Your complete guide to drinking rum (2024)

It's time to throw away your rum and cola. From sipping to co*cktails and even snacks, here is everything you need to know about refining your relationship with rum.

The lineup

For a well-balanced tasting party, our expert panel – composed of craft distillers Lynne MacKay and Pierre Guevremont and Halifax mixologists Steven Cross of Two Doors Down and Shane Beehan of the forthcoming Lot Six Bar – recommends the following six sippers, based on history, geography and overall deliciousness. Serve, as below, from lightest to darkest and prepare for things to get a little rowdy.

Diplomatico Blanco Reserva

This celebrated Venezuelan “white” distillation is actually a blend of light and dark rums that are aged for no less than two and up to six years before being charcoal filtered for clarity. Cross and Beehan consider this a great sipping rum, but also an especially good choice for daiquiris. Perfectly clear with a buttery vanilla nose that enhances its caramel and roasted banana flavours.

Bacardi 8

Rich and complex, this blend of rums, all aged for a minimum of eight years, is one of the oldest private rum blends in the world, and a favourite sipping rum with bartenders. Far from being a craft distiller, the formerly Cuban and now Bermuda-based company is the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world. Look for dried fruit and dark berry aromas emanating from within a floral nose that gives way to crushed nutmeg and pepper flavours on the palate.

Flor de Caña Centenario 12-year Rum

Five tips for sipping

(Graham Roumieu for The Globe and Mail)

Lynne MacKay, co-owner of Ironworks Distillery in Lunenburg, N.S., makes a spirit called Bluenose Black that was named the World’s Best Dark Rum at the 2014 World Rum Awards. We tapped MacKay for her top tips to get the most out of your tasting.

1. Take your best shot glass

“Grappa glasses are really good,” MacKay says, but notes that “anything that funnels the aromas to the nose is a good bet.”

2. Get warmer

MacKay suggests serving rums neat and at room temperature, “because that’s where you’re going to get the most flavour and the most aroma out of them.” Unlike at a wine tasting, she says, it’s okay to hold the glass in your hands in order to warm the rum up ever so slightly.

3. Approach with (nasal) caution

“Take it slowly. Don’t breathe it in like you would wine because that will blow your nose to smithereens,” MacKay warns. “You want to kind of creep up on it slowly – even one nostril at a time – from a distance. Let the beverage seduce you with its fragrance and aromas, then kind of back away from it for a minute before you take a closer sniff. That will produce the best effect, because strong alcohol will render your nose incapable of discerning anything.”

4. Down the hatch

co*cktail recipes

Robin Kaufman, bartender at the Toronto Temperance Society, mixes up a rum co*cktail that's clear in colour but has the body and heft of a brown drink. “The Mount Gay Silver is the round backbone,” he explains, “with vanilla notes, coconut and light tropical fruit. The gin cuts into the roundness with sharp botanicals, and the Bianco vermouth enhances both base spirits while the grapefruit aromatics lift the drink, and bring out yet another layer of flavour.”

Silver Fox

½ ounce Mount Gay Silver

½ ounce Hayman’s Old Tom Gin

1 ounce Carpano Bianco Vermouth

1 1-by-2-inch strip of grapefruit zest

Method: Place the first three ingredients in a mixing glass. Stir with ice for 40 to 60 rotations. Strain into a Nick and Nora glass. Spritz with grapefruit oils and discard the peel.

“This is a great way to explore different rums is in a classic daiquiri,” says Vancouver-based bar consultant Shaun Layton. For this recipe, he incorporates two styles of Jamaican rum: the complex and spicy Smith & Cross, a high-proof aged pot-still rum, and the Wray and Nephew, a funky, fruity and aromatic spirit that is the top-selling rum in Jamaica. “The Giffard is not your typical sickly sweet banana liqueur,” Layton says. “It’s very vegetal and almost tastes like underripe banana and marries perfectly with the Jamaica rums.”

Banana Daiquiri 2.0

1.5 ounces Smith & Cross Jamaican rum

1/3 ounce Wray and Nephew overproof Jamaican rum

¾ ounce Giffard Banane du Brésil liqueur

1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

Method: Place ingredients in a co*cktail shaker, add ice and shake hard for 20 to 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled co*cktail glass. Float a few drops of Wray and Nephew on top of the drink.

Appleton VX, a big, pot-still heavy Jamaican rum, can be a bit hot to sip neat. Joe Howell, head bartender at The Spoke Club, mixes it with chocolate bitters, to smooth out the heat, and Galliano, which harmonizes well with its natural vanilla undertone from the oak aging.

The Chocolate-Vanilla Rum Old Fashioned

2 ounces Appleton Estate Signature Blend Jamaica Rum

¼ ounce Galliano liqueur

2 dashes Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters

Dash of simple syrup (1 part water to 1 part sugar)

Lemon zest (for garnish)

Method: Place the first four ingredients in a mixing glass and stir with ice. Strain into a rocks glass, top with ice and garnish with lemon zest.

Rum-loving snacks

The sugarcane-based spirit pairs well with a spectrum of flavours, from cured and creamy to acidic and bitter. Offering guests a selection from each category is a good way to bring the versatility of rum to the fore.

With light rum: Sweet and mellow grilled coconut wedges and an umami-heavy bowl of tamari almonds.

With darker rum: Cold-smoked salmon or gravlax on dark rye, which draws out darker rum’s complexity.

With aged rum: Spicy, boldy flavoured ‘nduja on toast points or jerk chicken wings.

With your final pairing: Sharp, creamy Crottin de Chavignol goat cheese or good-quality single-origin chocolate such as St. Lucia’s Hotel Chocolat.