Ten Cane 2012 - Do I dare a "blind" buy?

Rums around the world Trinidad & Tobago
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Hello RumX!

This is my first ever topic on the forum, and I have to start off by saying that I find this to be such a lovely community with loads of knowledgeable and nice people. Thank you all for making RumX what it is!

I have lately started to become a huge fan of the minty/fruity/fresh profile, and have thus started to explore Trinidad some more. I would like to expand my rum library, perhaps with something from Ten Cane, but I have only tried one sample from them so far; RX12192.

I thought it was a solid rum, but not just quite fresh/minty/acidic enough for what I’m looking for, and perhaps somewhat poor alcohol integration (which I’ve understood can be typical for Ten Cane).

There are currently two Ten Cane rums available locally from Systembolaget in Sweden where I live, and pricing seems very solid compared to other shops, and they always offer free shipping regardless of order quantity:

RX16713 - 170EUR
Berry Bros & Rudd Ten Cane 2012 58,3%Vol (Unlisted on RumX) - 100EUR

Unfortunately, these rums have very little documentation/reviews. The first one seems promising with good reviews from Oliver & Jakob, but I’m really really curious about the 2012 Ten Cane (especially considering the price). I have added it to the RumX database, and it is currently undergoing review before publication.

Has anyone here by any chance tried it? Or maybe has any input on the general 2012 vintage of Ten Cane?

The description on the bottle does give a hint of the profile, but it would be great to get some input from someone who actually has tried it and can answer more about alcohol integration and acidity/menthol character, and simply just a general quality to price evaluation.

Thank you, and cheers from Sweden!
/Mikael

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Hi… when you are looking for a minty, fruity and fresh profile, Ten Cane is maybe not the best choice. Try some 2002 TDL vintages. I my memory the RX13557 could be your rum.

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As far as my experiences reach, Ten Cane is less mint forward than say TDL. It’s rather on the dark cherry side.

Edit: if you want minty Rum from Trinidad you should look out for TDL 2001-2003. but these might be hard to find. Recently there were quite a few releases from TDL 2009 which is not as intense on the mint notes as 2001-2003 but compared to other rums also way above average and might be pretty good available.

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Keep away from the latest FRC TDL 2002 RX18188 if you really want minty flavors. The finish in Armagnac casks turned minty notes into unique hops-, weed flavors.

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The most recent release is rx19670 which might still be available, but since it is from a German independent bottler, you might have to buy it online with shipping from within Germany. I’m not sure if that’s an option for you.

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As the other wrote, Ten Canes are hardly fresh and minty. The Profile your looking for is TDL - And at the newer releases of 2009 and some of the 2008s for the fresh-minty profile.

There is one exception know, that’s the Rumclub Tencane 2008 - which from my experience is rather a TDL than a Ten Cane.

The 2008 Ten Canes are super, but rather red fruit & cherries.

I don’t recommend 2012 Ten Cane at all. I love Trinidad Rum, but I avoid this vintage, I didn’t have a bottle that was better than a mediocre Rum. I’d never buy one blindly.

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Hello Mikael and welcome!

I consider myself a Ten Cane fan boy mostly because I like the aromas of cherries I usually find in 2008 Ten Canes.
I tryed some 2012 Ten Canes and was rather disappointed by them as they bring quite intense alcoholic taste, few to no cherrie aromas and in general a difficult to pin down profile.

I would recommend to go for the 2008 vintage and try to get a sample of any 2012 release before getting yourself a bottle.

Edit: As said above: Ten Cane is not known for a minty profile with the one exception of Rumclub Tencane 2008 (that seems to be a T.D.L anyways)

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Thanks for all the great feedback everyone!

I have tried a few different samples of 2001-2003 TDL, and they are indeed excellent with precisely the profile I’ve grown to love. Looking forward to try some of the 2008/2009 TDL:s and see how they compare! Definitely keeping my eye out for purchase opportunities.

Okay, I think I get the consensus that Ten Cane simply lack this minty phenol-profile and rather go in line with the sample I’ve already tried. I did enjoy it quite a bit though, so I’m still probably gonna buy a bottle of Ten Cane. Also just for the cultural value of having another Trinidad distillery on the shelf :slight_smile:

And you definitely helped directing me towards buying the 2008 and simply stay away from the 2012 one. Would you say the 2012 vintage overall has shown such consistently low quality that you could assume the Berry Bros bottling to be similar, even if it would have a “unicorn perfection cask”?

But I guess at that point - the bottle would probably already be registered here on RumX and have a bunch of good reviews.

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My experiences so far with Ten Cane were all solid, but nothing overwhelming.
I would also recommend going for TDL 2009 or 2002 vintages. Or you try some of the super minty 2003’s. CDI has a bunch of them, but they have a fanbase and are mostly sold out.

Trying some 2008 Ten Cane is definitely also an option, and maybe a cool hipster choice aswell. The bottles should be longer available and cheaper in general.

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I would say yes as all ~3 Ten Canes from 2012 I tryed were of only medium quality but there isn’t plenty of experience with the 2012 Ten Cane vintage to draw a gerneral conclusion. Could be that the Berry Bros bottling holds the perfect Ten Cane 2012. But alone the pricing indicates the opposite direction.

Edit: As far as we can tell from the data in the app there is only the Romdeluxe bottling that scores 8.5 (11 reviews) all others are unrated, 8.0 or below.

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