Rum has yet to captivate the mainstream in the way whiskey has. Okay, fine, it’s not even close. Even the dark, aged expressions don’t have anything approaching bourbon-level devotion among fans here in the US. And white rums are often relegated to being mixers — the base for drinks like the mojito and daiquiri or even more sugary tiki concoctions.
That’s a shame because there some very tasty white rums on the market. Sure you have your old standards, Bacardi being foremost among them, but there are also smaller brands emerging that exhibit a deep commitment to craft. You can even have aged white rums — which spend a few months or years in the barrel only to have the caramel color removed using charcoal filtration techniques.
All of this nuance means there’s plenty of variation between expressions to warrant a blind taste test. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Our lineup today includes:
- Captain Morgan White Rum
- Havana Club Anejo Blanco
- Wray & Nephew White Rum
- The Real McCoy 3-Year-Old Rum
- Bacardi Superior White Rum
- Banks 5 Island Rum
- Don Q Cristal Rum
- Cruzan Aged Light Rum
Let the white rum sampling commence!
Part 1: The Taste
Taste 1
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this rum’s nose. There are notes of coconut, tropical fruits, and citrus peels. It’s slightly oaky and full of vanilla. The palate is highlighted by sweet sugar cane, more tropical fruit flavors, slight spice, and a gentle, dry, warming finish that left me craving more.
Overall, it’s a decent rum that I would try again.
Taste 2
Tasting Notes:
While not overly abundant with aromas, the nose did have hints of ripe pineapple, toasted vanilla beans, toffee, and rich, oaky wood. Drinking it brought forth flavors like coconut chocolate, more vanilla, sugarcane, gentle wintry spices, and more light fruity flavors throughout. The finish was dry, sweet, and warming.
Taste 3
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, this rum is surprisingly dull with slight aromas of sugary vanilla and maybe just a tickle of cracked black pepper. But that’s really pushing it. The palate was slightly more flavorful with light pineapple, cane sugar, and some vanilla.
All in all, it’s a pretty bland and unexciting rum, to say the least.
Taste 4
Tasting Notes:
In the absence of color, this rum’s nose let me in on the flavors I was in for. Aromas are fruity, sweet cinnamon, molasses, and full of vanilla beans. The palate continues this trend of surprising my senses with notes of ripe pineapple, coconut meat, sugar cane, vanilla beans, and gentle, oaky spices that tie everything together nicely.
Taste 5
Tasting Notes:
This rum smells like a dark rum. There are notable aromas of butterscotch, treacle, vanilla beans, and a slight fruitiness. The palate continues this trend with notes of dried fruits, vanilla cream, brown sugar, caramelized pineapple, and gentle baking spices. Overall, it’s a very flavorful white rum.
Taste 6
Tasting Notes:
There isn’t much smell to this rum besides a sweet, saccharine sugar smell. It’s like someone made a simple syrup and then told you it was rum. There might be faint vanilla in there too, but it might also be my imagination. The palate followed suit with more teeth-aching sweetness with a slight treacle flavor.
Honestly, this rum tasted like pure sugar with a hint of alcohol heat.
Taste 7
Tasting Notes:
This is a surprisingly fruity rum on first nosing. Ripe pineapple, sweet banana, and dried fruits met my nostrils. On top of that, there were scents of vanilla beans and gentle wintry spices. Sipping it revealed more vanilla cream, buttery caramel, raisins, more ripe fruit flavors, berries, and just a hint of cracked black paper to add a little spice into the mix.
Taste 8
Tasting Notes:
This rum had a bit of a funky smell, and I could tell it was very high proof. I also noticed the aromas of molasses, vanilla beans, and maybe some cinnamon but not much else. The aromas were definitely overshadowed by the alcohol heat. Sipping it almost knocked me completely out of my chair.
Once I got past the overwhelming alcohol taste, there were notes of vanilla, caramel, molasses, and a slight fruity flavor. Overall, the alcohol was a bit too much to handle though.
Part 2: The Ranking
8) Captain Morgan White Rum — Taste 6
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $30 for a liter
The Rum:
There are few more well-known rums than Captain Morgan, but name recognition doesn’t necessarily equal value. This rum was created to be a mixer. This sugarcane-based rum was distilled five times in an effort to remove any harsh qualities and create a smooth, mixable rum and not much else.
