Do scores matter in Rum Reviews?

At the bottom of most rum reviews (including mine) you’ll find a score. Sometimes it’s out of 10, sometimes 100, sometimes broken into categories with their own sub-scores. Depending on who you are, you’ll either zoom straight to it or scroll past without sparing it a second glance.

The idea for this post came about because I’ve been thinking about whether or not adding a score to my reviews is really doing something useful or adding any value and whilst the answer is yes, it’s probably not in the way most people would think.

I think the score on its own is fairly limited because without context it tells you almost nothing! An 8/10 from me will reflect a totally different set of priorities, palate preferences, and even mood on that particular evening than an 8/10 from someone else. At face value a score looks objective, but it rarely is.

Whilst it might not truly be objective, it doesn’t mean that reading other people’s scores is pointless! A consistent scoring system from a single reviewer becomes more and more useful over time as it creates a rough reference point – that allows comparison across their reviews.

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The process is where most of the value lives

What I’ve come to find over the past 5+ years of tasting and reviewing rums is that that the act of arriving at a score is often more valuable than the score itself!

That’s because in order for me to rank something out of ten, I’m forced to interrogate my own reaction. Do I actually like this? Why? How much? In what scenario would I reach for it? Is it better or worse than something I already know well? Did it meet/exceed my expectations? Is it worth the price? These aren’t the questions you’d typically ask yourself when you’re just drinking for pleasure, but they do sharpen your palate over time in a way that casual tasting doesn’t.

This is why I’d always encourage someone to read the tasting notes alongside any score I give because that is where you’ll find the reasoning, the context, the caveats. The score acts as a record of where my thinking landed.

Another thing I think is worth calling out is that scores aren’t permanent! Everybody’s palate shifts over time as experience deepens. A rum I scored highly early on in my rum journey might prove to be less impressive once I’ve tasted more widely. The reverse is true too, a rum that didn’t land with me back then can (and often will) grow on me over time.

This might be one of the more underappreciated benefits of scoring with dates attached. It becomes a record of your journey rather than a definitive verdict. Revisiting an old score and adjusting it isn’t an admission of error. It’s evidence that you’re paying attention and your palate is evolving.

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Whose score are you reading?

This is the part I think gets overlooked most often; a score only makes sense in relation to the person giving it… if you just read the first review you see without any context or knowledge of the reviewer you might end up missing out on a rum you’d love (or worse, waste money on one you’d hate!)

A good example for me is that I don’t tend to score agricole-style rums highly. It’s not a style I particularly enjoy, and that preference will show up in my review. If you love agricole, my 3 out of 10 shouldn’t put you off! Just know that it reflects a different set of tastes to yours and by knowing that about me before you read my scores it instantly makes them far more useful than taking them at face value.

This is why I’d suggest spending a little time understanding any reviewer before leaning on their scores for buying decisions. What do they tend to like? What styles or producers appear repeatedly at the top of their lists? Do their preferences overlap with yours? What have they scored rums you’ve liked or disliked? The score becomes a much better tool and reference point once you understand the person wielding it.

Last, but definitely not least, take some time to understand the scoring system! My own system is positively skewed to give distinction between good, very good, excellent and so on; other systems may arrive at the final score with factors unrelated to taste such as branding, transparency, price, etc and others realistically start at 50/100 which can feel a little misleading.

It’s important to understand the model as a 6/10 from me might meet your understanding of an 8; check out my post on how my scoring system works here.

A note on my own scores

You’ll find that most of my reviews land at 7 or above and that’s not a coincidence. It reflects the fact that I’ve spent enough time with a variety of rum styles to have a reasonable sense of what I’ll enjoy before I open a bottle. I’m not reviewing randomly. I’m writing about rums I’ve sought out, which naturally skews things upward.

That context matters if you’re using my scores as a guide. A 7 from me isn’t a middling result dragged down from a higher potential. It’s a rum I’d happily recommend.

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So, do they matter?

Yes. But to me, scores are closer to opinion than fact. Used well, with a consistent approach, honest notes, and an understanding of who’s doing the scoring, I think they can add genuine value. They can be useful when making buying decisions and helping prioritise where to spend your money, especially when you haven’t had the chance to taste something yourself.