Quote:
Originally Posted by rumdog46
I guess my question is why did Patron take over the Planters Gold from SMS Importers and screw up the blend and change the name? I would think if you have a superior product as in the old Planters Gold why would you mess it up?
Really frustrated as I'm still trying to track down some of the old blend to add to my collection.
My quest for 2009
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The thread I started here is somewhat similar to your question. I am trying to build a timeline for the change. So far as I can tell the Pyrat line began approx in 1994 (please correct me if wrong). From the input by members so far it seems that bottle #'s 1- 130,000 or so were produced from approx. 1994-2005. I base this logic loosely on the bottle number sequence mentioned in prior posts and dates of acquisition. Additionally, my lowest Planters Gold is approx # 102,000. This comes from a gift set box (bottle of rum and 2 v-shaped flare style Pyrat glasses) with the SMS version of the product inside and Patron labels/advertisements all over the outer box. This came from a case marked 2005. A recent Pyrat gift to me had a bottle # over a million.
I do not think that Patron has tried to "screw up" Pyrat. I do think they saw a rum that had fantastic packaging (hand blown bottle, bright fabric on neck, Hoti medallion, and a good reputation). The rum has in my opinion one of the best marketable names for rum. Being a blend of rums gives lots of wiggle room on formula. Patron does
mass market beverages.
I think
(opinion only) that Patron wanted to expand on the mass market success of their tequila. They bought the Pyrat image and wanted to make a mass produced rum. Maybe they could not get enough of the nine rums to blend. Maybe one of the blenders refused to sell to Patron. Maybe Patron thought they could substitute cheaper rums and put additives in the blend to increase profit margins. Who knows? All I know is that it does taste different. This is from multiple side-by-side, bottle to bottle comparisons.
Also the packaging got cheaper. Although the bottles have little bubbles, they lack the "hand blown" markings on the bottom. My Planters bottles have a rough, broken off glass protrusion on the bottom. Probably from where the bottle was broken off the glass blowers' pipe. Also, there is only 1 piece of fabric around the neckeek.gif. All of these little changes help the bottom line.
In conclusion
(I think) the following:
- Planters Gold Pyrat XO began roughly around 1994.
- From 1994-2005 they sold around 140,000 bottles of Planters Gold Pyrat XO.
- Since Patron took over the whole operation (2005) until now, they have sold roughly 1,000,000 bottles of Pyrat XO. Nice job selling the stuff!!
- Patron is in the $$$ business, not the rum business (their website does not even have an active link for Pyrat). They make Tequila, orange liqueur, and now vodka. Their orange liqueur has the same fabric around the neck as Pyrat. I will let the conspiracy theory about Pyrat's pronounced orange overtone settle in now.
- Patron will deny or not acknowledge a change of formula (this is from many trade shows and discussions with Patron reps.) To their credit many had not been with Patron longer than a year and therefore may not have the knowledge base.
This type of thing happened to Zaya recently. I am sure it will happen again. My little quest for bottle numbers is purely for historical purposes only. I do not think the new Pyrat is garbage, but I do not think it is the same "small batch" type quality as before. Due to price, I have not been able to compare Cask 23 and Cask 1623.
Planter's Gold Pyrat XO (Older Blend)
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