The Ultimate Awards take an additional step to merge itself as a major award in the rum industry with its first blind-tasting competition. During the Taste of Rum, Puerto Rico’s National Rum Festival, international and local judges will determine the Best Caribbean Rum.
Rum is part of the Caribbean’s DNA. Although sugar cane was brought to the region by Europeans, the first time it was written about in documents from Barbados was in 1650, although it was referred to as rum billion or kill-devil. Years later this spirit was officially called “rum”. The Caribbean “touch” was fundamental. Not in vain, today most of the production of this distillate takes place in this area.
Taking into consideration the history that precedes it, the passion that Caribbean people have for this drink, and the incredible taste of each of the versions of Caribbean rum, The Ultimate Awards team launched its first “blind tasting” competition to find and honor the Best Caribbean Rum.
About the competition
The competition expands above the what we know as the Caribbean, which encompasses around 30+ countries, including all the islands in the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, plus the coastal areas of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela. Brands from all these countries and beyond can participate.
The registration process is extremely simple. Brands interested in being part of the competition have from February 18 to March 15 to register on The Ultimate Awards website. After this step, they must make sure that the rum or rums they have submitted to the judges’ palates arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico before March 20, as the competition will take place on March 24, during the Taste of Rum.
Six top-notch judges will have the arduous task of choosing the winners. They are Javier Berberena (WSET diploma, advanced level 3 WSET spirits, certified wine educator, certified spirit educator WSET), Joe Cabassa (regional brand ambassador and luxury hospitality lead – Caribbean The Macallan, WSET Certified Level 3 Spirits Educator and Edinburgh Whisky Academy Educator), Ventura Vivoni (celebrity culinary chef in Puerto Rico) and Bryan Inman, better known as TheRumChampion, recently named North American Social Media Influencer of the Year by The Ultimate Awards.
The rest of the judges belong to our house: Miguel Agrait (co-founder of TheRumLab, rum expert and historian), and Federico J. Hernández (founder of TheRumLab.com).
Winners will be announced on March 25, 2023, with the official release of the results five days later.
Categories and Awards
For this initial competition, three different categories will be awarded:
1. Ultimate Professional Blind Tasting – Sipping Rum, Aged 1-3 Years.
2. Ultimate Professional Blind Tasting – Sipping Rum, Aged 4-7 Years.
3. Ultimate Professional Blind Tasting – Sipping Rum, Aged 8+ Years.
The winners of each category will receive: a digital image of the winning medallion and a two-year license to use the medallion on their bottles, website and points of sale.
Brands will enter up to four SKU in the competition and each entry will cost $50.
A year of triumphs
Best Caribbean Rum is the first “blind tasting” competition organized by The Ultimate Awards, but not the only one. The organization has been recognizing the best in the rum industry for more than a year, starting with Best Rum Bartender, Best Social Media Rum Group and Best Rum Ambassador.
The competition has also been awarded Best Sustainable Brand, Best Tiki Bar and Best Rum Social Media Influencer. In addition, it has held several sipping rum competitions, in which attendees at the different rum festivals organized by The Rum Lab choose the best rum of the night.
