Rum is the most confusing shelf in the shop. A label might say white, dark, spiced, navy, overproof, Demerara, agricole or Jamaican, and those words come from four different ways of sorting the category at once: what the rum was made from, how it was distilled, its colour, and where it comes from. This guide takes the four systems apart.
First, there is no single definition of rum
No worldwide law says what rum is. In the European Union, rum is distilled from fermented molasses, cane syrup or cane juice at under 96 per cent and bottled at 37.5 per cent or more. It may not be flavoured, may be coloured only with caramel, and may be sweetened only to round off the taste. In the United States it is distilled from cane juice, syrup, molasses or other cane by-products at under 95 per cent and bottled at 40 per cent or more. In Australia, the Food Standards Code does not define rum on its own. It lists rum as one example of a spirit, requires spirits to be at least 37 per cent, and allows water, sugars, honey and spices to be added during production.
So a bottle that could not be sold as rum in Brussels can be sold as rum in Australia.
System one: what it is made from
Molasses rum is the larger family and the base of the Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica styles. Molasses is the syrup left after sugar has been crystallised out of cane juice. It keeps, ships and ferments at any time of year, and rums made from it share a rounder, sweeter character.
Cane juice rum is made from fresh pressed juice, not the syrup left behind. The French Caribbean calls it rhum agricole and Brazil calls its version cachaça. It has its own section below.
System two: how it is distilled
This axis decides more about flavour than colour does.
Pot stills work in batches and take spirit off at a lower strength, so more of the fermentation's heavy compounds, the esters and oils, come across.
Column stills run continuously and can strip a spirit almost to neutral. The higher the distillation strength, the lighter the rum. Much white rum is column rum, and so is a good deal of what is sold as dark.
The EU rule lets a rum that carries a registered geographical indication add the word "traditionnel" or "tradicional" only if it was distilled below 90 per cent, carries at least 225 grams of volatile substances per hectolitre of pure alcohol, and is not sweetened. Heavy rum has to be distilled heavy.
Guyana's one remaining distillery runs wooden pot stills alongside continuous stills, which our Demerara rum guide explains. Pusser's states that its navy blend is "blended and re-distilled using the vintage Port Mourant Double Wooden Pot Still", so Pusser's Gunpowder Proof at 54.5 per cent carries that wooden pot still character at navy strength.
System three: colour and age
Rum comes off the still clear. Colour arrives from the cask and from caramel. Age is time in wood.
Colour is not a reliable guide to age. The EU, the United States and the Jamaica Rum geographical indication all permit caramel for colour, so a young column rum can be made to look old. In the other direction, some aged rums are filtered clear. El Dorado 3 Year Old at 40 per cent and Doorly's 3 Year Old White at 47 per cent both carry a three year age statement and both are sold as white rum. Read the age statement, not the shade of the liquid.
An age statement means the youngest rum. In the EU an age may be stated only where it refers to the youngest component, and the United States requires an imported rum's age certificate to cover the youngest rum in the container. El Dorado 15 Year Old at 43 per cent is labelled on that basis: the producer states that the number is the youngest rum in the blend, as our Demerara guide explains. A solera number is not an age statement, and a bare figure without the word "years" should be treated with suspicion.
Cane juice rum: rhum agricole and its relatives
Cane juice will not keep, so agricole is made in harvest season and the juice goes to fermentation as soon as it is pressed. Martinique's appellation, AOC Rhum de la Martinique, fixes the whole method, so the label does the work. The juice must come from cane grown on the island, and adding sugar, syrup or molasses to it is forbidden. Fermentation may run no longer than 120 hours from filling the vat to distillation. Distillation is in a continuous column with a stripping section of at least 15 plates and a copper concentration section of 5 to 9 plates, and the spirit must come off between 65 and 75 per cent. Nothing is bottled below 40 per cent.
The AOC then defines three categories by how long they spend in wood, if at all. Blanc is rested at least six weeks after distillation and sees no oak. Élevé sous bois has spent at least twelve months in oak. Vieux has spent at least three years in oak casks smaller than 650 litres. On a vieux, the age terms are fixed too: VO means at least three years, VSOP or Réserve Spéciale at least four, and XO, Hors d'Âge or Extra Vieux at least six.
Guadeloupe and Marie-Galante also make cane juice rum, under their own geographical indication rather than the Martinique appellation. The EU rule reserves the word "agricultural" on a rum label for geographical indications from the French overseas departments and Madeira.
