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CDC97E3A-CE43-4DCC-BF84-9FC49F0A9F5ATrinidad Caroni Velier
Velier Caroni Heavy Trinidad Rum HTR 1985 70cl bottle
Bottle
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Aged rum · 20 years · 75,5%

Velier Caroni Heavy Trinidad Rum HTR 1985

9.0/10
Rated by Oliver, Jakob & 13 more ↓
Open in the app

Opinions here run high but not unanimous: some rate it a near-perfect Caroni, others expected more from the legend. What everyone agrees on is the alcohol — 75.5% that hides so well one member guessed nowhere near it in a blind. Fruit tea, wood, roasted coffee-bitters, dried fruit and only faint rubber and tar. Give it air and it opens up.

The community says
  • Alcohol vanishes
  • Fruit-tea depth
  • Coffee bitters
Not quite your style? Your favorite rum in 4 questions
Currently no offers for delivery to Germany.

The look inside the bottle

How does Velier Caroni Heavy Trinidad Rum HTR 1985 taste?

Aggregated from 15 community reviews.

Cleaner, fruit-tea Caroni with buried 75% heat A blind-tasting stunner for its buried heat, though a couple of tasters found the fruit masked and the finish shorter than a great Caroni should run.

Perfect for

Caroni collectors chasing an old vintage

Less suitable for

anyone new to high-proof, tarry rum

Style & occasion

How the community classifies this rum. Each category takes you to similar rums.

Mature & oaky Sipping neat

Which glass for which rum? The community guide →

Top aromas · nose & palate
Rubber · palate only57%
Mango43%
Tar43%
Vanilla43%
Caramel · palate only43%
Oak29%
Burnt sugar · nose only29%

7 of 15 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums

Recommendation

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One difference each to this rum.

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Community voices

What does the community say?

9.0/10

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

Top 10% of Trinidad rumsTop 19% at Caroni

Add your rating
Distribution of all 15 ratings
9–10 40%
8–9 60%
7–8 0%
6–7 0%
5–6 0%
4–5 0%
0–4 0%

Ranges include their upper bound: “7–8” means above 7 up to and including 8. See the full rating guide

Review by Oliver

Oliver
Oliver
Apr 20231,227 reviewsGermany
9.3/10

Great, fruity nose. Relatively few dirty associations. Wonderful sweetness. Perfectly integrated alcohol. Excellent Caroni! 🦄 🥰Reminds of the 100% Trinidad 12 years, but in more intense and complex.

Auto-translated 50 found this helpful

Review by Jakob

Jakob
Jakob
Dec 20231,595 reviewsSwitzerland
9.2/10

Epic Velier Caroni Tasting 2023: The rum needs time to breathe, of course, but it's worth it: this is just insanely well-integrated alcohol! I wouldn't have dreamed of getting 75%. The classic Caroni notes hide a bit at first and never really become dominant. The "alternative program" is more than worth tasting - wonderful wood, oak and the associated vanilla notes in combination with bitter notes that remind me of strong espresso. The sweetness remains present, however, and the coffee notes harmonize with the rest simply outstanding. Impressive rum!

Auto-translated 45 found this helpful

Review by cigares

cigares
cigares
Jun 20241,129 reviewsSwitzerland
8.9/10

Tasting of Caronis Velier 1985. Powerful, but controlled power here, even if the alcohol masks the fruit a little. Fruit tea, very bitter caramel, tropical fruit, unripe pineapple, tannins, red fruit and light diesel complete the picture. On the palate, the alcohol is too powerful, and you have to wait a little before you feel the fruit appear, cranberry, red fruit. Beautiful bitters, like a highly infused fruit tea. The finish is rather short for a Caroni, although the fruit and bitterness linger. A disappointing rum in relation to its reputation. The alcohol is too present and the finish is clearly too short to play in the big league.

Auto-translated 37 found this helpful

Expert reviews

Reviews from RumX's blog partners, independent experts who have tasted, evaluated, and described this rum..

Expert review by The Dunder Hut

The Dunder Hut
9.0/10
Caroni 85 Crosstasting, Oh boy, someone took a tea bag of Black tea with some fruit and threw it into a caroni cask. A sensational combination. If the drity notes where a bit more pungent this probably would have been one of the best caronis out there. like this it is still really solid.

Market value

What this bottle last achieved at auction. A research indicator, not a forecast.

Auction results 7366 € – 9207 €

from 2 sales, latest 03/2026

Prices incl. buyer's premium — what a buyer pays, not what a sale nets you.

How we calculate this →

Community purchases

9 bottles logged by 6 collectors.

A collector's bottle.

0% opened, 0 emptied and repurchased.

9 sealed 0 open 0 emptied

What did the community pay for Velier Caroni Heavy Trinidad Rum HTR 1985?

Community paid 100–2,000 €.

What members actually paid for their bottles. A typical range, not the current shop price. Full price & collection history in RX+ →

9 purchased · 15 tasted · 22 wishlist · as of

Details about Velier Caroni Heavy Trinidad Rum HTR 1985

A rum from Trinidad, bottled by Velier, at 75,5%.

CountryTrinidad
DistilleryCaroni
BottlerVelier
StyleAged rum
ABV75,5%
Volume70cl
Age20 years
Vintage1985
Limited edition360 bottles

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 around 2002 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, which is exactly why the prices keep climbing.

Bottler Velier Who is Velier? 
Country Trinidad The odd one out 

All releases in this series

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Velier Caroni Heavy Trinidad Rum HTR 1985
Velier Caroni Heavy Trinidad Rum HTR 1985
Trinidad · 75,5% · 70cl

Rating guide

RumX's 0–10 scale is strict. Here's what each band means.

9.0–10.0 Excellent your rum Stash as many as you can afford. Tell no one.
8.0–8.9 Very good Bank a backup. Tell everyone you meet.
7.0–7.9 Good Buy one and recommend it to your friends.
6.0–6.9 Pleasant Solid, super glad I drank it.
5.0–5.9 Average Totally acceptable.
4.0–4.9 Drinkable Not vocally complaining.
3.0–3.9 Poor Wish I was drinking something else.
2.0–2.9 Very poor Nothing nice to say.
1.0–1.9 Unpleasant No, that's not for me.
0.1–0.9 Inedible Pour it out.
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