Dark Rum

Dark rum here means aged and molasses-based, and the range is organised by origin because that is what actually determines the style.

Guyana is the deepest section. El Dorado runs 3, 5, 8, 15 and 21 Year Old, plus the 151 and single still bottlings from the historic Enmore and Diamond stills. These are the Demerara rums, heavy and richly sweet.

Barbados comes through the Foursquare estate: Doorly's at 3, 12, 14 and XO, RL Seale 10 Year, and the Exceptional Cask releases that collectors follow closely. Bajan rum sits drier and more elegant than Demerara.

Pusser's holds the Royal Navy tradition, from the Blue Label through Gunpowder Proof at 54.5%, the 151, and the 15 Year Crown Jewel. Admiral Rodney covers St Lucia with Monarch, Princessa and Formidable. Dos Maderas brings the Spanish solera style with the 5+5 and Luxus 10+5.

Shipwreck from St Kitts and Arcane from Mauritius handle the flavoured end, including vanilla, coffee, mango and coconut.

The range runs from everyday mixing rum through to single cask bottlings that collectors chase.

What dark, navy, overproof and Demerara actually mean, and why colour is not age, is set out in our guide to the types of rum.

History

Rum began as a way of using what was left over. Caribbean sugar plantations produced molasses in enormous quantity as a byproduct of refining, and by the mid seventeenth century Barbados distillers were fermenting and distilling it. The earliest surviving references to the drink come from Barbados in the 1650s.

The Royal Navy fixed rum's place in the culture. From 1655 the daily ration was rum rather than beer, and from 1740 it was diluted with water into grog. The ration survived until 31 July 1970, still remembered as Black Tot Day. Pusser's is bottled to the Admiralty blend of Demerara-led rum that the Navy actually issued.

Style is largely determined by still and by climate. Guyana kept a set of wooden pot and coffey stills, including the Enmore wooden coffey and the Port Mourant double wooden pot, that exist nowhere else, which is why Demerara rum tastes the way it does. Barbados blends pot and column. Tropical ageing is fast: a year in a Caribbean warehouse takes out several times more spirit to evaporation than a year in Scotland, so an eight year old rum has done more work than an eight year old whisky.

Those wooden stills get a page of their own in our Demerara guide, and the naval side is traced in our navy rum guide.

How to drink it

Sipping rum starts around the 12 year mark. Use a tulip glass, serve at room temperature and leave the ice out. An El Dorado 15 or a Doorly's XO gives you dried fruit, molasses, coffee and oak without needing anything added.

Below that, dark rum is a mixing spirit and a very good one. Pusser's Gunpowder Proof at 54.5% is built for a Painkiller: rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, cream of coconut, shaken and grated nutmeg over the top. A Dark and Stormy needs a heavy rum and good ginger beer, with the rum floated on top rather than stirred through.

For a Daiquiri, use a lighter aged rum rather than a heavy Demerara, which will overwhelm the lime.

If you are buying a first bottle to learn from, an El Dorado 8 does the most teaching for the money. Pour it next to a Doorly's 12 and the difference between Guyana and Barbados becomes obvious immediately.