Zacapa XO is the one RumX’s community rates above the 23 — 8.0 across 388 reviews — and the one Tastings.com scored 93. Zacapa has been made in Guatemala since 1976 from virgin sugarcane honey — concentrated first-press cane juice, neither molasses nor agricole — fermented with a yeast strain cultured from pineapples, distilled on copper-lined columns, and aged in a solera in the House Above the Clouds at 2,300 meters in the Quetzaltenango highlands. The XO Solera Gran Reserva Especial takes the house’s oldest solera components — aged up to twenty-five years in ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-Pedro Ximénez casks — and finishes them in French oak ex-cognac casks for, in RumX’s words, a more elegant, drier edge, bottled at 40% ABV in a heavy decanter. The Fat Rum Pirate found a sweet, dark-chocolate nose with bursts of citrus, rich coffee, tobacco, a brandy-like intensity, leather, and oak — a complex, very rich nosing experience — then a palate much richer than the 23 with huge Christmas pudding notes and a lot going on. Rum Ratings’ drinkers consistently rank it the best sipper in the range, above the Edición Negra. Honest note, and it’s the whole debate: Zacapa’s rums carry added sugar and the numbers are solera designations rather than ages — The Fat Rum Pirate calls it practically a spiced rum and overpriced, while calling it widely recognized as one of the best rums in the world. Both are true. Neat, over one cube, after dinner, or with a cigar. Zacapa’s crown.
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