This non-alcoholic rum from Arkay is full of fire but lacking in flavor.

Last year we weren’t able to source a bottle of Arkay’s Dark Rum offering, but we were able to try their light rum, and it left an impression. It wasn’t our favorite, but it had the strongest burn of anything we tried. Because of this, going into our tasting this year, we couldn’t help but be on the lookout for the signature Arkay burn (spoiler alert: we found it).

On the nose Arkay smells a bit like cherry medicine, with some notes of chocolate and cola mixed in. There’s also this general smell of refrigerant that makes you wonder if what your smelling is food safe. On the palate there is essentially no flavor, but there’s a lot of tingle. In marketing collateral Arkay says this is their proprietary W.A.R.M. molecule, which is allegedly “derived from capsaicin through a natural extraction process (the details of which are a trade secret) the EEC regulator approved” (I’m still unsure what EEC is being referred to; possibly the European Economic Community?). The burn feels medicinal and chemical more than it does “spicy”, and many of the other NA rums we tried use capsaicin in its base form. It’s the only NA rum we decided had a medium strong finish, and while it doesn’t really taste like anything, the tingle does linger for a while.

In our blind taste test we thought it was not great as a neat sipper (6.2/10, our lowest score during this tasting) and reasonably good mixed into a daiquiri (7.8/10—still one of our lowest scores). At the end of the day Akray has a really strong burn, and very little else. We found the burn to be unpleasant, though if you’re really looking for something to really light a fire on your palate, it might be worth checking out.

 

The Superficial: In wild contrast to the rest of this review, I really like the new Arkay bottling. It’s a little goofy, but being an NA rum is a little goofy to begin with. It’s got a large wooden stopper that feels great in the hand, and a matte label with embossed lettering.

Tags:  Standard Release | Zero Proof