Next to molasses rum the difference is not subtle. A blanc smells of cut cane, grass and green olive and drinks dry, where white molasses rum reads sweeter and more neutral. Aged agricole keeps that vegetal line under the oak. Rhum J.M Blanc at 50 per cent is the bottle to learn the style on, and Depaz Réserve Spéciale VSOP at 45 per cent, which the producer states is aged at least seven years in small oak casks, shows what wood does to it. Our Martinique cane juice rum guide goes deeper, the bottles are in Agricole Rhum, and cachaça has its own article in Cachaça Explained.
System four: the shelf categories
White rum means clear rum: unaged, lightly aged, or aged and filtered clear. The two three year olds above are the sensible start. The range is in White Rum.
Gold rum is a colour word with no rule behind it. El Dorado 5 Year Old at 40 per cent is a gold rum with a real age statement behind the colour.
Dark rum is the loosest category, covering aged molasses rum from every producing country. Because colour can be added, the word promises nothing about age or weight. El Dorado 12 Year Old at 40 per cent is the reference bottle for the heavy Demerara end, and Doorly's XO is a lighter and more elegant Barbadian counterpoint. The category is in Dark Rum.
Spiced rum is rum with spices, and in most places that is the whole definition. There is no minimum age and no fixed spice list. In the EU rum may not be flavoured, so a spiced product falls outside the legal category of rum. In the United States it is a flavoured spirit, labelled by base spirit and flavour and bottled at 30 per cent or more. In Australia spices may be added during production and the product is still a spirit, with the same 37 per cent floor. Buy by producer. Foursquare Spiced Rum at 37.5 per cent carries the name of the Barbados distillery behind Doorly's and is the one to try first. The rest are in Spiced Rum.
Overproof has no legal meaning either. In trade use it means anything well above the usual 40 per cent, and the familiar 151 on a label is an American proof number, which is 75.5 per cent alcohol. Pusser's 151 at 75.5 per cent is for floats and small measures, not for drinking neat, and a 30 ml nip of it is nearly two of the usual Australian measure.
Navy rum is defined by history rather than production. It refers to the Royal Navy's rum ration and the blend the Admiralty issued until 1970, which Pusser's continues commercially. Pusser's Blue Label at 40 per cent is the everyday strength and Gunpowder Proof at 54.5 per cent is the historic one. Our navy rum guide explains the tot, Black Tot Day and the 54.5 figure. The line is in Pusser's Rum.
System five, unofficially: origin styles
The three traditions you will read about, English, Spanish and French, are trade shorthand, not regulation, and plenty of distilleries break the pattern. French style is the cane juice family above.
English style covers the former British colonies: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad, St Lucia. Molasses base, pot still or pot and column blends. Barbados is the balanced, cask driven end, which is why Barbados rum and Foursquare are where we suggest starting. Guyana is the heavy, dark, wooden still end, sold as Demerara rum under the El Dorado name and gathered in Guyana rum.
Jamaican rum is the origin most defined by esters, the fruity compounds that fermentation produces and a pot still carries into the spirit. The Jamaica Rum geographical indication allows nothing to be added after distillation except filtered water and cane sugar caramel. "High ester" is a producer's term for a rum built to push those compounds up. It is often over-romanticised. Compagnie des Indes Jamaica Navy Strength 5 Year at 57 per cent is our pick and appears in our Top 11 rums list.
Spanish style covers Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala and the rest of Latin America: column distilled and lighter in style. Dos Maderas 5+5 at 40 per cent is not Spanish style but a Spanish finish on Caribbean rum: the producer states its Barbados and Guyana rums spend five years in ex-bourbon casks, then finish in Jerez in casks that held Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximénez sherry.
Where to start
- White rum for mixing: El Dorado 3 Year Old or Doorly's 3 Year Old White.
- Dark rum, heavy end: El Dorado 12 Year Old.
- Dark rum, lighter end: Doorly's XO.
- Spiced rum: Foursquare Spiced Rum.
- Navy rum: Pusser's Blue Label, or Gunpowder Proof for cocktails.
- Overproof: Pusser's 151.
- Jamaican: Compagnie des Indes Jamaica Navy Strength 5 Year.
- Sherry cask finished: Dos Maderas 5+5.
- Cane juice rum: Rhum J.M Blanc for a Ti Punch, Depaz Réserve Spéciale VSOP to sip.
The full range sits on our Rums page, and we deliver to every Australian state.