt “Leitfaden für eine Verkostung” ist keiner weiter eingegangen. Bedeutet das, dass ihr keinen Bedarf dafür seht?
A good and important discussion and - @RumTaTa - a good conclusio.
Observing myself I’m in the big group of rating the major share of rum from 75 to 90. There will be some re-rating from my side…
But I still have a question to be discussed: How do you rate a rum which is from an “objective” perspective very good/excellenct, but personally (“subjective”) you dislike the profile? Not all people are fond of e.g. a Caroni or Hampden profile.
I always use my personal liking. For example I don’t like Rhum Agricole (but I’m open to change). Any time I’ll try Rhum Agricole I would rate it according to my taste. I think the best Rhum Agricole i drank would still be ~60 rating here. I’ve also rated some Doorly’s much lower than the average score here.
I’d like to encourage you to do the same, let’s not build false myths 
Very good question, as stated earlyer tasting (and thus rating) is always highly subjective. In the best case we all should not cheet ourselves by looking at others ratings during our own session with a particular rum. Doing so afterwards is perfectly fine.
But this also touches the problem of categories: What to do with that superb unaged rum. It clearly is not that inspiring as your favourite Hampden/Long Pond/Marinique/… rum but for what it is it could be perfect. I tend to also consider the rums category but sometime failed to do so e.g. with the CINECANE Popcorn rum
In order to keep the discussion going, I have to ask the question of how fair it is to rate a bottling negatively if I don’t like the direction in general. I don’t go to a whiskey forum and tear up all the bottlings if I don’t like whiskey. If it is objectively a high-quality bottling, I sometimes find it difficult to rate it very low when I know that I generally do not like the type of spirit. Then I take the diplomatic middle ground and look for elements that can be evaluated objectively or save the review for later. Maybe my taste changes.
I am totally with you, that we don’t need false Myths. Everybody should be subjective and rate the personal taste!!!
If you rate every whisky low just because you don’t like whisky, the relative scores between different whiskies remain unchanged. I think this is the goal of the databases: to tell relative differences, not the absolute scale (as there are no clear benchmarks for top and bottom, especially for the bottom ). However, if you add extra points because you don’t like it but you feel it should be rated higher then you are biased.
I think there is nothing to be objective about, you might say that you like the smell of neutral alcohol and rate the bottles with pronounced spirit punch high. Who said that complexity and richness are the reason to add points?
Good points. At the moment i have never rated something higher than it should for my personal taste, but i am careful not to smash a bottling if i don’t like it. I guess you are right that in taste there is nothing objektiv or we make those up to find some orientation. And there is always the possibility to change a rating later, if the taste changes 
I think I just smash the bottlings when I don’t like them 
. There is no difference from my perspective if the rest of the world like it or no . Be ready to say “the king is naked”.
true true. 
I also dont get the point of “not smashing” ratings if you dislike a bottling. If you can argue why you dont like a certain bottling, its completely fine to not give it a 85 Rating, but way lower. Now im not saying to give it a 0 or 20 Rating, but somewhere in the low 70s is completely possible, if there are certain mistakes with the Rum. I encountered some Rums in the past that were too long in the barrels in my opinion. So the bitterness just took over. How am I supposed to give this Rum a 80±Rating, which equals for a “very good” Rum. Even though these Rums had over 90-Averages, I just cant rate a Rum “very good” if it has clear mistakes.
Ofc you will get some messages, why you rate them low. But if you actually have tasted them and have a clear opinion I dont see a problem in arguing, why the Rum simply isnt as good rated as the Average score.
Back to topic - @RumTaTa - I would also like to have some subcategories. But then the next problem occurs, with certain Rums being at the borders of categories and so on. So I would first start off with 2 simple categories: Aged und Unaged.
I agree. But 70/100 is not smashing for me… i mean a real low score. What you say is the normal way for me and so you are right. I was just thinking about the case that i have to rate a spirit where i know i will not like it because i don’t like it in general. But i guess it is all said and i am good with it. It will always be subjective and that is totally fine and great for discussions.
Today I’m making new years eve party drinks and started to think about mixers… Do you rate rums also on their performance on cocktails or only sipping experience?
There are great runs designed for cocktails. And some great sippers would ruin a Cuba Libre (this is my imagination but I haven’t tried it ). I know it’s an overkill but I’d like to be able to rate the mixing potential independently to sipping score.
Just rated my favorite El Dorado Skeldon a 100, I forgot how good it was 
therefore I mostly rely on the individual comments rather than it’s overall rating. And: use any other than the -reaction
Gestern Abend habe Ich nochmal über die Problematik nachgedacht, wie Ich zwischen ungelagerten und gelagerten Rums bewerten sollte.
Ich hatte den meiner Meinung nach “besten” weißen Rum bisher im Glas und bewertete ihn mit einer 85. Meine besten gelagerten Rums liegen bei 94/95/97. Diese Diskrepanz stört mich, denn warum sollte nicht auch das Ausgangsprodukt der gelagerten Rums, nämlich die Ungelagerten, eine potenzielle 100 erreichen können. Oder anders gefragt: Wie gut muss ein weißer Rum sein um eine 90 oder 95 zu verdienen?
Bei 80 beginnt das “sehr gut”, bei 90 das “ausgezeichnet”, bei 93-95 “Weltklasse” in meiner Skala. Auch weiße Rums müssten theoretisch Weltklasse erreichen können, nur bewerte Ich (und die anderen Bewerter in der Community) anscheinend nicht so.
Hier sehe Ich immer noch einen Änderungsbedarf der Skala und eine eventuelle Trennung, auch wenn wir da die Probleme haben mit sehr kurz gelagerten Rums u.Ä. (Wobei einige der RdL-Releases ja auch zeigen, daß hier auch sehr hohe Bewertungen möglich sind)