Overview
Brand: Treaty Oak
Origin: Treaty Oak Distilling, Dripping Springs, TX, USA (picked by The Speakeasy)
Still: Column
Age: NAS
Finish: Charred New American Oak
ABV: 50.3%
In a fitting choice for the last post before crossing two hundred reviews, we arrive at what is possibly my last writeup of a Treaty Oak rum.
The Dripping Springs, TX-based distillery has reportedly stopped production of their rum line, with this bottle I have in front of me coming from a single barrel sold before their more recent self-released rum "drops".
I never got the full details of the context around what/who "The Speakeasy" is, but what I was told was the rum in cask #443 was sufficiently off-profile compared to what Treaty Oak wanted to put out, so much so that it was kept away from the primary single cask offerings. It was nevertheless bottled, and I was given the chance to purchase a bottle thanks to Tarak of Elixir in Spring Hill, TN.
Cask #443 was produced via their column still and aged for an undisclosed amount of time in ex-Bourbon barrels under the Texan sun, before bottling at a strength of 50.3% ABV.
Appearance
Dark scarlet, low viscosity
Nose
Brown sugar, raw cookie dough, vanilla extract, molasses, toasted almonds, Luxardo cherry syrup
Palate
Brown sugar, raw cookie dough, rotting black cherries, vanilla extract, molasses, cola spices, almonds
Finish
Long, nutty, tannic; raw cookie dough, dark chocolate, toasted almonds, vanilla
Rating: 8/10
Summary
This Speakeasy selection of Treaty Oak rum is pretty special. It's another great rum from the Texas-based distiller, but also something completely different: it's funky.
Barrel no. 443 can be summarized in a handful of notes: brown sugar, raw cookie dough, molasses, and black cherries. There's a prevailing funk factor that is like that raw cookie dough mixed with vanilla, cherries and oak, providing a slightly tangy profile. Otherwise, I get cola spices, dark chocolate, toasted almonds, and the syrup from Luxardo cocktail cherries.
While I think this particular cask's profile is an outlier given my other two experiences with Treaty Oak's rum (seen in reviews #010 and #135), I think this is really fun. It shows the variety of profiles that can exist in American rum– even from the same distillery.