Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998
For seasoned enthusiasts: a full-proof 22‑year Caroni that rewards time in the glass. Expect tar, rubber, smoky wood, tropical and yellow fruits, caramel, chocolate and floral notes. Complex, dry, long‑finishing, highly praised by 59 RumX reviewers.
- Classic Caroni dirt
- Deep tropical fruit
- Very long finish
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Details about Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998
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How does Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998 taste?
Aggregated from 59 community reviews.
Dry, smoky, complex Caroni heavyweight For seasoned enthusiasts: a full-proof 22‑year Caroni that rewards time in the glass. Expect tar, rubber, smoky wood, tropical and yellow fruits, caramel, chocolate and floral notes. Complex, dry, long‑finishing, highly praised by 59 RumX reviewers.
Seasoned Caroni fans who enjoy full-proof, dry, smoky rums with tar, rubber, wood and complex tropical fruit evolution in the glass.
Beginners, anyone sensitive to high ABV, or drinkers who prefer sweet, soft, easygoing rums over dry, tannic and dirty profiles.
How is Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998 rated?
RumX's 0–10 scale is strict — 8.6 lands squarely in the "Very good" band. 100% of tasters rate it Good or better; only 0% rate it below average. See the full rating guide →
Rum reviews
A selection of the most popular reviews from our community. You can view the complete list in our app.
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 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 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 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 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 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 Filip Šikula
První zaměstnanec večera. Technická vůně, dehet, nakouřené dřevo. V chuti po načucháni překvapí intenzivní ovoce spolu se dřevem a gumou. Krásný komplexní rum. Závěr dlouhý, hřejivý a velmi velmi příjemný. Svincany caroni tasting 19.12.2024
Review by Oliver
Top nose. A little too dry on the palate. But still one of the winners of the 1998 vintage.
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 Christoph H.
Der Brigade hat die Lager teilweise sehr gespalten. Ich kann beide Seiten verstehen. Auf der einen Seite, war ich von der Nase sehr positiv überrascht, das Aroma ist schön warm, angenehm und rund. Die dreckigen Aromonen sind da, drängen sich jedoch nie in den Vordergrund. Im Zusammenspiel mit der langen Fassreifung, finde ich das sehr gelungen. Im Mund kommts dann jedoch sehr unerwartet. Sehr trocken, bitter, röstig und unrund. Lakritze finde ich wieder und tatsächlich erinnert der Geschmack mich sehr an einen Obstler. Da hat er sehr schwer gegen seine Konkurrenz im Hause Velier
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:)
Expert reviews
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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Community purchases
133 bottles logged by 52,000+ RumX members. The ratio of closed / opened / emptied, indicates whether this rum is meant to be drunk or is a collector's item.
Also on the wishlist of 13 members.
About the Caroni distillery
The Caroni distillery is located in Trinidad. Rums from Caroni have been reviewed 10,072 times with an average of 8.8/10.
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