Aroma visualization from community tastings
Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998
Sip this one neat with time in the glass — a few members say it needs 5-10 minutes and a couple drops of water to open. Then you get classic Caroni tar, glue, caramel and smoky wood, plus surprising tropical fruit and mandarin. The palate turns dry, roasted and a touch meaty with bacon and licorice. Strong, characterful, but reviewers call it slightly less integrated than its Employee siblings.
The community says- Classic Caroni tar
- Long smoky finish
- Dry, bitter palate
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Buy Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998:
Compare all 6 shop offers from 999.90 €
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The look inside the bottle
How does Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998 taste?
Aggregated from 60 community reviews.
Dirty, smoky Caroni that runs dry Loved as a proper dirty Caroni — tar, rubber, smoke and dry roasted wood — but many rank it just below the other 1998 Employees for being a bit unbalanced on the palate.
Caroni fans who want tar, rubber and smoke at cask strength
Newcomers and anyone wanting a soft, sweet, easy-drinking rum
How the community classifies this rum. Each category takes you to similar rums.
23 of 60 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums
How is Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998 rated?
RumX’s 0–10 scale is strict: 8.6 sits in the “Very good” band. 100% of tasters rate it Good or better; only 0% rate it below average. See the full rating guide →
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Community voices
What does the community say?
10% rate it between 6 and 8. 13 selected write-ups from 60 community ratings. 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:)
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Expert reviews
3 critics scored it, averaging 8.3/10. 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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Expert review by Zucker und Zeste
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Details about Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998
A rum from Trinidad, bottled by Velier, at 68,4%.
Community purchases
104 bottles logged by 83 collectors.
A collector's bottle.
4% opened, 3 emptied and repurchased.
What does Velier Caroni 4th Employees Balas „Brigade“ Bhaggan 1998 cost?
Community paid 212–1,290 €.
Current best price: 999.90 € – 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+ →
104 purchased · 61 tasted · 13 wishlist · as of
About the Caroni distillery
The Caroni distillery is located in Trinidad. Rums from Caroni have been reviewed 10,324 times with an average of 8.8/10.
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Velier Caroni 4th Employees Dayanand „Yunkoo“ Balloon 1998
Velier Caroni 4th Employees Dayanand „Yunkoo“ Balloon 1998Heavy, dirty Caroni at full cask strength
Velier Caroni 4th Employees Basdeo „Dicky“ Ramsarran HTR 2000
Velier Caroni 4th Employees Basdeo „Dicky“ Ramsarran HTR 2000Fruity, menthol-heavy tropical Caroni at cask strength
Velier Caroni 3rd Employees Vijay „Vijay“ Ranmarine 1996
Velier Caroni 3rd Employees Vijay „Vijay“ Ranmarine 1996Roasted, tarry Caroni with a softer side
Velier Caroni 3rd Employees Nita „Nitz“ Hogan 2000
Velier Caroni 3rd Employees Nita „Nitz“ Hogan 2000Dirty, powerful 2000 Caroni, long finish
Velier Caroni 6th Employees Ricky “Dirty Harry” Seeharack HTR 1996
Velier Caroni 6th Employees Ricky “Dirty Harry” Seeharack HTR 1996Dense, tarry 1996 Caroni for the faithful
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Oliver · FounderBy rum lovers, for rum lovers
I'm Oliver, and RumX began in 2018 as a small passion project in Stuttgart, back then under the name Rum Tasting Notes.
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