I need some advice on a really good or great brand of rum, for a very important gift.
If price is no object, what are your top three?
Here is a list from Forbes Magazine that may be of help to you. Before I found this list, the rums made by Mount Gay and Cruzan came to mind…
I don’t think you could go wrong with any of the rums on the list.
I highly recommend Ron Zacapa Centenario. It’s a fabulously smooth sipping rum, fairly dark and with a sweet note. And hey, it comes in a spiffy bottle.
Pyrat rum is also good, but it has a very pronounced flavor that may be overwhelming to some folks.
I also like Cruzan single barrel rum–it’s a quite good medium-bodied rum, and is kinda reminiscent of whiskey. I use it to make my favorite cocktail ever (a kind of mutant Manhattan).
In the end, I’d go for the Centenario.
The Pyrat Planters XO I’ve heard called the “best rum I ever tasted” and “the only rum I’d ever drink straight.”
Brinley Gold Vanilla rum is also apparently quite good, if you like vanilla, although it started tasting a little funny when they started making coffee rum as well.
My favorite (actually quite inexpensive, around $15 a bottle) is Sailor Jerry. It has a hint of cherry and vanilla, nice alcohol content (92 proof), and is very smooth. Goes great with any caramel soda (Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, the cherry or vanilla variations of each). Very yummy and far better than any other spiced rum I’ve had.
If you’re looking for non-spiced rum, I’m a fan of the Bacardis. But I only like dark rum, the clear stuff makes me gag.
I knew I could count on you guys! Since I don’t drink anymore (and never cared for rum in general), I am clueless!
Hard to find in a lot of places, but I took a strong liking to R L Seale’s 10 yr old Barbados Rum while working in Kansas City. Bartender at my favorite steakhouse recommended it one night, and it was a match made in heaven. Straight up or even slightly warmed served in a snifter - hmmmm.
Hard to find in a lot of places, but I took a strong liking to R L Seale’s 10 yr old Barbados Rum while working in Kansas City. Bartender at my favorite steakhouse recommended it one night, and it was a match made in heaven. Straight up or even slightly warmed served in a snifter - hmmmm - please, just keep it away from Coke.
my 1st double - just wish it had been a Seale’s instead
My husband is a rum aficionado. He has a collection of bottles of rum from many places in the Caribbean. His favorite is Ron Barcelo Imperial Premium Blend, 21 Aniversario. It makes a great gift as it comes in a nice-looking metal box. I just don’t know where you can buy it online.
Recommend a rum? Og yes, several…
Excellent Hatian go with Rhum Barbancourt, smooth, tasty, with a fair kick, and mixes like silk.
Now if you’re in the mood for a fine Jamaican it doesn’t get much better than the 21 Y.O. Appleton Estate. It’s like drinking history, any Rhum aficiando would be proud to stock it.
Then, of course, there’s the Cuban ones, if you’ve got the connections. Havana Club Especial or Anejo is a rare treat and prize.
If it’s a something to mix your lucky recipient is needing, Mount Gay Rhum is the stuff of the Gods, though I’m not really a fan of it straight.
I ended up going with Ron Zacapa Centenario, 23 year old. It was a toss-up between that and the Mount Gay.
He’s a mixer, so I may have blown it there, but we’ll see.
Thanks everybody!
Take off your clothes, smear yourself with beef gravy, and run through a yard full of hungry rottweilers.
Oh, wait. You were looking for a noun, not an adjective. 
Is anyone else here a fan of Don Q? I love the stuff, though it’s hard to get here.
I drank tons of the stuff on my several visits to Puerto Rico.
If you see him mixing the Centenario with anything, beat him upside the head till he’s unconscious, then steal the rest of the bottle and give it to someone who will give it the love and care it deserves. (Seriously, force him to try it straight at least once.)
Mount Gay is actually quite good for mixing–decent price, decent quality, I have a bottle of it myself–but IMO not a sipping rum.
…Because, of course, you should never try to force a Gay to be straight.
Da-dum-dum…
What he said.