Bottom Line:
I didn’t enjoy sipping this rum at all and really wasn’t surprised when I learned that it was Captain Morgan. It’s definitely not for sipping.
7) Bacardi Superior White Rum — Taste 3
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $18 for a liter
The Rum:
Like Captain Morgan, Bacardi is a massive name in the rum game. Its iconic white rum was created in 1862 by Don Facundo Bacardí Massó. It took him ten years to perfect the recipe. Designed to be mixed with, but not lost in the shuffle, it’s still one of the most popular white rums today.
Bottom Line:
Once again, I wasn’t surprised to see Bacardi land so low on the list. It’s cheap, available everywhere, and is an acceptable mixer. That’s all though.
6) Wray & Nephew White Rum — Taste 8
ABV: 63%
Average Price: $26
The Rum:
This is a bold punch to the gut rum with 63 percent alcohol. You’re really not supposed to drink this neat. This award-winning, classic white rum has been made the same way in Nassau Valley in Jamaica since the 1800s in small batches.
Bottom Line:
Wray & Nephew doesn’t mess around. This high-proof Jamaican rum has a ton of flavor. It’s just that it’s masked by having so much alcohol content. That’s great for the mixer that it is. But, come on, never drink this straight.
5) Don Q Cristal Rum — Taste 1
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $15
The Rum:
If you’ve never tried Don Q, now is the time. Its popular cristal rum is distilled multiple times to soften and mellow it before it’s aged for between one and five years in American oak barrels. Then the amber color is removed while keeping the bold flavor.
Bottom Line:
I wasn’t very familiar with Don Q before this blind taste test, so I didn’t really know what to expect. While the flavor didn’t knock my socks off, it’s definitely a decent mixer or sipper (if you enjoy sipping white rum neat).
4) Cruzan Aged Light Rum — Taste 2
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $12
The Rum:
This St. Croix-produced rum is made with a blend of various rums aged between one and four years in barrels that formerly held bourbon. It’s then filtered to remove color and mellow out the taste. It’s cheap, always available, and definitely a bargain mixer to add to your bar cart.
Bottom Line:
This is by far the least expensive rum on this list and ranked among the best. That’s fairly telling. Price doesn’t always dictate quality. This is a decent mixer and I’d even sip it in a pinch.
3) Banks 5 Island Rum — Taste 4
ABV: 43%
Average Price: $35
The Rum:
This is a really complicated rum. It’s a blend of twenty or more different rums from (you guessed it) five different “islands”: Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana (although technically a landlocked country), and Java. It’s aged between three and five years and then the color is removed through charcoal filtering.
Bottom Line:
I definitely expected Banks 5 Island Rum to place high on these rankings. It’s complex and flavorful due to the different rums present. It’s like taking a journey throughout the Caribbean and parts of South America in a glass.
2) Havana Club Añejo Blanco — Taste 5
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $21
The Rum:
When I hear terms like “añejo,” I usually just assume the bottle in question is tequila. In this case, it’s a way to differentiate between an aged and unaged rum. While not actually made in Cuba, this Puerto Rican rum is made using the original recipe from the Cuban Arechebala family. It’s aged for one year in oak barrels, blended, and then aged for another two months.
Bottom Line:
I’ve never had to privilege of trying the original Havana Club rum, but this Puerto Rican version definitely surprised me in overall flavor. It’s complex and mixable, but a rum I’d definitely sip neat as well.
1) The Real McCoy 3-Year-Old Rum — Taste 7
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $23
The Rum:
Named for prohibition-era rum runner Bill McCoy, The Real McCoy 3-Year-Old Rum is produced at the well-known Foursquare Distillery on the island of Barbados. This blended rum is aged for a minimum of three years in ex-bourbon barrels before having its caramel color removed using charcoal filtering.
Bottom Line:
With a name like The Real McCoy, I should have known that this rum wasn’t messing around. It’s by far the most flavorful and complex of the rums on this list. I will definitely crack this one open for another taste.