This iconic pot still rum from multiple Jamaican distilleries gave us strong notes of pineapple and solvent, with subtler hints of acetic acid, berry, smoke, banana, rubber, flower, and ginger.

This icon of Jamaican Rum is a blend of lightly aged pot still rums from multiple distilleries bottled at a generous 57% ABV, and is often used as shorthand for “bold, funky, gold Jamaican rum”. While it doesn’t carry an age statement, we know that some of it’s components are quite young as an official site states it’s “a blend of approximately equal parts Wedderburn and Plummer, the former aged for less than a year”. On some level it feels as though Smith and Cross needs no introduction, but I would be remiss if I didn’t call out that this rum in incredibly popular, loved by mixologists and rum aficionados alike, and is a sort of reference to which many other Jamaican rums can be compared. For a much more comprehensive backstory, check out The Many Myths of Smith & Cross by Matt Pietrek at Rum Wonk.

In the lab we measured it’s desnity to be 0.915g/cc, indicating no added sugar; the test almost seemed a waste of good rum, as the high profile of Smith and Cross means it’s been tested plenty of times over, but hey, no one gets an exception.

On the nose it’s easy to see what the fuss is about. Bold fruity overripe pineapple and banana can be smelled from several inches away from the snifter, along with an aggressive solvent note. Digging deeper there’s some mild berries and flowers, and a bit of smoke. On the palate it’s equal parts sweet and lively; the high proof aerosolizes those tropical fruits, along with some oak that was missing from the nose. Over time spicy ginger and black tea show up, along with some milld rubber and gasoline. The long finish indexes on the deeper oakier spicier notes: ginger, nutmeg, vanilla; but there’s still plenty of overripe banana and pineapple.

In our blind taste test we thought it was solid as a neat sipper (7.8/10), and great as a mixer (8.9)—in fact it earned the highest mixed score of any gold Jamaican rum we tried in this session. It’s difficult to write anything about Smith and Cross that hasn’t been written before, but it’s really easy to see why this rum has stood the test of time and earned a spot on many shelves and bar carts. If you’re looking for a go-to cocktail ingredient, or a classic expression of Jamaican funk, Smith and Cross is a no brainer.