Vinepair: The 30 Best Rums for 2025

Rum continues to win hearts and fill jiggers and glasses by virtue of being one of the world’s most versatile and diverse spirits. Distilled from sugar cane juice, molasses, and other derivatives, it is crafted in column and pot stills, and matured in climates ranging from the humid Caribbean to cooler, continental warehouses. The result is a category that stretches from grassy agricoles and funky, high-ester bottlings to ultra-aged expressions that rival any whiskey.

That breadth is just as evident at the bar: Rum is vital to classics like the Daiquiri, Mojito, and Mai Tai, and central to modern creations like the Kingston Negroni. Of course, there are dedicated, top-shelf sippers, as well as spiced shooters, which accounted for more than half of the rum sold in the U.S. last year.

With all due respect to the latter style, we did not consider flavored selections for our annual rum roundup. Instead, we focused on the diverse range of examples outlined above, tasting roughly 100 bottles from almost two dozen nations to compile this list of the 30 best rums to drink right now.

The 30 Best Rums to Drink in 2025

The Best Rum for Cocktails

Transcontinental Rum Line High Seas

As the old line goes, “what one rum can’t do, three rums can,” and that’s exactly the proposition with this blend of Panamanian, Jamaican, and Martinique distillates. Bottled at 45 percent ABV, High Seas delivers savory, vegetal, and lightly sweet notes, alongside bursts of tropical fruit, spice, and coffee. Expressive but never overwhelming, it offers plenty of personality without threatening to steal the show — making it equally at home in a Daiquiri, Mai Tai, or more modern creations. At $35 per bottle, it’s a top-tier option that’ll basically run you the same amount as two drinks at a bar.

Average price: $35
Rating: 93

The Best Rums Under $100

The Spirit of Haiti Clairin Vaval

Bottled at a precise 53.5 percent ABV, this Clairin is produced by Distillerie Arawaks — owned and operated by Fritz Vaval, whose family has been in the farm distillery business for close to 80 years. Fermented using ambient yeasts and distilled on a proprietary still, the nose juxtaposes papaya and mango with salty umami aromas. The palate commits to more fruity and vegetal notes, with an enjoyably abrasive finish that speaks to the hands-on, traditional practices that led to its creation.

Average price: $50
Rating: 94

Shakara 12 Year Thai Rum

Launched in early 2024, this Thai rum is made from local molasses and runs through a column still before spending 12 years in ex-bourbon casks. Spice leads the profile, with bright accents of lemongrass and lime leaf building over a classic molasses core. Expressive and vibrant, it’s a great example of quality Southeast Asian spirits increasingly making their way to our market.

Average price: $59
Rating: 93

Alambique Serrano 3 Años Oaxacan Rum

Distilled from Java varietal cane juice and aged just over three years in new French oak, this blend of pot and Krassel column distillates arrives at 46.1 percent ABV. The profile is distinctly spiced, with ginger, nutmeg, and raisin notes evoking winter desserts and holiday delights — a vivid reminder that Oaxacan spirits extend well beyond mezcal.

Average price: $64
Rating: 93

Papalin Jamaica 5 Year High Ester Rum

Blended from Worthy Park, Long Pond, and Hampden distillates, this 5-year-old Jamaican rum is pot-distilled, aged in ex-bourbon casks, and bottled at 57 percent ABV. Aromas of overripe fruit and warm spice lead the way, with pepper, banana skin, and assertive heat defining the palate. While not the most intense rum Jamaica has to offer, it’s a complex, lively pour and a great intro to high-ester rum.

Average price: $67
Rating: 93

Privateer Rum The Queen’s Share

This Massachusetts rum revives the old Cognac tradition of collecting the “seconds” — the transitional cut between hearts and tails — and distilling everything a second time for added depth. Aged at least four years in a mix of new and used American oak, the barrels are then blended and re-casked for additional maturation. Bottled at cask strength, it delivers burnt sugar, coconut, and vanilla with remarkable balance. Approachable yet simultaneously complex, it stands as a benchmark American rum.

