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181DD01B-AA26-4A82-9AA2-BCFAAB04E5D9Trinidad Caroni Cadenhead's
Cadenhead's Caroni HTR 1997 70cl bottle
Bottle
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Aged rum · 20 years · 60,6%

Cadenhead's Caroni HTR 1997

Give it fifteen minutes to open and the Caroni markers crawl out neat: tar, rubber and diesel wrapped in caramel, orange and charred wood. At 60.6% it's warm and peppery but tasters keep calling it easygoing for an HTR — the dirty notes are all present without turning brutal. A few wish it leaned fruitier.

The community says
  • Full tar/rubber markers
  • Warm peppery spice
  • But: Hot at 60.6%

Offers & prices

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The look inside the bottle

How does Cadenhead's Caroni HTR 1997 taste?

Summarized by AI from community reviews.

Dirty, tarry Caroni that stays balanced Members love this 1997 Caroni for its full tar-and-rubber markers balanced by a gentle sweetness. Most call it harmonious and easy for the style; a couple wanted more fruit.

Perfect for

Caroni fans who want the diesel-and-tar markers

Less suitable for

Anyone new to rum or sensitive to high ABV

Experience level · Connoisseur (5/5)

Style & occasion: Mature & oakySipping neat

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 22 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums

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Recommendation

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What does the community say?

8.7/10 Very good

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

Rate it in the app
Distribution of all 22 ratings
9–10 5%
8–9 86%
7–8 9%
6–7 0%
5–6 0%
4–5 0%
0–4 0%

See the full rating guide

Positive from 8.0 · Mixed 6.0–7.9 · Critical below 6.0

Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰

Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
Dec 20237,218 reviewsDenmark
8.7/10

14.12.2023 Retasting this rum and I still love it. The Caroni notes are more subtle but the overall balance is nice. --------------- Once this rum is rested the Caroni notes just come crawling across the table. I rested it for 15+ minutes before giving it a go. The nose has smoky wood, tar and rubber trailed by caramel, orange and a light earthy note. The palate is kind of in your face with roasted/smoky wood, tar, rubber, mango, caramel and light tobacco and iodine. What I like is the warm pepperyness on the palate. The finish is long and warm with wood and some earthy notes.

Review by Rowald Sweet Empire

Rowald Sweet Empire
Sep 2024430 reviewsNetherlands
9.0/10

Great fruity caroni.

Review by Fuwi

Fuwi
May 2026287 reviewsGermany
8.6/10

Very pleasant, not too intrusive Caroni. Thanks first of all to @mto75 for the sample! The nose develops over time, I gave it an hour. The dirty impressions develop gradually, but bring everything you hope for. Dirt, rubber, solvents. But also vanilla, wood and floral elements. On the palate almost easy too, but lots to explore, really tasty and not as exhausting as HTR bottlings that want to be brutal - a very agreeable, beautiful Caroni

Expert reviews

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

Community shelf

18 bottles logged by 15 collectors.

Both drunk and collected.

27% opened, 3 emptied.

13 sealed 2 open 3 emptied

What did the community pay for Cadenhead's Caroni HTR 1997?

Community paid 117–239 €.

Purchase prices reported by members, not a shop price. Avg. 253 €. Full price & collection history in RX+ ›

18 purchased · 23 tasted · 5 wishlist · as of

Details about Cadenhead's Caroni HTR 1997

A Pot Still Rum from Trinidad, bottled by Cadenhead's, at 60,6%.

DistilleryCaroni
CountryTrinidad
CategoryPot Still Rum
Raw materialMolasses
DistillationPot Still
ABV60,6%
Age20 years
Vintage1997
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.

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Rating guide

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

Share of 11,134 rums with at least 4 ratings, calculated on October 10, 2026. Scale and calculation in detail ›