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Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998
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Sip this one neat with time in the glass — a few members say it needs 5-10 minutes and a couple drops of water to open. Then you get classic Caroni tar, glue, caramel and smoky wood, plus surprising tropical fruit and mandarin. The palate turns dry, roasted and a touch meaty with bacon and licorice. Strong, characterful, but reviewers call it slightly less integrated than its Employee siblings.
The community says- Classic Caroni tar
- Long smoky finish
- But: Dry, bitter palate
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How does Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998 taste?
Summarized by AI from community reviews.
Dirty, smoky Caroni that runs dry Loved as a proper dirty Caroni — tar, rubber, smoke and dry roasted wood — but many rank it just below the other 1998 Employees for being a bit unbalanced on the palate.
Aroma profileCaroni fans who want tar, rubber and smoke at cask strength
Newcomers and anyone wanting a soft, sweet, easy-drinking rum
Style & occasion: Mature & oakySipping neat
Full aroma profile Aroma families · nose & palate · top aromas
Relative to this rum's strongest aroma family
24 of 62 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums
Which glass for which rum? The community guide ›
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Rated better
Velier Caroni 4th Employees Basdeo „Dicky“ Ramsarran HTR 2000
9.0/10895.00 €
Milder
Corman Collins Caroni 25th anniversary Black Cat Bar 1996
8.8/10
Similar rating, cheaper
Precious Liquors & The Auld Alliance Caroni Trinidad Rum 1998
8.8/10550.00 €
Nothing for you?
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First choice: 37 of 43 tasters who tried both prefer it.
What does the community say?
62 community reviews
16 selected write-ups on this page, all of them in the RumX app
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Positive from 8.0 · Mixed 6.0–7.9 · Critical below 6.0
Review by Jakob
Epic Velier Caroni Tasting 2023: Typical dirty 98 HTR profile, but with slightly irritating meaty notes. In direct comparison with other representatives of the tropically matured HTR style, it seems less round overall, which documents a qualitative difference at a high level, but in my opinion it is still easily recognizable.
Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
This Caroni kicks off with fruit and spices and once it has rested it release tar, caramel and light rubber. The palate is equally convincing with fruits and smoky wood and spices followed by chocolate and a wonderful floral note. The finish is very long with smoky wood and tropical fruits, spices and again the blissful floral note.
Review by Maxence
Very nice nose. Woody but not too much, tropical fruits and typical Caroni notes. Palate's profile is quite close but alcohol integration is rather poor. Few droplets of water really helps the rum to reveal its full potential. A strong Caroni Employee though 👌
Review by Martin Augustin
Amazingly fruity and only slightly dirty on the nose. All the more surprising that the taste immediately comes across as dirty with tar and rubber. Then lots of toffee, vanilla and some leather. Nice, long finish. Exceptionally good Caroni with a little too little rough edges.
Review by Pavel Spacek
... Caroni is a distillery from Trinidad, producing at the time of its greatest glory rum, which was added at a ratio of 1:10 to the naval blend. It was too strong and strange to be pleasant on the tongue. In 2000, the distillery ceased production and closed. Only in 2010 did tasters appear who took a liking to the rum because of its special taste. And the interest grew. Caroni belongs to the category of "you need to try before you die" rums. I recommend it, Caroni is a truly unique rum.
Review by zabo
There were a few employes in the test today. Yunkoo, Buju, Nitz and Brigade. To sum up, they are all very tasty caronis. For me, only Brigade is the one that has lost out a little, the others are all very close together. My ranking today would be: 1st Yunkoo 2. Nitz 3. Buju 4. brigade
Review by LukaŽiga
8,8:On the nose, very industrial with glue, bicycle tube, tar and rubber, roasted wood with caramel, dark chocolate, roasted nuts, creamy with vanilla, buttery, dried fruits like apricots, then orange peel, tropical fruits and menthol, bump into our nosetrils. On aeration, the rum becomes spicy with allspice, nutmeg, mango, some yellow fruits and mandarine arise, as pastry and biscuits. 8,7:On the palate, the attack is strong, with bite and menthol, rubber, first a bit imbalanced, roasted wood notes with toffee, coffee, meaty with bacon, creamy with vanilla, help as balancing act, so do fruits like mango, citrus.When the rum is well oxidized, the molasses is herbaceous, dark with licorice, more roastedness brings dark chocolate, roasted nuts, pastry, with slightly resinous wood and hints of petrol. 9:The finish is long, round, delicious, dry and tannic, complex, the best part of this rum, with various notes mentioned above, complementing each other.😋.
Review by Skyfly
4th Employees Tasting: A Caroni with few dirty, but surprisingly meaty aromas. Compared to the other Employees, this one unfortunately falls a bit short, overall it feels a bit unbalanced. The finish is also not as long as with other Velier Caronis.
