Gift season: 3 questions to a rum that lands. Open the gift finder3 questions to a rum that lands ›
EC8A186A-0606-4376-ABDE-11513D18E558Trinidad Caroni Bristol Classic Rum
Bristol Caroni HTR 1998 70cl bottle
Bottle
View 2
Aged rum · 17 years · 40%

Bristol Caroni HTR 1998

Curious Caroni fans on a budget will get the most from this one. It's a 1998, 17-year HTR bottled by Bristol at 40%, and that low proof is the whole story: the tobacco-and-tar nose is genuinely inviting, but several tasters found the palate "very much watered down." You still recognize the distillery — cigar smoke, oak, a little dried fruit — just faded and thin.

The community says
  • Inviting tobacco nose
  • Real Caroni character
  • But: Watered down

Offers & prices

No shop currently delivers to Germany.

The look inside the bottle

How does Bristol Caroni HTR 1998 taste?

Summarized by AI from community reviews.

Recognizable Caroni, but thin at 40% Recognizably Caroni on the nose — tobacco, tar, oak — but most tasters felt 40% left the palate too diluted and short. A gentle way in, not the full heavy Caroni hit.

Perfect for

People wanting an affordable first taste of Caroni

Less suitable for

Anyone chasing the full, heavy Caroni punch

Experience level · Explorer (3/5)

Style & occasion: Mature & oaky

Full aroma profile Aroma families · nose & palate · top aromas
Flavor profile
Sweet & dessert
Spice
Wood
Dried fruit
Roasted & dark
Fruit
Funk & ester
Vegetal & floral

Relative to this rum's strongest aroma family

9 of 19 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums

Which glass for which rum? The community guide ›

Recommendation

Your next rum

Each with how it differs from this rum.

Gifting rum? 3 questions to the right bottle

What does the community say?

7.3/10 Good

19 community reviews
7 selected write-ups on this page, all of them in the RumX app

Rate it in the app
Distribution of all 19 ratings
9–10 0%
8–9 16%
7–8 68%
6–7 16%
5–6 0%
4–5 0%
0–4 0%

See the full rating guide

Review by Wagnerlicious

Wagnerlicious
Feb 202554 reviewsGermany
7.3/10

Rum from this distillery promises full-bodied rum. Hints of this can still be detected on the nose of this rum! On the palate, however, there is not much sign of the great brilliance. Aromas of light fruits, peat and tobacco. Unfortunately very watered down!

Review by Christoph

Christoph
Jun 2021454 reviewsGermany
7.3/10

Similar to the VSOC Caroni from Bristol, a very inviting nose that disappoints on the palate, as it is again too watered down. Minimally better than the VSOC as you are still drinking a good cigar here.

Review by Jakob

Jakob
Apr 20251,666 reviewsSwitzerland
7.5/10

Caroni 1998 Crosstasting: Recognizable HTR profile that also works well with dilution. Loses some of its power in the finish, but still pleases with its complexity.

Community shelf

36 bottles logged by 31 collectors.

A collector's bottle.

13% opened, 2 emptied.

31 sealed 3 open 2 emptied

What did the community pay for Bristol Caroni HTR 1998?

Community paid 80–198 €.

Purchase prices reported by members, not a shop price. Avg. 107 €. Full price & collection history in RX+ ›

36 purchased · 19 tasted · 5 wishlist · as of

Details about Bristol Caroni HTR 1998

A Column Still Rum from Trinidad, bottled by Bristol Classic Rum, at 40%.

DistilleryCaroni
CountryTrinidad
CategoryColumn Still Rum
Raw materialMolasses
DistillationColumn Still
ABV40%
Age17 years
Vintage1998
MarkHTR
Volume70cl

Read on in the RumX Guide

Caroni

Distillery

Caroni 

Avg Rating 8.8/10 over 620 Rums

No closed distillery is chased harder than Caroni. The Trinidad distillery shut down in the early 2000s and not a drop has been made since, but its heavy, oily, almost diesel-like rum became a collector obsession, carried to the world by Velier. Every bottle now comes from a finite, shrinking stock, even though auction prices for some Velier Caronis have fallen since 2022.

You may also enjoy

Rum enthusiasts who like this rum have also given the following rums high ratings:

Velier Royal Navy

Velier Royal Navy
Multi Distilleries
Velier Royal Navy
Multiple countries · 17 years 5mo · 57.18%
8.9/10 (337 reviews)
285.40 €
incl. shipping · 386.36 € per litre
Price alerts · in the RumX app

Never miss a price drop.

Set a target price in the app, and we'll let you know as soon as the rum becomes available at that price from one of our partner stores. This works for any rum on your wish list.

★ 4.8/5 on App Store & Play Store
Oliver, founder of RumX Oliver · Founder

By rum lovers, for rum lovers

I'm Oliver, and RumX began in 2018 as a small passion project in Stuttgart, back then under the name Rum Tasting Notes.

Oliver, Stuttgart

About RumX ›YouTube channel (German, English subtitles)
As featured in
Stern Stuttgarter Zeitung Rumporter fizzz About Drinks

Rating guide

Every score is the median of members’ ratings, from 0 to 10. A 7 is already a recommendation to buy.

Share of 11,149 rums with at least 4 ratings, calculated on October 13, 2026. Scale and calculation in detail ›