An credible alternative to Malibu! (Captain Morgan Rum Parrot Bay)

Member Name: nks62

Product:	Captain Morgan Rum Parrot Bay
Date:	04/08/08 (229 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Taste, still fairly smooth, nice bottle!

Disadvantages: Probably still be too sweet for many, no cheaper than Malibu

I happened to discover Parrot Bay a while ago, whilst looking around for a cheaper alternative to Malibu. Having tried the cheaper choices from Morrisons (Bali), and Somerfield (Paradise Island) and not being particularly impressed - Paradise Island was fairly tolerable actually, but I found Bali to be pretty rough-tasting. It turned out this was a pretty similar price to Malibu, but offers something different to the others, particularly in the taste.

Whilst others I had tried were clearly direct imitations of Malibu, this was not. It was the attractive design on the bottle which first caught my eye, and I was unaware of what the drink actually was until looked at the bottle more closely.

Price-wise, I have only seen this on sale in Somerfield, where I think the standard price is £11.99 for 70cl, although it was on promotion for £9.99 at the time of buying, good news for the student budget! Slightly less expensive than Malibu, but more than the imitations I've had the chance to try. Parrot Bay is 20% volume, around the same as Malibu at 21%.

With lemonade, Parrot Bay is still a very smooth tasting drink. Distinctly, it manages to be less sickly than many people seem to find Malibu, whilst at the same time having an almost sharper taste with different flavourings, although the cocunut is still rich. It is still a very easy spirit to drink, it goes down particularly well with a mixer (almost too quickly!), yet still manages to be drinkable on its own, or with only a small proportion of lemonade.

To be honest, there's not much more I can say about Parrot Bay, it manages to taste sweeter than the Southern Comfort I often drink, whilst offering a slightly sharper taste (albeit it still very sweet) than its closest alternative, Malibu. I chose it just because I fancied a change, and for anyone thinking along the same lines it's worthwhile giving it a try.

Summary: A good balance between the slighlty sweet and the very sweet.