Raising Glasses Perennia - Caroni 27 Year Single Cask Rum
Reviewer: Pickwick
Distillery: Caroni
Origin: Caroni Plains, northwest Trinidad
Bottle Size: 375 ml
Bottle Count: “Just over 400” according to online retail sources
ABV: 58%
Distilled: 1997
Base Material: Molasses
Still: Column
Aging specs: 12 years tropical (Trinidad), 15 years continental (UK)
Bottled: 2025
Nose: Cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, root beer float, burnt sugar, varnish
Palate: Black cherry, cola, marshmallow, rubber, liquorice allsorts, smoke, iodine
Finish: Industrial floor, roasted nuts, mint, flambéed orange peel
If you didn’t need me to explain Caroni to you when I reviewed the Flag Series bottling, you don’t need me to explain it now (if you do, well, here’s that review). Suffice it to say that when Raising Glasses dropped this bottling in the summer of 2025, it was one of the first chances that many of us had to get our hands on a Caroni at anything resembling an affordable price point. Your mileage may of course vary on whether $275 for a half bottle is especially affordable, but certainly the raw outlay (ignoring the by-volume cost) beats most other Caronis I’ve ever come across. With that in mind, it’s somewhat amazing that - as of this writing - there are still bottles available on the Raising Glasses website. It feels like maybe people lost track when it initially sold out and missed the restock! (Or, you know, maybe there’s a lot of hesitation to drop $275 on a single bottle, let alone a half bottle. But it’s Caroni!)
It’s inevitable, coming so soon after I reviewed the Flag Series bottling, that my mind would be drawn there for comparison purposes when tasting this bottle. I think there are a lot of similarities - the nose also features a lot of spice and sweetness, and on the palate this bottle hits with even more fruit, sugar, and spice before tripping over to the industrial side with notes of rubber and smoke. This is as light on its feet as any heavy Caroni you’re likely to taste these days, especially when you consider the age. There’s still a ton of darkness, but it’s fruity and sweet darkness. If you love the really grimy, dirty, licking-a-garage-floor Caronis of legend, this actually may not be for you. For the Caroni-curious, however, there’s a ton of flavor here. There’s still enough industrial heaviness to give you an idea of what Caroni is all about, but that’s not the entire story of the bottle. It’s winter spices, cherry cola, a bag of liquorice allsorts. I rated this as my fifth favorite rum of 2025 and in some ways I’m surprised I didn’t end up ranking it higher. It’s just a fabulous example of a distillery that isn’t always for everyone producing something that is distinctly their rum but nevertheless as close to a crowd-pleaser as they get.
I might argue that the Flag Series bottling is slightly more complex, but Perennia just edges it for me on undeniable pure pleasure. It’s another 5 on Taste for Caroni. For Haste, I’m actually going to bump this one up to a 4. Again, $275 for a half bottle is pretty steep on a volume basis, but the ability to get your hands on your own bottle of Caroni for that number, especially when it’s one this distinctly good? Not to mention it’s sold by a US retailer, so the international shipping required for a lot of American rum nerds to get their hands on a Caroni from a decent bottler doesn’t come into play either. If you live in the States and you don’t own any Caroni yet, you should make this the one.
Taste/Haste Scale: 5 / 4
