J. Gow Spiced Rum

Gently spiced and not overpowering Rum. Also not sweet & sickly as some other Spiced rums.

I really love a spiced rum, but no matter which way that I drunk this (straight or with various mixers) there was a horrible strong and overpowering chemical taste. Such a shame because I was really looking forward to trying an Orkney spiced rum.

I don't like rum.
I like single malt, but as I was in Orkney I decided to visit. I tasted it and agree with reviewers citing a chemical taste but felt obliged to buy a bottle of something given that the island was just recovering from lockdown (Sept 2020).
I didn't drink it until January 2022 and at first I still didn't like it, but I perceived, after all I'd paid good money for it.
It's now finished and boy, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a superb drink and sooooo much better and more sophisticated than the cheap and nasty Diageo efforts.
I've become a rum convert and I'd certainly buy again.

Fantastic spiced rum.

Excellent smooth spiced rum. Tried it after the Scottish rum festival. Not overly spiced, but I enjoyed it neat and with ginger beer.

Sweet, and chemical tasting with strong cherry flavors, and very little spice. It's not horrible, and might work well in some recipe that I don't use. Straight it was not good. On ice, not much better. With Coke it actually got worse I think...

Orkney has such great Whisky (Highland Park and Scapa distilleries), Gin (Orkney Gin Co, Deerness Distilling, Kirkjuvagr), and Beer ( Swannay brewery, Orkney Brewery) options, that it would be hard for a good Rum to stand out, but in the case of J. Gow, I think they need to either try harder, or change gears to something else altogether.

My favourite spiced rum (and I know a fair few!). It's not over powering in terms of the spices and flavoured aspects. Definitely made to be a rum as opposed to a lot of other spiced rums which just taste like sweetened spiced vanilla syrup, and can sometimes be horrible thick and sticky. This is first and foremost a rum, that has been carefully spiced to balance and add to the flavour of the rum. Due to this, it makes a great sipping rum to have on it's own, or works incredibly well with ginger beer, apple juice, and of course in cocktails!

I've tried a lot of spiced rums. I really did not enjoy this one. It has an unnatural chemical taste which overpowered any mixer I tried with it. This really needs a lot more refinement. It cost a lot and I didn't get very far into the bottle. According to the reviews here, some loved it, some didn't. I was of the latter portion.

Excellent example of a classic spiced rum. Not overpowering on any particular spice or flavour like others in the market. Bags of tropical fruit and vanilla so very easily mixed into cocktails (try it in a mojito for example) and leaves a nice lasting aftertaste.

Delicious! Not usually a fan of spice rum, as I don’t like the sickly sweet taste of most. However, the natural smoothness of spiced JGow has changed my mind. It’s very nice straight, but I drank it with ginger beer and enjoyed it even more! Definitely will buy again.