Background: my first taste of Foursquare 2013 happened at The Bar at 15 Stamford, a cosy bar with an extensive rum menu located in The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore. I was blown away. The few Foursquare OBs I tried after that night never quite impressed me as much. Was it really just the rum, though? Werner Herzog famously spoke of “the voodoo of location”, and I am of the opinion that it applies to more than just cinema. Is this a rum which stands up to scrutiny? In search of an answer, I chased down a bottle on the internet (unbelievably) still available at a reasonable price.

Nose: a little more forthcoming than the other Foursquare offerings I have tried, but still very clammed up; stewed apples; vanilla; caramel or maltose syrup, salted; chicken stock; deep fried -- and slightly burnt -- animal fat, the likes of lard cracklings; sugarcane juice; dry leaves; burnt plastic; toasted malt.

Palate: more subdued than I recall; oily and mouth-coating; baking spices; Coke with salt; ketchup; Thai fish sauce; liquorice; chocolate; toasted coconut; mint; dried figs.

Finish: molasses; toasted malt; the spiced maltose filling in a Taiwanese suncake; whipped cream; an aftertaste of tomatoes, olive brine, candied nori and caramel.

Conclusion: not as good as I thought it to be, but still darn good. Yes, it is young and obviously harsher than the older Foursquare OBs. With not much time exposed to wood, its flavours are less layered too. Yet these are exactly the reasons it appeals to me. Those savoury notes and that Clairin-like aftertaste I am so fond of, would not survive the drowning out with distillates from a column still, and another decade in the cask. If it were to smell and taste with the intensity of the best white rums (not an unreasonable expectation considering it is 2 years old), it might have hit as high as 88 points. As it stands, I rate it above Plenipotenziario and below Patrimonio.

Score (assuming a normal distribution with mean 50): 83/100

Image Courtesy of u/zoorado. 

u/zoorado