Aroma visualization from community tastings
Ron Zacapa Sistema Solera 23
People easing into rum are the natural audience here: soft, low-heat, and sweet, with brown sugar, vanilla and caramel up front, a little oak and chocolate underneath. Several tasters call it a "great sipping rum for beginners" and a fine gift. Enthusiasts find it too sweet and one-dimensional, and note the sugar sits heavy. The 40% keeps it gentle but some still catch alcohol on the nose.
The community says- Smooth, easy sipping
- Caramel-vanilla sweetness
- But: Added sugar
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The look inside the bottle
How does Ron Zacapa Sistema Solera 23 taste?
Aggregated from 1,778 community reviews.
Soft, very sweet caramel-vanilla beginner sipper Loved as a first sweet sipper, divisive among enthusiasts. Caramel, vanilla and chocolate, easy and round, but many find it too sweet, thin, and heavy on marketing.
People starting out who like sweet, soft, low-heat sippers
Anyone avoiding sugar or wanting dry, complex, high-ester rum
How the community classifies this rum. Each category takes you to similar rums.
Which glass for which rum? The community guide →
222 of 1,778 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums
Recommendation
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How is Ron Zacapa Sistema Solera 23 rated?
RumX’s 0–10 scale is strict: 7.0 sits in the “Good” band. 49% of tasters rate it Good or better; only 10% rate it below average. See the full rating guide →
Community voices
What does the community say?
58% rate it between 6 and 8. 18 selected write-ups from 1,778 community ratings. You can view the complete list in our app.
One of the community's most-rated rums
Review by Konstantin Precht
One of my all-time favorites, good for beginners who had their first sweet rum and want something a little more interesting. Creamy vanilla, caramel, and some wood on the palate with a nice finish that could be a bit longer. Good daily sipper but not very complex.
Review by LukaŽiga
Most helpful positive review
8:On the nose it initially gives a bouquet of brown sugar, it reminds a little of a chocolate or caramel/toffee sauce for ice cream or desserts, red, tropical fruits, raisins are there, also a feeling for the aged rums in the blend with a little oak and cocoa coming through. 8,5:Upon tasting, the rum is not as sweet as expected. The nosing suggested it could be as sweet as some older El Dorado rums with much more sugar. . The Zacapa 23 is actually not as dry as XO, but it is oaky, buttery, vanillia, a note of coffee expresses itself. The flavour builds if you leave the rum in your mouth for a little longer allowing it to coat the palate. You then get some of the cocoa flavours, caramel and a little bit of tropical fruit, raisins-sherry finish present. 8,5:on the finish the rum is very smooth and has almost none aftertaste or alcohol burn. Red fruits, punchy taste is carrying on, with minimum dryness. It is very pleasant to sip it, no matter what is written about it, this is a tasty and really round rum, few added grams sugar more or less🙂. Edit:29.6.25, a nice sipper
Review by Michael Schillheim
Most helpful critical review
My second bottle of this rum. I bought the first bottle deliberately in my early days, but this one was a gift. Spicy, slightly sweet, vanilla, caramel and alcoholic notes. More marketing than quality in the bottle
Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
This is a very well balanced rum from Zacapa and I like is a lot especially considering the price tag. The nose is heavy with spice and sweetness and a touch of orange zest and chocolate. The palate is well rounded with caramel, honey and chocolate topped of with burnt oak and overripe fruits. It has a long, sweet and fruity finish with burnt oak. I'd say this one is better than the bottling from the late 90s and early 00s that won medals. Price to quality is very good.
Review by Jakob
Pleasant and widely available - one of the rums that every rum lover has probably had in their glass at least once. With typical rum aromas of vanilla, caramel and spice - the profile is primarily characterized by a dominant sweetness. Very accessible, manageable complexity.
Review by Rumbaer
The Ron Zacapa 23 was a recommendation and for me a direct hit. A great smell of vanilla, fruit and a little wood. The taste is mild and smooth. A little more wood than in the smell. Lingers longer on the tongue. Very pleasant. Sweetened yes, but not too sweet Nice dark color, unfortunately helped with caramel. My first Zacapa but certainly not the last.
Review by Tim
Very well-known and popular rum and also not quite as sweet as a Diplomatico, but the price-performance ratio is bad with Zacapa. Pleasantly round after caramel, honey, vanilla, and fruit, but some alcohol sharpness with it. In the mouth clearly spicier than the nose suggests. Positive is the roasty aroma in the mouth and finish, which can be associated with coffee.
Review by Galli33
Back to the roots 😎😝 A long time ago… Back in 2020 this was my start into this wonderful magick world of RUM😎 BTW it’s good for desert and the sweet-rum-lovers. The alcohol is very dominant here! Also the price tag is too high (in my opinion), you can get easily some better rums out there.
Review by Gerbes
Very long ago my favourite rum. I have even chosen it to be the only rum on my wedding. After some time I think that the quality went down. So I kind of left the rum as it was to 'commercialised'. However I have to admit that even after so many years, it is still one of the best and worth of not only trying but also regular drinking.