Average price: $70
Rating: 93

The Best Rums Over $100

Hampden Estate Pagos Jamaican Rum Batch 3

Aged entirely in former oloroso sherry casks from Bodegas Fundador, the third batch of Pagos builds on Hampden’s signature high-ester intensity with oxidative depth and dried fruit character. Bottled at 52 percent ABV, it delivers walnut, clove, and brandied cherry, alongside cocoa, honey, and citrus. The palate is nuanced, with savory depth meeting flashes of freshness.

Average price: $113
Rating: 94

Isautier Rhum Agricole 16 Year

Distilled in 2006 and aged 16 years in tropical conditions, this Reunion release was bottled at 59 percent ABV with just 3,790 bottles produced. The profile is bold yet refined, opening with dried fruits, warm spice, and citrus zest, then following with caramelized sugar and herbal accents. A singular agricole, it underscores Reunion’s credentials as one of the world’s most compelling — and still underappreciated — rum regions.

Average price: $144
Rating: 94

PUNCH: The Best High-End Spirits for Cocktails

This year, we polled more than 25 bartenders across the country for their favorite high-end spirits to use in cocktails. While several of last year’s top-shelf picks are still highly favored, some exciting newcomers have emerged, along with a few trends: spirits that blur the line between categories (like Scotch aged in ex-rum barrels) seem to be on the rise, in addition to well-made flavored spirits (like a mezcal distilled with mango).

After sifting through the responses, we compiled the most popular choices in each category, plus some standout, impassioned recommendations. Here’s what surveyed bartenders had to say.

White Rum / Cane Spirit

Most popular: Clairins from The Spirit of Haiti

Recent years have seen a great white rum expansion, in which interesting, boldly flavored options have become more variable and more available stateside than ever before. Clairins from The Spirit of Haiti were most commonly mentioned here, particularly the Vaval, a floral and herbaceous bottling, and the Le Rocher, which Adler says is “similar to agricole-style rums, but with an increased funkiness and grassiness. The distillery also uses a percentage of dunder, the residual backwash in each batch, which makes it heavier on the palate with a light smokiness.” Also, these bottlings are still fairly affordable. “Like a lot of rums, some might not call these ‘top-shelf,’” notes David E. Yee, bar manager at Cobra in Columbus, Ohio, but that’s “because they’re radically underpriced.”

Aged Rum

Most popular: Hampden Estate

Tulloch sums it up: “Hampden Estate is high-octane, intense and makes a damn good Daiquiri.” While many surveyed bartenders recommend serving this spirit neat to fully appreciate it, Hampden Estate also shines in cocktails where it plays the starring role, like a rum Old-Fashioned. “I love a good high-ester Jamaican rum and this one ranks high on my list,” says Flowers. “Give me overripe banana, tropical fruit, terroir goodness!”

Overproof Rum

Most popular: Rivers Royale Grenadian Rum

Dennison and Flowers recommend this rum, especially in Daiquiris. “Rum, lime and sugar may sound simple, but with Rivers Royale Grenadian Rum, it is complex,” says Flowers. “It has the grassy, briny flavor of sugarcane juice rum that I love, but it also has herbaceous, tropical fruit notes that play exceptionally well in cocktails.” 

Gear Patrol: The Buffalo Trace of Rum Is Still Cheap and Easy to Find. For Now

A bourbon lover’s guide to the best spirit you’re not drinking yet.

Early adopters have long prophesied rum’s rise. Surely, it would only be a matter of time until bourbon drinkers would be drawn in by the two drinks’ similarities.

They were right in one sense but wrong in another. Bourbon whiskey shares much with rum but whiskey fanatics will only convert if given a pressing reason to. And ironically, it’s bourbon’s own swelling popularity that’s provided one.

