RITUAL ZERO PROOF Rum Alternative | Award-Winning Non-Alcoholic Spirit | 25.4 Fl Oz (750ml) | Only 5 Calories | Sustainably Made in USA | Make Alcohol Free Cocktails

My wife (she's this account holder) surprised me with this stuff on my 42nd birthday. I haven't been able to drink for 12 years, and with a can of sodapop and a couple fingers of this rum, I got teleported to enjoying my favorite drink; Rum n Root Beer. Ritual Rum (in this case) by itself smells like rum, but tastes like tea, a bizarre mix if you drink it neat from the bottle. But if you put it in an acidic, carbonated drink, two things happen. The carbonation bites your tongue AND carries the odor to your nostrils, stinging from the carbonation vapors but smelling like rum. I don't know if I'd try it in raw soda water, but it works amazing as a Rum and Coke, and I assume the other Ritual flavors behave similarly. Ignore the star ratings, try it out, but mix it right, otherwise you're just drinking some otherwise rather healthy herb distillate.

This is my second Ritual Zero Proof purchase. I also have their tequila alternative which, although it is nothing like tequila, I've been able to come up with other ingredients to make some interesting non-alcoholic mocktails. This, their rum alternative however, is near undrinkable! Like their zero proof tequila, their rum alternative tastes absolutely NOTHING like rum and there is not going to be any combination of ingredients to make it be a replacement for actual rum. I expected that, and was hoping to at least be able to use it to create some interesting mixed drinks, but, unfortunately, the flavor is something I just can't enjoy. The aroma was a little like watered down root beer with a hint of molasses. Promising! And even though it's aroma is kind of weak, it made me hopeful that the taste might be something I'd be able to work with! Nope!! On first sip it tasted like I had taken a sip of a diluted, sweet bbq sauce mixed with a chemical campfire smoke additive. The chemical smoke flavor stuck around too!! Wanting to give it the benefit of the doubt I tried several more tastes and eventually the chemical smoke/BBQ flavor gave way to a very subtle dark chocolate but the chemical smoke aftertaste was always there! Still giving it a chance I tried it in several mocktail recipes (some from the ritual site and some of my own) and none of them are any good. There is just no getting past the campfire/BBQ taste! Try making a piña colada or rum punch with something that tastes like a campfire! Not happening! The only thing a could find that helped mask the nastiness was to top off the drinks with ginger beer and to make sure to always include lime juice. So there may be something there that will save this from going down the drain, but I'm not getting my hopes up!

I have tried half a dozen rum alternatives (non-alcoholic) and this is my favorite. I like it even better than some that are much more expensive.

I didn't think I'd miss the flavor of alcohol when I gave up drinking four years ago. Alcohol tastes like garbage. But something about that burning sensation I miss. The sort of icky flavor I miss. People call it a "complex flavor profile" and ... sure I guess. I'm not an expert, nor am I a connoisseur. But this tastes like rum to me. In a way it's sort of like drinking a sugar free soda or something with artificial sweetener. Which is to say: if you're sober, be careful. It sort of makes me want a real drink. But it isn't a buzz I am seeking, it's just the booze flavor / experience of drinking something booze-like that I miss. I've read the reviews about adding mixers and I haven't tried that yet. But I think it's a fool's errand to try and convince yourself this is the real deal when it's not. Instead, it's the sort of NA drink that gives me an impression of liquor. Sometimes it's almost psychosomatic that I am going to get buzzed from it. Right now I've been sipping it in a double shot glass, but eventually I will properly add it to my drink trolley and make cocktails with it. It is what others say that you can taste certain ingredients. There is a bit of a banana taste to it as one reviewer said. And a strong sense of vanilla, which is one of its main ingredients.

This is the first rum alternative I tried, so I don't have any comparisons; however, not impressed. I mixed this first with club soda and a second time with some flavored soda water, with a blackberry, lavender mojito elixir, and tasted like cough syrup. Initially, I thought the taste was familiar, but couldn't place it, and then, bam, cough syrup. Back to the drawing board.

I love that I can have the taste of Rum and coke without calories and alcohol! I can’t tell the difference.

It tastes like flavored water, I mean I wasn't expecting amazing, I just expected something good. When you smell it, it smells like flat rum. Think of a can of soda pop that's been left open for to long. It has the smell, but it's "flat". The taste,,,, Gawd I'm not like a real big rum drinker. I like Capt Morgan's, and I like Capt Morgan's "Black", the special reserve is funky. I was NOT expecting this to taste like either of the two mentioned rums, I was however expecting it to taste like rum, but it just tastes like flavored water that leaves a funky after taste. It's not even good as a mixer although I don't do fancy cocktails or nothin' like that.

Not for me! I got it hopping to make mocktail versions of rum drinks for friends that don’t drink alcohol. Tastes like a mix of vinegar and vanilla neat. Have tried making a few different cocktails and felt like it gave everything a very strong dirty/tobacco like flavor. Might be drinkable to some if you don’t use a small ratio with in soda or fruit juice? Definitely not a rum substitute and definitely not something I’d serve to friends. Kind of a bummer given the price.