What is smoothness? Which Country makes the best rum? Best food/beverage prepared with rum? What about those rum flavours ie vanilla or coconut?
IMHO, the best general rum is Mount Gay Eclipse, from Barbados.
I really enjoy Cane’s New Orleans Rum, made from Louisiana molassas. Dark rum can substitute for vanilla extract in any recipe for a twist. Best food prepared with rum is bread pudding with a rum sauce.
I got some great advice in this thread-
I really like Flora de Cana. The 5 year old stuff is smooth and tasty and reasonably priced.
Dark rums are much smoother and what you want for cooking, they also make excellent egg nog and hot rum drinks.
Most commonly available in the U.S. is Myers, it’s a dark Jamaican brand. I developed a taste for Gosling’s Dark Seal. It’s made in Bermuda and may be hard to find.
Rum is like an airplane landing … any one you can walk away from is a good one.
I’m not really an expert on rum, but for my taste I don’t think I’ve had any better than Appleton Estate 12-year Reserve. I hear they make a 21 year old product and I would really like to give it a try, but the 12 year is outstanding in my opinion.
YMMV.
Jammer
I went to the site, but I didn’t see my bottle. I have an unopened bottle of Cruzan® Virgin Islands Rum that’s been sitting round for… um… 15 years? 18? I don’t remember. The label depicts two sailors standing next to a rum barrel. The one on the left stands next to an anchor, and the one on the right holds a machete. It’s 151 proof, and is ‘Distilled abd bottled by Cruzan Rum Distillery Co., St. Croix, Virgin Islands’. Sort of an olde-tymey-looking label.
Is this the same company? Is it still 151 proof after all these years? (Though the seal is unbroken, I assume the seals were not meant to last that many years.) How do you suppose it tastes?
Only one way to find out! Report back soonest. 
Sadly, I’m not much of a drinker. If I opened it and had some, it would probably be another decade and a half before I finished it! Ironic, eh? There are people who can’t not drink. And here I sit with this old rum, some Stoli, partially-consumed bottles of 10-year-old and 15-year-old Laphroaig, A bottle of Pinch that was old when I got it, come cognac, some liqueurs, some Everclear, and gods-know-what else – and I don’t drink it!
Maybe I’ll crack it open when the film is finished.
Oh, yeah. Two or three cases of Charles Shaw (‘Two-Buck Chuck’) cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Got a bottle of Château Lafitte Rothschilde I got back in the '80s. Probably have a $45 bottle of vinegar now.
A friend of mine has opened an awesome bar in Asheville, and one of their drink specials is a Dark and Stormy made from Cruzan’s blackstrap rum and some really spicy ginger ale. It’s delicious.
I bought a bottle of Cruzan’s light rum, and really like it: it’s got a very pleasant almost vanilla aftertaste to it. Their dark rum (not the blackstrap, just the dark) isn’t nearly so nice, but it’s drinkable. I want to find a bottle of the blackstrap to keep at home.
Sadly, I can’t really afford to develop a taste for the good stuff at this point, so for now I’m just eyeing the single-barrel bottles wistfully :). Are they really that much better?
Daniel
Cruzan is good for a sipping rum; Bacardi makes a wide range of good-but-bland products and Gosling makes a good dark rum for punches.
My bet for the best is Barbancourt 15 year old, with a twist of lime and ice if you must. Makes a deadly mojito, but you really want white rum ( or cachacha or cacique) for that.
I’d suggest Pusser’s Rum ( http://www.pussers.com/ ), licensed by the Admiralty after the British Navy discontinued their daily rum ration in 1970. It’s mentioned in the Forbes list linked from the other thread, but that’s the Trafalgar decanter at an outrageous price. The normal bottle is reasonably priced. Mix half-and-half with water, squeeze in a lime per pint, and rule the waves!
Free.
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]
Sadly, I’m not much of a drinker. If I opened it and had some, it would probably be another decade and a half before I finished it! Ironic, eh? There are people who can’t not drink. And here I sit with this old rum, some Stoli, partially-consumed bottles of 10-year-old and 15-year-old Laphroaig, A bottle of Pinch that was old when I got it, come cognac, some liqueurs, some Everclear, and gods-know-what else – and I don’t drink it!
[QUOTE]
Hey, everybody! Party at Johnny’s place!
I tried to link to the page that had it, but you can’t get past the ‘put your date of birth in’ before they’ll let you in. Once you enter, look to the left, for “Single Barrel Rum” and click on that.
Oh. STupid of me…you were looking for the bottle/type YOU had, not the specific type I’d mentioned. Sorry, must read w/comprehension. :o