There are other, perhaps even better, reasons the modern bourbon-whiskey drinker might be tempted by the rum world’s easy-going nature. However, the simplest argument comes down to numbers: if you could buy Pappy van Winkle for $130 right now, would you?

Bourbon whiskey’s popularity has reached the point where many coveted bottles — including Pappy, not to mention most of the Buffalo Trace lineup — are effectively unobtainable.

By contrast, rum offers more: varieties, flavors, eccentricities and, critically, availability. Step back and compare the breadth of flavor profiles in the rum world to that of bourbon — or even whiskey, bourbon’s parent category — and rum is the clear winner.

This is mostly due to one of rum’s unique traits: decentralization. Where bourbon, Scotch and spirits like tequila and cognac are, to different degrees, bound by regulation, geography and strict definitions, rum is a loose cannon.

Make it with molasses, you’ve got rum. Make it with fresh sugarcane, and you still have rum. Age it (or don’t), blend it with spices (or not), filter out the color (or add it) … it’s all rum.

With that in mind, here are the best rums for an ex-bourbon drinker to start with — from the true Pappy of rum to the Bacardi you should be drinking.

The Buffalo Trace of Rum

The Real McCoy Barbados Rum 12 Year

• Origin: Barbados

• ABV: 40%

• Price: $61+

Reliably excellent, well-made and expertly matured, The Real McCoy 12-year-old rum is named after a famous Prohibition-era rum smuggler whose product became known as “the real McCoy” due to the number of fakes at the time.

Today, it’s sourced from the Barbados-based Foursquare Distillery, the rum producer closest to capturing the enormous pull of Buffalo Trace Distillery in the bourbon world.

The Pappy of Rum

Great House Distillery Edition Single Jamaican Rum

• Origin: Jamaica

• ABV: 57% (2024)

• Price: $135+

Hampden Estate has been making rum on a near-continuous basis since 1779, and its Great House blend (released every year since 2019) has quickly earned a reputation for intense, rich flavor and a healthy dose of rum funk.

For longtime rum drinkers, it represents rum’s mighty potential. For former bourbon lovers, it offers a glimpse into a category not yet destroyed by hype magnets.

The “Made in USA” Rum

Privateer Rum Distiller’s Drawer

• Origin: USA

• ABV: Varies

• Price: $70+

This top-notch rum comes from an odd place: America. By most accounts, Privateer is the best in the country — and it’s not made anywhere near the tropics, either.

Based in Massachusetts, Privateer’s Distiller’s Drawer series offers rum from barrels hand-selected by its master distiller, and they’re some of the most whiskey-like bottles in the category. Expect oak, vanilla, burnt sugar and more classic bourbon notes.

The White Dog of Rum

Clairin Casimir

• Origin: Haiti

• ABV: Varies

• Price: ~$50

If you want to go straight to the bottom of the rabbit hole, Clairin is a good way to do it. It’s usually unaged, so it has more in common with white whiskey than bourbon proper. It’s also made with wild sugarcane and dunder, which is a bit like the sour mash of the rum world (but used far less frequently than its whiskey counterpart).

All this lends Clairin a deep funkiness that blends with the base spirit to invoke whiskey, mezcal, natural wine and rum all at once.

Clear as a Bell

These elegant (but electric) digestifs are the perfect pick-me-up, nightcap, and grand finale—all in one glass

