The guide to categorising Rum
Ah Rum - the bad boy of the spirits world! So many categories, so many styles & so many BAD rums dues to lack of laws governing the category. Ever since I was a young bartender I found it difficult to explain Rum & its production to people. So find a handy guide to help us all.
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 categorisation 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 CocktailWonk mentally organizes his 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.
DonQ Cristal
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
Don Q Gran Anejo
Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva
Santa Theresa 1796
Plantation 20
Dos Maderas P.X. 5+5
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
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, agricolerums 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 “RhumAgricole“, 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
Gargano Rum Classification – Categories
Rather than use colour, age or even Geography Luca Gargano has opted for a much simpler approach based on the method of production. Which is something from looking into the subject that has not been seriously considered or implemented before
The system is relatively simple rum is classified in the following manner:
Pure Single Rum – Molasses 100% Batch Pot Still Distillation Pure Single Agricole Rhum – Cane Juice 100% Batch Pot Still Distillation Single Blended Rum – Blend of 100% Traditional Column and Pot Still rums
Traditional Rum – Traditional 100% Column Still Distillation Modern Rum – Modern / Industrial Multi-Column Distillation
Pure = 100% Pot Still rum Single = 100% Single Distillery rum