Review by Filip Šikula
First employee of the evening. Technical aroma, tar, smoked wood. On the palate after sniffing, surprisingly intense fruit along with wood and rubber. Beautiful complex rum. Finish long, warming and very very pleasant. Svincany caroni tasting 19.12.2024
Review by Manuel
Compared to other Caronis from the Employee series, it falls a bit short. Very sharp in the finish. But that's complaining at a very high level. Still, a really very good rum.
Review by Oliver
Top nose. A little too dry on the palate. But still one of the winners of the 1998 vintage.
Review by Christoph H.
The Brigade has divided opinions on the aging. I can understand both sides. On one hand, I was very positively surprised by the nose, the aroma is nicely warm, pleasant and round. The dirty aromas are there but never push to the forefront. Combined with the long barrel aging, I find that very successful. In the mouth, however, it comes very unexpectedly. Very dry, bitter, roasted and unbalanced. I find licorice again and actually the taste reminds me a lot of a fruit brandy. It has a hard time competing with its Velier house competitors.
Review by Mentalo
Im direkten Vergleich mit dem 1998er Dayanand Balloon zieht Balas Bhaggan den kürzeren. Aber ob der Unterschied ohne direkten Vergleich so aufgefallen wäre, wag ich zu bezweifeln. Das bleibt ein sehr guter Caroni mit weniger ausgeprägten dreckigen Noten. Mehr fruchtig, holzig und relativ wenige Süße.
Review by Romain de L
Nose a bit « below » but really opens up - needs 5-10mn to reveal itself. Tar, caramel, strong - smoky. Taste is really interesting / whisky like : smoky, dried aged yellow fruits, a bit dirty. Very long finish Overall very nice, but probably a tad below other employees
Review by Frank
In der Nase kommt er deutlich vinegar Richtung Essig fast schon Keton rüber. Sauerkirsche, vielleicht getrocknete Dattel. Leicht schwefelig und Seifenpulver. Süße von Karamell. Vanille und leicht ledrig holzig. Am Gaumen kommt er gleich sehr fruchtig rüber. Stark Richtung Marone. Beerig, aber vielleicht ehr Richtung Hagebutte. Dann kommt etwas säuerliches aber gedeckt. Finde ihn sehr rund. Hat sogar etwas fettiges deftiges. Finde auch den echt verdammt gut.
Review by Adrianv
This Employee is still Caroni, but rather disorganized, I am missing integration and harmony there, it is still dirty and full of tar and rubber, still good sip for nice evening like today:)
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Expert reviews
3 critics scored it, averaging 8.3/10. Reviews from RumX's blog partners, independent experts who have tasted, evaluated, and described this rum.
Expert review by Single Cask Rum
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Expert review by Zucker und Zeste
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Expert review by Barrel Aged Thoughts
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Expert review by Who Rhum The World
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Expert review by In Spiritus Veritas
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Community shelf
106 bottles logged by 85 collectors.
A collector's bottle.
5% opened, 3 emptied.
What does Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998 cost?
Community paid 212–1,288 €.
Current best price: 895.00 € – within the typical community range.
Purchase prices reported by members, not a shop price. Avg. 678 €. Full price & collection history in RX+ ›
106 purchased · 63 tasted · 13 wishlist · as of
Details about Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998
A rum from Trinidad, bottled by Velier, at 68,4%.
Read on in the RumX Guide
All releases in this series
Velier Caroni 1st Employees John „D“ Eversley HTR 1996
Velier Caroni 1st Employees Dennis „X“ Gopaul HTR 1998
Velier Caroni 2nd Employees David „Sarge“ Charran 1996
Velier Caroni 2nd Employees Kevon „Slippery“ Moreno HTR 1998
Velier Caroni 3rd Employees Vijay „Vijay“ Ranmarine 1996
Velier Caroni 3rd Employees Ganesh „Buju“ Ramgobie 1998
Velier Caroni 3rd Employees Nita „Nitz“ Hogan 2000
Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998
Velier Caroni 4th Employees Dayanand „Yunkoo“ Balloon 1998
Velier Caroni 4th Employees Basdeo „Dicky“ Ramsarran HTR 2000
Velier Caroni 5th Employees Dhanraj „Dan“ Maharaj HTR 1996
Velier Caroni 5th Employees Roopnarine „Roop“ Toolsie HTR 1996
Velier Caroni 5th Employees Deodat „Breeze“ Manmohan HTR 1996
Velier Caroni 6th Employees United HTR 1996
Velier Caroni 6th Employees Mahesh “Sonny Black” Bridgelal HTR 1996
Velier Caroni 6th Employees Ricky “Dirty Harry” Seeharack HTR 1996
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