BY AMIEL STANEK PHOTOGRAPH BY ISA ZAPATA

Once the dessert forks have been surrendered and everyone swears they couldn’t possibly take even one more bite, a final pour of something special on Thanksgiving just feels right. While I can see the merits of trotting out a bottle of bark-bitter amaro or a mellow bourbon that’s seen a few years in oak, these days I take a different tack. When I want to round out a big meal in style, the choice is clear—a clear spirit, that is. I’m talking about things like eau-de-vie, grappa, mezcal, and clairin. Though these liquors are unique in terms of their geographic origin, composition, and production, they share a brazen character, making them ideal meal-enders. Instead of relying on extensive aging in wood to lend complexity, each spirit tastes unabashedly of the raw materials from which they were distilled and the places where they were made. Heirloom apples. Hand-harvested grapes. Pit-roasted agave. Wild-fermented sugarcane. These idiosyncratic products are as lively and expressive as the day they trickled out of the still; with no time spent in barrels to discipline their rougher edges, flavor has nowhere to hide. And at the end of a rich meal, one sharp sip immediately snaps you back to consciousness, like a cold plunge after a sweaty sauna session.

As is the case with all booze, spirits made with care by small, independent producers are going to be more compelling and often boast a price tag to match. But this is the most special of occasions, after all—when else are you going to break out the good stuff?

CYRIL ZANGS – DOUBLE ZÉRO EAU-DE-VIE DE CIDRE

This bright 100-proof apple brandy is a collaboration between culty Normandy cider maker Cyril Zangs and renowned distillery Calvados Roger Groult. It smells and tastes like a brisk fall stroll through an orchard: ripe fruit, a crisp breeze,

LAURENT CAZOTTES – GOUTTE DE REINE CLAUDE DORÉE

Laurent Cazottes’s eaux-de-vie are the stuff of legend, crafted from small parcels of his own lovingly tended trees and vines. To make this style, Cazottes painstakingly dries and hand-pits greengage plums before fermentation, which yields an extraordinarily concentrated elixir.

CLAIRIN VAVAL RUM

Traditional clairin, perhaps Haiti’s most revered spirit, is rum for mezcal nerds. Made from freshly pressed heritage sugarcane varietals and fermented with no added yeasts, each distillation is a unique expression of terroir. This one, from second-generation producer Fritz Vaval, is sunny and herbaceous, each sip gracefully ping-ponging between delicate flowers and salty funk.

Commanders and Cocktails!

Welcome to COMMANDERS AND COCKTAILS!

Some folks know that before I was able to work full time in comics, I worked in a variety of jobs in the wine and spirits field. And the final one of those was for my good friend Nicolas Palazzi’s PM Spirits. Just COMMANDER IN CRISIS, PM works its ass off to be unique, to create trends rather than follow them, and offer craftsmanship and creativity in a field that has, at times, been known to stagnate. I wouldn’t be where I am, writing this, without the support of friends and employers like Nicolas.

So, I thought it would be fun to turn the tables and feature him and his crew below, offering some in-universe cocktail recipes to honor the heroes of the Crisis Command. In the paraphrased words of a greater power, when I left PM I was but the learner. Now, I am the master (well, or closer to it)! And either way, I’m happy to return the support with a feature here, and invite creatives from other fields into the world of the Crisis Command.

STEVE ORLANDO

Commanders in Crisis, Vol. 2

PRIZEFIGHTER

2oz Navazos Palazzi Malt or Corn Whisky
0.75oz La Quintinye Rouge Vermouth
0.5oz cherry liqueur
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Barspoon Absinthe

Instructions:

Build in rocks glass over ice and stir briefly. Garnish with burnt blood orange peel.

SEER

2.5oz Neta Espadin Destilado de Agave
0.5oz La Quintinye Dry
Barspoon of olive brine
Pinch of salt

Instructions:

Build in mixing glass over ice and stir until cold. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with 3 green olives on a pick.

SAWBONES

2oz Père Labat Rhum Blanc 59%abv
4 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Sparkling mineral water

Instructions:

Pour Rhum into highball glass over ice. Stir briefly to chill. Top with sparkling water and bitters. Stir once again to combine. Serve without garnish. or Neat pour of Jacky Navarre Cravache d’Or Cognac

ORIGINATOR

1oz Nouaison Gin by G’Vine
0.75oz lemon juice
0.5oz Laurent Cazottes Folle Noire
0.5oz simple syrup
2oz sparkling wine

Instructions:

Build all ingredients except sparkling wine in a shaker and shake lightly to combine. Add sparkling wine to the shaker and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a spring of fresh lavender.

