Aroma visualization from community tastings
Taste
Vanilla, Rubber, Tar
Most mentioned across 16 tasting notes
- Perfect for
- Caroni fans who want tar and smoke
- Less suitable for
- newcomers put off by rubber and heat
The Duchess Caroni Trinidad HTR 1998
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Most tasters land on "old school Caroni" — tar, asphalt and smoke with rubber and wet tobacco underneath. Several call this vintage lighter than other '98s: the dirty notes are there but don't bulldoze the fruit and vanilla. At 64.1% it runs hot and scrappy, "weird and raw" the way people who chase Caroni actually want. Rewards patience in the glass.
The community says- Classic tar & smoke
- Fruit shows through
- Less suitable for: newcomers put off by rubber and heat
Offers & prices
View price history
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10 more payment methodsLive auctions
Offers & prices
No shop currently delivers to Germany.
Auction results: 333–349 € (2 sales in 24 months, incl. buyer's premium, latest 01/2026). How the range is built ›
Buying advice
These ship to you
Yes, if you're after bold, mature, oaky rums for sipping neat.
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The look inside the bottle
How does The Duchess Caroni Trinidad HTR 1998 taste?
From community reviews · summarized with AI
Lighter, tarry old-school Caroni at full proof Most rate it highly — a proper tarry Caroni that leans lighter and fruitier than its siblings. A few find it sharp and hot rather than rounded.
Caroni fans who want tar and smoke
newcomers put off by rubber and heat
Style & occasion: Mature & oakySipping neat
Full aroma profile Aroma families · nose & palate · top aromas
Relative to this rum's strongest aroma family
16 of 30 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums
Which glass for which rum? The community guide ›
What does the community say?
30 community reviews
Rating scale & review checks
On RumX, 7 means “Good” and 8 means “Very good”.
See the full rating guideHow ratings are made and how we check them ›The website shows a selection of written reviews. The distribution also includes ratings without text. All published reviews are available in the RumX app.
14 selected written reviews
The distribution above includes all 30 ratings, including those without text.
Review by Alex1981
Most helpful positive review
Rather light Caroni which gets dominated by some leathery / woody notes and dark fruits in the background. Gets a bit stingy/peppery after a while. Not much of the expected heavy industrial notes, but still pleasant. The HTR marque seems a bit misleading?
Review by Oliver
Most helpful mixed review
Very pleasant nose. A bit too peppery on the palate. On balance, however, a nice representative of the 1998 vintage.
Review by DomM
Very balanced and „sweet“ compared to other 98s. Dirty Caroni notes are present, however, not overly dominat. Vanilla, chocolate and fruits make for a nice bottling.
Review by Rowald Sweet Empire
Finally an old school Caroni again. Younger but with the classic tarry asphalt smoky notes. Not overly balanced but that's why you drink Caroni right? Weird and raw. Nice stuff.
Review by crazyforgoodbooze
I know much better 98 caronis... Unfortunately not my cup of tea... Hardly any complexity, overall quite sharp and tiring... Not bad, but there are much better representatives of the '98 vintage!
Review by Martin Ekrt
After Samaroli, here is finally something fragrant. A pleasant mix of technical tones and tropical fruit. Very interesting taste. There is a slight Caroni dirtiness, but what surprised me most was a special spiciness like food with chili. Everything so well matured that I have no problem with it. The finish could be longer though.
Review by Agricoler
Relatively sharp-edged Caroni. Basically very nice dirty notes with nice fruit but the rum somehow doesn't feel round. Still, I have to say I've had more boring Caronis.
Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
I think this is a light Caroni but not in a bad way because it has some other flavours to kind of compensate. The nose is light and has smoky wood, rubber, varnish, vanilla and a good portion of wet tobacco. The palate is complex and well balanced between smoky wood and fruits with rubber, varnish, vanilla and some tobacco. The finish is long, lightly dry and fruity with smoky wood. Very good in its own way.
Review by Filip Kalinovský
Excellent light Caroni, beautiful scent very reminiscent of LMDR. The taste is very balanced, slightly spicy, smoky, fruity, a bit of lacquer. The finish I would say is not very long, rather medium length. Nice smoke, chocolate almost reminds me of peated whisky.
Review by Natascha og Aske
A rare complex and well integrated rum that keeps evolving as it aerates and warms up in the mouth. The nose is sweet with a hint of tar. At first itˋs fruity like strawberry then honey and tobacco. Lovely
Review by Pavel Spacek
Caroni is a distillery from Trinidad, producing at its peak a rum that was added in a 1:10 ratio to naval blends. It was too strong and strange to be pleasant on the tongue. In 2000, the distillery ceased production and was closed. Only in 2010 did tasters appear who liked the rum precisely for its special taste. Interest grew. Caroni belongs to the category of rums 'you need to try before you die.' I recommend it; Caroni is truly a unique rum.
Review by Pavel Ungr, RumRock
Vintage 1998. With 8.4 out of 10, it's a very good bottle, though not the top of my ranking.
Review by WolfeTone
Coffee, rubber, spices, petrol, smoke, flowers and honey.
Review by Jindrich Strobl
Nice intrnsive taste and long finish. Alcohol just shows a bit too much for my taste.
This selection contains no written reviews in this rating range.
Expert reviews
Reviews from RumX's blog partners, independent experts who have tasted, evaluated, and described this rum.
Expert review by The Fat Rum Pirate
Read full review ›This is a very complex and very enjoyable rum. It's heavy but it also has a really good balance - it's kind of like a peated Foursquare in some respects. It has everything you might want from a Caroni but none of the off notes - it never gets too...
Expert review by Le Blog À Roger
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Expert review by In Spiritus Veritas
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The Duchess Caroni Trinidad HTR 1998 at live auctions
A bid is not a final price: the house sets the buyer's premium, shipping and any customs duty.
All live auctions ›Community shelf
20 bottles logged by 17 collectors.
A drinker's rum.
45% opened, 5 emptied.
What did the community pay for The Duchess Caroni Trinidad HTR 1998?
Community paid 199–237 €.
Purchase prices reported by members, not a shop price. Avg. 249 €. Price history with 2 auction results in RX+ ›
20 purchased · 30 tasted · 8 wishlist · as of
Details about The Duchess Caroni Trinidad HTR 1998
A Pot Still Rum from Trinidad, bottled by The Duchess, at 64,1%.
Read on in the RumX Guide
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Caroni Rum Artesanal Trinidad Rum HTR 1998
Velier Long Pond TECC 2007
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