If you’re a bourbon fan, there’s a good chance you enjoy a little corn sweetness paired with vanilla, caramel, and toasted-oak flavors. When made well and matured properly, bourbon can be mellow, borderline velvety, and sublimely warming. There’s nothing wrong with sticking solely to bourbon if that’s your thing, but if you aren’t branching out to similarly aged spirits, well… your palate is missing out.
While bourbon fans likely will enjoy a glass of extra añejo tequila, mature mezcal, and many other styles of whisk(e)y, we prefer dark rum. When aged in charred oak barrels, this sugarcane juice or molasses-based spirit gains aromas and flavors like dried fruits, bananas, tropical fruits, toasted coconuts, caramel, vanilla, candied nuts, and rich oak.
Below, you’ll find eight of the best dark rums for bourbon fans, ranked based on how well they match a classic bourbon profile.
8.) Appleton Estate 15-Year-Old Black River Casks
ABV: 43%
Average Price: $78
The Rum:
Appleton Estate is one of the biggest names in the rum world. Its 15-year-old Black River Casks Rum is named for the limestone water used to make Appleton Estate rums. This blend of pot and column still rums were matured for a minimum of 15 years and is known for its notes of tropical fruits, candied nuts, vanilla, and oak.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a mix of toasted vanilla beans, molasses cookies, candied orange peels, caramelized pineapple, and rich oak. The palate is filled with notes of vanilla beans, caramel candy, almond cookies, light coffee, molasses, dried fruits, and oak. The finish is warming, sweet, and memorable.
Bottom Line:
While this rum has more tropical fruit flavors than many bourbon drinkers are used to, it carries a ton of vanilla, caramel, and oak.
7.) El Dorado 15 Year
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $60
The Rum:
The El Dorado 15 is so much more than simply a 15-year-old aged rum. It’s a blend of EHP Wooden Coffey, the Metal Coffee, the Port Mourant Double Wooden Pot Still, and Versailles Single Wooden Pot Still rums. All rums included were matured for at least 15 full years. The result is a rum featuring notes of candied nuts, tropical fruits, chocolate, vanilla, and oak.
Tasting Notes:
This Guyana-made rum begins with a nose of dried fruits, honey, vanilla beans, brown sugar, butterscotch, and oak. Sipping it reveals notes of toasted vanilla beans, brown sugar, honey, raisins, candied nuts, tropical fruits, and oaky wood. The finish is sweet, spicy, and warming.
Bottom Line:
Like a great bourbon, this highly complex, flavorful dark rum deserves to be sipped neat or on the rocks.
6.) Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $40
The Rum:
This Venezuelan-made rum is a blend of copper pot still rums that were all made with sugarcane juice. They’re matured for as long as twelve years in barrels that formerly held bourbon whiskey. This results in a complex, sippable rum with notes of caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, fruit, and oak.
Tasting Notes:
Before your first sip, you’ll be met with a nose of wintry spices, toffee, cinnamon, oak, brown sugar, and vanilla beans. Drinking it brings forth notes of butter caramel, toasted vanilla beans, cinnamon candy, pineapple, candied nuts, chocolate, and charred wood. The finish is warming, sweet, and nutty.
Bottom Line:
If you’re all about sweet caramel and nutty flavors when it comes to bourbon, you’ll love this dark rum just as much.
5.) Barceló Imperial
ABV: 38%
Average Price: $35
The Rum:
This highly prized dark rum is a blend of specifically selected rums that have been aged for up to ten full years in ex-bourbon barrels. It’s known for its sweet, smooth, sippable flavor profile featuring classic flavors like dried fruits, vanilla, caramel, and rich oak.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of dried fruits toasted vanilla beans, caramelized pineapple, candied nuts, toffee, oak, and light spices greet you before your first sip. Drinking it reveals notes of chocolate, vanilla beans, butterscotch, candied nuts, tropical fruits, spices, and oak. The finish is loaded with vanilla and fruity sweetness.
Bottom Line:
Nutty, sweet, and fruity, this rum has a flavor for every palate. It’s a great choice for bourbon drinkers.
4.) The Real McCoy 12 Year
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $62
The Rum:
Named for the famed Prohibition-era rum runner Bill McCoy, The Real McCoy 12 Year is a molasses-based rum. It’s a blend of pot-distilled and column-distilled rums that were matured for at least twelve full years in deeply charred ex-bourbon barrels. This results in a complex, rich, award-winning rum perfect for bourbon drinkers.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find notes of bananas, chocolate fudge, oaky wood, brown sugar, dried fruits, and spices. The palate is filled with flavors like candied orange peels, dark chocolate, charred oak, vanilla, toffee, and bourbon sweetness. The finish is a mix of peppery spice, oak, and caramel sweetness,
Bottom Line:
This rum is a must-buy for bourbon drinkers looking to get into rum. It has everything fans of both styles crave.
3.) Flor De Caña 18
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $52
The Rum:
Flor de Caña is matured in small white oak ex-bourbon barrels that are sealed with plantain leaves. Mature for up to 18 years, this award-winning dark rum is known for its mix of vanilla, caramel, and oak bourbon-like flavors as well as tropical fruits, and dried fruit rum-centric flavors.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this rum’s nose. There are scents of candied orange peels, butterscotch, brown sugar, cinnamon candy, and toasted vanilla beans. On the palate, you’ll find notes of toffee candy, wintry spices, chocolate, vanilla beans, dried fruits, and rich oaky wood. The finish is a mix of candied nuts, caramel, and wood.
Bottom Line:
When it comes to smooth, sippable dark rums for bourbon whiskey drinkers, you can do much worse than this sublimely balanced sipper.
2.) Zacapa No. 23 Centenario
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $56
The Rum:
You might look at Zacapa No. 23 and assume it’s a 23-year-old dark rum. It was made using the Solera aging system of rotating barrels. It’s a blend that runs between six and 23 years old (hence the name). The barrels used for maturation include those used for American whiskey, and various sherries including Pedro Ximenez casks.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of candied nuts, toasted vanilla beans, butterscotch, pineapple, sticky toffee, and oak make for a welcoming start. The palate is filled with bourbon-centric flavors like pipe tobacco, fresh leather, raisins, toasted vanilla beans, cinnamon candy, toffee, and spices. The finish is a warming mix of sweetness and spice.
Bottom Line:
Zacapa No. 23 is a great dark rum choice for bourbon fans. While it has some of the tropical fruit flavors you’d expect from a rum, it’s heavy on the aromas and flavors bourbon fans crave.
1.) Ron Abuelo Centuria
ABV: 40%
Average Price: $150
The Rum:
This limited-release rum was made using the Solera aging method. Matured completely in ex-Jack Daniel’s barrels, the oldest rum included in this blend spent 30 years aging. The result is a nuanced, rich, sippable dark rum worthy of the biggest bourbon fans thanks to flavors like caramel, vanilla, tobacco, and dried fruits.
Tasting Notes:
Candied orange peels, pipe tobacco, toasted vanilla beans, sticky toffee, dried fruits, and charred oak, this rum’s nose has everything bourbon drinkers value. The same goes for the palate as it’s loaded with flavors like vanilla beans, honey, dried fruits, toffee, gentle island spices, oak, leather, and caramel candy. The finish is warm and lingering.
Bottom Line:
If you only try one of these rums, make it this one. It ticks all the bourbon boxes and is one that you’ll not want to miss.