This non-alcoholic rum from Clean Co avoids the worst of the common NA pitfalls, but fails to stand out or taste particularly like rum.

Clean R is a zero proof spiced rum alternative from Clean Co in London. Although we throw around the term zero proof colloquially to refer to all non-alcoholic spirits, it’s a bit of a misnomer; the bottle for Clean R calls out that it contains “less than 0.5% ABV”, which is the legal threshold at which the FDA starts using the term “trace amount”. This raises the question, why include any alcohol at all if you’re trying to be “alcohol free”? In general the answer is that alcohol is a great carrier of concentrated flavor—this should be obvious to anyone who’s put a few dashes of Angostura bitters into a glass of club soda. In many non-alcoholic rums the “natural flavors” listed in the ingredients will be some alcohol based flavor extract. And while Clean R does list “natural flavors” in it’s ingredients, it also lists another conspicuous source of alcohol: rum!

My first reaction to that inclusion was the feeling that that’s somehow “cheating” (the whole point is that this isn’t rum, right?), though ultimately if they manage a solid rum flavor and clock in under 0.5% ABV, who am I to complain?

The nose is generally pretty faint, with some fruity and floral notes and a distinct dustiness. Though I don’t agree with this, my co-taster said it smelled like “trailer park carpet”. The palate is pretty moderate as well; a bit sweet, a bit sour, a little bit of burn anchored in ginger and menthol. The finish is at least a bit of a development, as it leans in a warmer baking spice direction, with a light to moderate duration.

In our blind taste test it scored okay as a neat sipper (6.8/10) but great mixed into a daiquiri (8.1/10). For all the intrigue I had going in because of the inclusion of actual rum, Clean R is pretty middle-of-the-road. It’s not too sour and doesn’t lean too much into simulated alcoholic burn, but it doesn’t have much of a personality and doesn’t come across as particularly rummy.

 

The Superficial: It looks like Clean Co has recently redesigned their bottles, but the one I got has a hexagonal cross section with fluting on every other side. I actually quite like the glass itself, though the plastic screwtop takes away from it a bit. The label design is reasonable; nothing to write home about, but not off putting.

Tags:  Standard Release | Zero Proof