{"id":41,"date":"2020-03-19T22:04:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T22:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/?p=41"},"modified":"2026-10-26T20:18:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:18:47","slug":"review-killowen-bonded-experimental-series-jamaican-dark-rum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/review-killowen-bonded-experimental-series-jamaican-dark-rum\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Killowen Bonded Experimental Series: Jamaican Dark Rum"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\"><\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">min read<\/span><\/span><p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left;padding:10px\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/killowenjamaicanrum.jpg\" width=\"200\" \/> <\/p>\n<h2>Key Details<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Whiskey Name:<\/strong> Killowen Bonded Experimental Series: Jamaican Dark Rum<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distillery:<\/strong> Killowen<\/li>\n<li><strong>ABV:<\/strong> 54.9%<\/li>\n<li><strong>Age:<\/strong> 10yr<\/li>\n<li><strong>Type:<\/strong> Blended Irish Whiskey<\/li>\n<li><strong>Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/killowendistillery.com<\/li>\n<li><strong>Price:<\/strong> \u20ac90<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is the first release in Killowen&#8217;s &#8216;Bonded Experimental Series&#8217;. There are two releases so far, so this is part 1 of 2, but there has been talk of 6 releases in total.<br \/>\nThis one is the Jamaican Dark Rum of which there were only 348 bottles sold. It&#8217;s non chill filtered and natural colour, so no E150 caramel added to the honey coloured whiskey. It packs a punch at 54.9% but you wouldn&#8217;t think that picking up a glass and taking a nose.<\/p>\n<p>I really love the transparency from Killowen, who tell us this blend is distilled in Ireland and made up of 75% Grain Irish Whiskey distilled in 2009, 5% Malt Irish whiskey distilled in 2008 and 20% Malt Irish Whiskey distilled in Northern Ireland in 2008.<br \/>\nThe combination of single grain and single malt whiskey started out in ex-bourbon barrels, blended and aged further in Sherry butts. Killowen then married that with another ex-bourbon aged single malt and finished the whole lot in a Dark Rum barrel.<\/p>\n<h2>Nose<\/h2>\n<p>Vanilla, citricy nose with dried fruits coming through from the Sherry aged whiskey. The dark rum barrel seems to leave a hint of coconut and bananas with a hint of honey like sweetness.<\/p>\n<h2>Taste<\/h2>\n<p>This hits you immediately when you drink it. If you don&#8217;t generally find flavour in a whiskey you should try this. There&#8217;s an overpowering vanilla taste in this with some stewed apples and apricots hiding behind it.<\/p>\n<h2>Finish<\/h2>\n<p>Short and sweet with a lot of brown sugar, fudge and spent coffee grounds.<\/p>\n<h2>Score<\/h2>\n<p>8\/10<\/p>\n<p>Overall a great and exciting whiskey. Can&#8217;t wait to see the next in the series. Next up I&#8217;ll be reviewing the second release: Txakolina Acacia.<\/p>\n<p>Please let me know on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thewhiskeycompanion\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thewhsikeycompanion\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Carl_TWC\">Twitter<\/a> if you&#8217;ve tried it and agree or disagree and share your notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Killowen&#8217;s first Bonded Experimental release finishes a 10 year old blend in Jamaican dark rum casks, and at 54.9% it hits harder than the nose lets on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,7,30,26],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-bonded-whiskey","tag-irish-whiskey","tag-killowen-distillery","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewhiskeycompanion.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}