I was looking for banana liqueur to put in my coffee, but could only find banana flavored rum. Would that be a good substitute?

Depends if you like rum or not.

My familiarity with spiced rum is limited. I know spiced rum makes a good dark n stormy, and I've tried delicious rums which were spicy, but I'm not sure that constitutes "real" spiced rum. Do you have any that you would recommend?

I like spiced rum from time to time, but many of them are awful. The worst, imo, is Kraken. Bad rum, overspiced and overpriced.

Captain Morgan is OK for mixed drinks, but is not good enough to drink straight.

By far my fave spiced rum is Old Monk. It's also incredibly reasonably priced. I've seen it as low as $15/bottle.

Yes pumped for this thread. May be considered heresy for you straight rum sippers,but I’m a huge fan of Tiki drinks. Recently bought the Smugglers Cove recipe book and a couple of beachbum berry recipe books and have been slowly trying different stuff.

My personal favorite so far is from smugglers cove.

“Falinum”

1oz fresh lemon juice
1oz coconut cream
1/2oz Velvet Falernum (I’m obsessed with in general)
1 dash orange bitters
2oz rum, suggests “column still aged” with examples being Cruzan single barrel, some flor de cana, some El Dorados, Bacardi 8 or a bunch of others.

Shake with ice and pour everything into glass, add 1oz seltzer and stir in

Quite the opposite, I'm looking to expand my cocktail repertoire beyond the current, simplistic stage.

Yes the more the better.

I'm not going to pretend that I know anything about what constitutes a high quality rum, but I thought we needed some more pics in here, and some piña colava flows were sounding pretty tasty



Pureed frozen raspberries + strawberries with some Myers rum and sugar in small pitcher. Made a big pitcher of pina colada with cheap white rum, coco cream, pineapple juice, and coconut water, then poured both into a cup and floated more Myers rum on top.

IMO most important Tiki drink to start with is the classic Mai Tai (not the bastardized commercial mixes). I think there are whole books debating what is the real recipe, but this seems like a reasonably classic one.

From Beachbum Berry Remixed

Trader Vic’s Mai Tai

1oz fresh like juice
1/2 Orange Curacao (triple sec close enough for me, but not purists)
1/4 Oz Orgeat (can buy online or make, Ive never made)
1/4 simple syrup (I add a drop of vanilla extract as a lot of recipes call for)
1oz dark Jamaican rum
1oz Amber Martinique rum

Shake with crushed ice and dump everything in glass.
I often get pretty lazy in the rum department and just use 2oz of something I have on hand. Recently been using flor de cana 5 year anejo Classico bc it’s cheap and I love flor de cana rums for cocktails

Looks delicious, cs.

I've been wanting to make Mai Tais for a while and that recipe looks great.

Had a glass of Puntacaña Splendido for today's TdF stage. It's a sweet caramel/toffee taste and easy to drink. I read a review which called it good "newbie rum" which is a fair assessment. Not because enthusiasts can't enjoy it, but because it's very accessible to newcomers. I've served it for guests who aren't exactly enthusiasts with good success.
Personally I prefer a little more complexity and funk (specifically regarding the aftertaste). Still a very tasty rum, though.

So I saw a lot of love for Appleton ITT, and I found it surprising. Way too much alcohol prickle and fuel-like aftertaste imo. I like complexity and aftertaste, but not one of kerosene.

That's an accurate description. I've never tried a worse rum.

Oh, I have. Bundaberg, for one. God that stuff is awful. Felt like I was burping gasoline for hours after one shot.

El Dorado is very good. 12 and 15 I believe

I used to have the corner on the market for 10 Cane. Many converts over that rum. Sadly lost to some unknown reason

Diplomatico is very good , reasonable priced

I earned the title el Cap a tan , over a rum induced poker game. Expensive , but worth it

hate rum but am a sucker for mojitos

I took a shot of Black Tot the other day... best alcohol I've ever tasted, if you're willing to drop a ton of money on rum.

Kilo Kai is a great spiced rum, not to be confused with Kobra Kai.

I really got into rum while living in Paris because the French like their rum (many Islanders from ex-colonies). A few of my friends were really into it and made their own fruity concoctions, composed of rum mixed with fruit juice and chunks, left to age in the fridge for as long as one could hold out before drinking.

After celebrating my birthday one very early, very hung over morning before catching a 6am flight to Rome, I scavenged through my fridge that I shared with my roommate. That's when I spotted the most delicious looking fruit juice, which I gulped without a second thought..It wasn't fruit juice. The homemade 90 proof rum seared my throat in a way I'll never forget. Somehow, I held in my cookies. With about 9 minutes left to go before I would surely miss my bus to the airport, I rolled a hearty spliff which I inhaled in 2 minutes. The quantity and speed of my consumption culminated in the elevator, when my body suddenly became dizzy and extremely sweaty. Luckily, I didn't hit my head on the way down and woke up to the sound of the elevator doors opening on the ground floor. I gathered myself, and got to my bus/flight on time.

For those that have never indulged, I am 90% sure the tobacco was the substance that put me over the edge on the morning of my 25th birthday (despite being a pack a day smoker at the time).

*** tobacco! Long live rum and THC!

Really? Well I guess I'm only comparing it to Bundy rum. Have you tried that before?

My friend calls 10 Cane "iocane," as in the Princes Bride scene.

"What you do not smell is called iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid, and is among the more deadlier poisons known to man."



Personally, I think that's a little harsh, but 10 Cane, like many light cane rums, is not very flavorful.

I think the main things rum suffer from is that the predominance of captain morgan and ron bacardi well stuff instills an idea that it must be mixed at all times

living in countries where rum is more common was an eye opener to the very many varieties they had that were very specialized in their uses, x for mixing with sweet and fruity drinks, y for mixing with fizzy drinks, and z for slowly sipping

first time I brought a premium bottle to a house party in ecuador and a 2 liter coke along side it people didn't pay any attention to it, it's only when they realized i brought the coke with intention to mix them did they become struck with horror and pointed out there was a rum hierarchy and only cretans would mix this rum with anything

much like how some of us would recoil in horror if someone ordered a nice single malt with the express purpose of mixing it with a diet coke

Or good tequila (!= Cuervo) for your Margarita.

To be fair, if you like drinking cocktails they clearly taste better with better ingredients. I agree about just mixing it with coke, but in general rum is not super expensive as far as liquor goes, so no reason not to make your mojito, planters punch or Mai Tai with something decent. Obviously Im sure there is really high end stuff that would be an exception.

I don’t think it’s too different from other stuff like whiskey. Maybe don’t go for the $10/bottle stuff if you don’t want to have a major headache the next morning but maybe also stay away from the $100+/bottle stuff unless you have money to burn.

Agreed, although my understanding is you can get really good rum for much cheaper than other stuff because it ages so much faster in the Caribbean than scotch for example in a colder climate.

the difference between great tequila and bad tequila is enormous. I love a good tequila. conversely, you can buy $20 and $100 bottles of vodka and 50% of people prefer the $20 bottle.


I'm going to check out the rum streets next time I'm at a good liquor store thanks to this thread.