FRONTIER

2oz Père Labat Rhum Blanc 40% or 59% abv - Choose your strength
0.5oz Laurent Cazottes 72 Tomatoes

Instructions:

Build in mixing glass over ice and stir until cold. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with freshly ground black pepper.

COCKTAIL CREDITS: David Yi-Hsian Dong and Nicolas Palazzi of PM Spirits.

How Cocktails Are Helping Armagnac Reinvent Its Image For A New Generation

La Boutique Des Vins in Toulouse’s historic Carmes neighborhood is one of the more popular spots for local residents to browse for just the right wine or spirit, maybe even a craft beer. On a quiet Friday evening when store traffic was still sparse, Noémie Cassou-Lalanne arrived in the hopes of convincing customers to reconsider a traditional spirit that might only rarely be on their shopping list.

Surrounded by a nook of shelves filled with wine bottles, teas, and chocolate bars, Cassou-Lalanne set up a small table and a silver tray with three bottles of Armagnac from the Pellehaut domaine in the Gascony region where she’s in charge of marketing. She then improvised a small bartending station, complete with cutting board, mint leaves, a pestle, tiny umbrellas, ice cubs, and simple syrup to make Armagnac Mojitos.This reimagined cocktail used two types of Armagnac that this artisanal industry hopes will revitalize the image of France’s oldest eau de vie. The first, L’Age de Glace Château de Pellehaut, is a light-brown blend of Armagnacs that have spent little time aging a barrel. The other is Blanche Armagnac, a clear white spirit that has not been aged.

Queen Snake - Shannon Tebay, Death & Co.

INGREDIENTS

Serving: 1

• 1 1/2 ounces blanche de armagnac, preferably Cobra Fire Eau de Vie de Raisin

• 1/2 ounce Clear Creek Douglas Fir Eau de Vie

• 2 teaspoons lychee liqueur, preferably Giffard Lichi Li Lychee Liqueur

• 1 teaspoon crème de cacao, preferably Marie Brizard

• 1 lime shoulder

DIRECTIONS

1. Express lime, leave in bottom of a Sazerac glass.

2. Combine all ingredients and stir to integrate.

3. Top with cracked ice.
   
   

Claire de Montesquiou plunged into Armagnac 30 years ago with her husband after living in England. They bought Domaine D’Espérance and began to restore its vineyards. They believed the clay soil on the far western part of the official Armagnac region would yield high-quality grapes. Three decades later, they’ve developed a strong international reputation while also staying small. “I make small quantities of high quality,” she said. “It’s like if you wanted to compare haute couture to ready-to-wear.”

She’s also brought a willingness to experiment. Several years ago, she connected with Nicolas Palazzi, a Bordeaux native who had moved to New York City where he worked as an importer and brand ambassador. Palazzi was passionate about Armagnac, but he felt it was too complicated to explain to bartenders and potential customers. “The fact that it’s called Blanche Armagnac makes it really hard to sell in my world,” he said.

Cobrafire, eau-de-vie raisin

He worked with de Montesquiou to create a product called Cobrafire. Rather than sitting in a still container for 3 months and having water added, the Armagnac is distilled at a lower alcohol rate, bottled after one month, and then sold as an “eau-de-vie raisin.” 

“I’m a big proponent of putting stuff in a bottle at its natural proof,” Palazzi said. “If you try it and you like it, and then you need to add water to it, then you can do it. But it’s not someone in a lab deciding for you.”

It’s a sharp break with tradition. But Palazzi said Armagnac makers need to take some chances if their product is going to reach a wider audience.

“What we’re trying to do with Cobrafire is to reframe things so that people are interested,” Palazzi said. “We’re trying to sell something really good. I want to let people discover the work of distillers who really care about their stuff.”