I've done about 40+ years of research and travel throughout the Caribbean and Central America, and everyone produces rum, and it's all good! I've never seen 10% of what's out there in any U.S. liquor store. My all-time favorite was from Guyana, called Five Star, cost about 85 cents a quart back in the early 90s.

Natch

I have been on a rum kick all summer drinking Mohitos. I stumbled into the spiced rums looking for variety and found Sailor Jerry's and a very interesting new dark spiced rum called Kraken which was mighty good. I like Sailor Jerry's but it has too much vanilla for my taste. The Kraken is ink black and quite flavorful. I've had it on the rocks but I had made some "dirty" Mohitos and fell in love.

I cheat and make up a mint infused simple syrup for my mohitos to save the muddling of the lime, fresh mint and sugar. I do 1/1 sugar and water bring to boil, turn off heat and add chopped mint and allow to steep until cool, strain, then refridgerate. For use w/ the Kraken I sub. dark brown sugar mmm

Tall glass w/ ice-build
1 shot lime juice
1.5 shot mint syrup
2 shot rum
top w/ club soda
stir/shake
garnish w/ fresh mint leaves

When I go on vacation in the British Virgin Islands, my coveted Pina Colada is made with various rums and usually the same mix ( Island Oasis ) and it's hard to beat Meyers Original Dark Rum.

Kraken is a good rum and along the same lines as Cpt Morgan and Sailor Jerry.
For pure sipping rum, I tried a bottle of Zaya Gran Reserva (12 year old) and was very impressed how smooth it is (and easy on the wallet) - about $25-$30 per bottle

My liquor choices depend on the season and climate. For the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, August through December is when I drink rum.

I don't know if I have an all-time favorite, but like Natch, one of the best rums I ever had was from Guyana. In this case, it was a brand called Lemon Hart. Other brands that have done well by me are Pyrat and Gosling. For flavored rums, I go with Admiral Nelson over Malibu or Captain Morgan, and it's usually cheaper than either of them. Finally, I picked up a halfway-decent dark rum from India called Old Monk back in early spring, and made it through the bottle while watching the matches of the Cricket World Cup.

For the record, someone who prefers the drier rums is probably not going to get a lot of satisfaction from my selections.

Pyrat and Coke....Cuba Libre

I was never much or a rummy until somebody gave me a glass of Pyrat XO Reserve Rum. I just didn't know Rum could get that good. Fruity, Complex, Smooth, Sophisticated. YUM!!!

I like rum a lot. The best I've ever had was Havana Club. I don't think you can get it in this country, but if you can get it... you won't be disappointed. I recommend the 7yrs. or 15yrs. if you ever get the opportunity. Good stuff!
Milan

I've never been a big fan of rum. Admittedly I haven't tried many, but what I have tried tasted horrible in my opinion, which is probably why it's always mixed with a bunch of fruity sugary crap, so you don't actually taste the liquor much. Maybe I need to give some better stuff a chance, I dono.

If I'm drinkin' rum, I'm either on vacation in some exotic beach locale (which is just about never); or I've had a bad day, decided to say efff it and write the rest of the day off too. In that case I don't bother screwin around and just grab the 151 from the cabinet, a coke from the fridge and tell my wife to go warn the neighbors to lock their doors and board up their windows


I did once do a few shots of some sort of coconut flavored rum junk at a concert. We were on the second floor balcony. I won't go into detail, but I will say that the people that were standing on the ground floor underneath us regretted me doing shots of that crap even more than I did.

Kraken & Coke for me tonight. With a little lime.

Sailor Jerry's was the only rum I had purchased in the past 4 years (I don't buy rum very often) until I picked up this Kraken... So far, it's damn good and slightly stronger than SJs.

I agree with Frost about needing to try some higher quality Rum. It's just not a spirit I have ever felt the need to "explore"