Rums

Rum is the largest spirit category in this shop, and the easiest way through it is by origin.

Guyana means El Dorado and Demerara: heavy, sweet and unmistakable, from 3 Year through to 21, plus single still bottlings from the historic Enmore and Diamond stills.

Barbados means the Foursquare estate. Doorly's at 3, 12, 14 and XO, RL Seale 10 Year, and the Exceptional Cask series. Drier and more precise than Guyana.

Martinique means agricole, distilled from fresh cane juice under the only AOC for rum in the world. Rhum JM, Habitation Saint-Etienne, Saint James, Depaz and Neisson.

Pusser's holds the Royal Navy blend. Admiral Rodney covers St Lucia, Dos Maderas the Spanish solera style, Arcane and Beach House Mauritius, Barbancourt Haiti, and Shipwreck the flavoured end from St Kitts.

Australian rum is represented by Brix, Canberra Distillery and Karu.

If you are new to the category, an El Dorado 8 and a Doorly's 12 side by side is the fastest education available. If you already know molasses rum, start with a JM Blanc.

Our picks by style, from Demerara and Barbados to navy and Australian rum, are in the best rum to buy in Australia, while five reasons to explore rum is the gentler start. For the categories themselves, our guide to the types of rum sorts out dark, navy, overproof and Demerara, and explains why colour is not age.

History

Rum starts with sugar. Caribbean plantations from the seventeenth century produced molasses in volumes they could not use, and Barbados distillers were fermenting it by the 1650s. It became the currency of Atlantic trade, and the Royal Navy's daily ration from 1655 until 1970.

In Australia, rum, whisky and brandy must all be matured in wood for at least two years before release, but beyond that floor rum has few shared rules: no agreed definition of what counts as a solera, and no requirement to declare added sugar. That is why the category is confusing, and why producer and origin matter more here than any label term.

Style comes from three things. The base: molasses or fresh cane juice. The still: pot for weight, column for lightness, and in Guyana a set of wooden stills that survive nowhere else. And the climate: tropical ageing removes several times more spirit per year to evaporation than a Scottish warehouse, so a tropical eight year old has aged harder than the number suggests.

Barbados, Martinique and Jamaica have each moved to define and protect their own styles. Most of the rest of the world has not.

How to drink it

Match the rum to the job.

For sipping, look at 12 years and above. El Dorado 15, Doorly's XO, Pusser's 15 Year, Foursquare's Exceptional Casks. Tulip glass, room temperature, no ice.

For a Daiquiri, use a light or moderately aged rum. Three parts rum, one part lime, half a part sugar syrup, shaken hard.

For a Ti Punch, only an agricole blanc at 50% or more will do.

For a Painkiller or a Dark and Stormy, reach for something heavy: Pusser's Gunpowder Proof or an El Dorado.

For an Old Fashioned made with rum, a Demerara 12 or 15 works beautifully with a dash of Angostura and no more than a bar spoon of syrup.

Rum does not improve once bottled, so there is no reason to hold a bottle you want to drink. Keep it upright, out of sunlight, and finish an opened bottle within a year or two.

Common questions

What are the different types of rum?

Style comes from three things rather than from any official classification. The base: molasses, or fresh cane juice, which gives agricole its grassy character. The still: pot for weight, column for lightness, and in Guyana a set of wooden stills that survive nowhere else. And the climate, because tropical ageing removes several times more spirit per year to evaporation than a Scottish warehouse, so a tropical eight year old has aged harder than the number suggests. Origin is the most useful shortcut: Guyana for heavy and sweet, Barbados for dry and precise, Martinique for cane juice agricole.

What kind of alcohol is rum?

A spirit distilled from sugar cane, either from molasses, which is the by product left after sugar is crystallised, or from fresh pressed cane juice. In Australia, rum, whisky and brandy must all be matured in wood for at least two years before release, but beyond that floor rum has few shared rules: no agreed definition of a solera, and no requirement to declare added sugar. That is why the category is confusing, and why the producer and the origin tell you more than any word on the label.

What is the smoothest rum to drink straight?

Look at twelve years and above, and expect sweetness rather than softness to be doing the work. El Dorado 15 Year Old from Guyana is the easiest introduction because Demerara rum is naturally sweet. Doorly's XO and the Foursquare Exceptional Casks from Barbados are drier and more precise. Pusser's 15 Year Old sits between them. Serve any of them in a tulip glass at room temperature with no ice.