Review by Adrian Wahl
Marketing was good with Zacapa, but to suggest it is a 23 year old premium rum I find difficult. The taste is not premium
Review by BjörnNi 🥃
Caramel and vanilla. Not bitter. Delicious
Review by Quentin Demillière
Zacapa is in a pudgy mood. Very pleasant on the palate, its sweetness leaves us on a woody, spicy path. I highly recommend it.
Review by Enriko Špinler
Zacapa is a rum I would never buy. And not because it's bad, but for that price I'd rather buy something better (pusser's, black tot...). If I gave it to someone who doesn't drink rum, they would like it. The bottle also looks nice, ideal as a gift (for someone who likes rum once in a while). To me it is a very sweet rum and also only 40% alcohol. I find the smell too artificial and the taste is round, but to me it's like drinking water, very weak. More like a gift than for drinking. 5/10
Review by Steffmaus🇩🇰
One of my first meets with the Solera term. An easy sipper, although too sweet for me. In the nose I got caramel and vanilla. The notes gave off caramel and chocolate to me, and also some hints of dried fruits
Review by RumTaTa
This is the rum that started it all. A bottle as a gift from a friend. At first it sat unopened in the cupboard for a long time - I was more preoccupied with my whisky bottles at the time. At some point I opened it to be able to answer the repeated question 'how does it taste': quite nice but nothing compared to Highland Park 18 or Laphroiag 10. Guests and myself were given a glass every now and then until the bottle was almost empty without it being noticed. I then took more time with the last 3-5 cl and lo and behold, an interesting tobacco/smoky note, burnt sugar. Not at all uninteresting! And then, of course, the questions: Is that all rum can do? Are there also cask strength bottlings? Are there flavor monsters like whisky? And the answers: No! Yes! YES! So, thank you Zacapa 23 for pointing out the door to the rum world! And today I've had it in my glass again for a long time. And I confess it's better than I remembered. Sure, it's not cask strength and the Spanish style is generally not my first choice. But the fine spice, chocolate, cask and dried fruit are well balanced and give a very rounded impression. An everybodys darling outside the rum scene. And that is also its greatest weakness: too arbitrary, too pale, too round. It was nice to be able to try it again, but it will be some time before we meet again 😉
Review by Dunzi
A really good classic. Balanced and round in taste, a long finish with a slight pleasant spiciness.
Review by Gunnar Böhme "Bauerngaumen" 🤓
Probably the maximum of many hotel bars, but suitable for gentlemen's evenings at best as an unspectacular starter. Relatively flat, short and somewhat boring. If it has to be Spanish style at all, I would almost prefer the Cuban Eminente, even if it is supposedly much younger.
Review by Rumpalumpa
Tasted this beginner's classic for the first time. I'm surprised how alcoholic it is on the nose. But also red fruits which are quite pleasant. No surprises on the palate but also not quite as sweet as I would have expected
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Expert reviews
2 critics scored it, averaging 6.2/10. Reviews from RumX's blog partners, independent experts who have tasted, evaluated, and described this rum..
Expert review by Rhummer
Read full review →The nose is smooth with caramel and vanilla. Taste enveloping, spicy oak, dried fruit and vanilla. Sweet finish not particularly persistent. Rum Zacapa was created in 1976 to commemorate the centennial of the founding of the Guatemalan city of Zacapa. The name, in Aztec, means "on the river of grass."
Expert review by The Fat Rum Pirate
Read full review →Ever the bargain hunter. As the picture shows even the Zacapa glass is slightly different and geared very much to sipping the rum and swirling it around in the glass a bit like they do with fine cognac's in the movies. it gives an extra touch of class to an...
Live auctions
Current bids for this rum at Europe's leading auction houses.
Market value
What this bottle last achieved at auction. A research indicator, not a forecast.
Auction results 35 € – 66 €
from 16 sales, latest 07/2026
Prices incl. buyer's premium — what a buyer pays, not what a sale nets you.
Avg. community purchase price 42 €
What members paid for this bottle, self-reported. Not a market value — the purchases are over three years old at the median and unverified.
Details about Ron Zacapa Sistema Solera 23
A Column Still Rum from Guatemala, distilled by Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala, at 40%.
Community purchases
4,026 bottles logged by 2,868 collectors.
A drinker's rum.
49% opened, 462 emptied and repurchased.
What does Ron Zacapa Sistema Solera 23 cost?
Community paid 35–64 €.
Current best price: 38.90 € – within the typical community range.
What members actually paid for their bottles. A typical range, not the current shop price. Full price & collection history in RX+ →
+90 purchases in the last 3 months.
Added to collections, last 12 months — dark bars are the last 3.
4,026 purchased · 1,908 tasted · 823 wishlist · as of
About the Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala distillery
The Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala distillery is located in Guatemala. Rums from Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala have been reviewed 4,301 times with an average of 7.4/10.
To Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala →Read on in the RumX Guide
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