Rums for the Aspiring Cocktail Wonk

I love all my spirit friends – There are multiple fine specimens of Whiskey, Bourbon, Tequila, Gin, and Brandy in my home bar, but the spirit I’m truly wonky for is Rum.  Rum continues to have a bad reputation among many with only a glancing familiarity of the spirit. A common refrain I hear is “It’s too sweet”, which confounds me because I find commonly used rums to be no more or less sweet than other base spirits.

While rum is made from sugar or molasses, the distillation process removes nearly all of the sugar content. No, I believe people think rum is sweet because of crappy drinks made with too much day-glow syrup.    Something that surprises people is just how diverse a category rum is. The difference between Bacardi Silver (unfortunately many people’s only reference point) and a sipper like Ron Zacapa 23, or the extremely funky Smith And Cross is many times greater than the diversity found in Gins or Bourbons. Once you’re past the idea that rum means Captain Morgan and “Rum and Coke”, you’re ready to assemble a stable of rums that span the wide gamut of cocktail styles. Nearly every non-rum cocktail you can think of can have its base spirit substituted with a rum that makes the resulting drink equal to or better than the original – Think rum Negronis, Rum Old-fashioneds , and rum Manhattans, just for example. There’s a ton of good resources on the web that break down rum into different styles, and in great detail, and I won’t attempt to replicate them here. The worst categorization I see is along the lines of  

• Light   
• Medium   
• Dark   

Lumping dark rums together is like lumping Fiats and Ferraris together because they’re both from Italy. When a drink recipe calls for a “dark rum”, I know to keep it as a safe distance.  A slightly better categorization, but one that still is confusing unless you’re a serious rum-wonk is regional. Examples of this include: 

• Virgin Island   
• Barbados (Bajan)   
• Rhum Agricole   
• Demerara   
• Jamaican   

The problem here is that there’s still a enormous difference between rums in the same geographical category.  The agricole designation encompasses both relatively young versions that you’d mix with and aged sippers like Clement Grande Reserve. Likewise with Jamaican rums – Appleton V/X is a fine rum, but enormously different than my beloved Wray and Nephew overproof, full of funk and fire. The upshot is that imposing any sort of coherent taxonomy on rums is difficult at best – The ingredients, distillation and aging processes are far more important than regional designations.    That said, here’s how I mentally organize my rum collection, including actual brands and labels. The categories are roughly ordered by how important I consider them in assembling a collection that covers the bases for making a broad set of cocktails. That is, I’d start with the “switch hitter” style before diving into the “White Agricole” style.    Switch hitters – Solid, middle of the road rums that don’t veer too far into any  eccentricity. Good enough to sip straight, but not so expensive that you will cringe when using two ounces in a cocktail. They’re equally at home in a Palmetto (a rum Manhattan) as they’d be in a tiki fantasy. 

• Bacardi 8   
• Plantation 5   
• Plantation Original Dark (80 proof)   
• El Dorado 12   
• Appleton 12   

Silver – These are  rums you’d use in daiquiris, mojitos and drinks where a silver tequila or vodka is used.  The one I use consistently is Cana Brava. It’s flavor profile is night and day different than Bacardi Silver. Although I don’t have either at the moment, I like everything I’ve had from both Plantation and El Dorado, so you might consider the “3 Stars” and “3 year” respectively.   

• Cana Brava

Funky – These are primarily useful for tiki or “island style” drinks. The “funk” comes from a relatively high amount of esters which are organic compounds with a fruity essence. Generally these rums are from Jamaica. When I think of swashbuckling pirates and rum, these funky rums are what I’m dreaming of. Much like people have strong aversions to smoky scotch or mezcal, you tend to either love or hate rum funk.   Smith and Cross is my benchmark funky rum. I’m seriously in love with its fruity essence, and at 114 proof so a little goes a long way. A Negroni made with Smith and Cross transports me to a higher plane of happiness. Wray and Nephew is even higher octane at 126 proof and the esters are quite different than Smith and Cross, and I find they complement each other.  I think of Coruba as the little brother of Smith and Cross, despite being from the Wray and Nephew portfolio. A little less Jamaican funk, but at about half the price of Smith and Cross I mix Coruba freely in my tiki drinks.   

• Smith and Cross   
• Wrap and Nephew White Overproof   
• Coruba 

Luxury Sipping – I primarily sip these neat rather than mixing. Put ’em in a snifter like a good whisky or brandy. These rums are aged for longer time periods, typically 10+ years either in a single barrel or using the Solera method. They’re sweeter, and some people call them “dessert rums.” There’s been a lot of discussion lately about how much of the sugar comes from barrel aging versus sugar added by the distiller, which the distillers frequently deny.    This category represents a good part of my collection. Here are just a few in my bar that anybody could be confident making as their first or second purchase in this category: 

• Zacapa 23   
• Zaya   
• Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva   
• Santa Theresa 1796   
• Plantation 20   
• Dos Maderas P.X. 5+5   

The Zaya is a steal at around $25. It’s a good “gateway” rum to get people used to the idea of sipping rum neat rather than pouring it in a glass with Coke.   Dark Rums – Despite my protestation earlier about using the color of a rum as a category, there are a few rums useful both for their color and the heavy body they give to tropical drinks. 

• Lemon Hart (80 and 151)   
• Gosling’s Black Seal   
• Pusser’s   
• Bacardi Select   
• Cruzan Blackstrap   

The Cruzan Blackstrap has a particularly strong molasses flavor. A little goes a long way.   White Agricole Style – While most rums are made from a molasses base, agricole rums are made from cane sugar juice, which is a predecessor to molasses. The taste is described as “grassy” or “vegetal”. These rums are easily used in place of rums in the Silver category above to give cocktails a different flavor element.   Although there’s a fancy official government definition for what can be called “Rhum Agricole”, including being made in Martinique, the style is made elsewhere, including Haiti and Oregon. Brazilian cachaca is very similar to an agricole style rum, the primary difference being the alcohol content it’s distilled to. 

• La Favorite Rhum Blanc   
• Bull Run Distillery Pacific Rum 

Spiced Rums – This is a fairly wide category, as the amount and types of spices used varies widely. I don’t use spiced rums much, as I’d rather do my own infusions. However, if you must have something in this category, I’ve had good experiences with these rums: 

• Chairman’s Reserve Spiced Rum   
• Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum  

Disclaimer – There are plenty of rums that I’d solidly recommend but aren’t included above because they don’t fit  well into my broad categories. Also, the list is filtered by the rums that are reasonably available to me in the United States. Much as I love my Doorly’s 12 and St. Nicholas Abbey 15 rums, it took a trip to Barbados to acquire them, and at $150/bottle for the St. Nicholas Abbey, it’s not a starter rum.