13 Types Of Rum, Explained

Broadly speaking, this popular variation is defined as any rum that's infused with myriad herbs and spices. According to the Rum Lab, spiced rum came about as a way to make rum more palatable, since "fresh" rum packed a good amount of potency back in the day. 

To make it, the process begins with distilled white rum, which then undergoes a maceration process with the chosen spices (as a gin would in order to become infused with botanicals) to build complexity and develop flavor. Early spiced rums were often flavored with sweet vanilla and citrusy lime (via Steve the Barman), but the ingredient range has since expanded: allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and other warm flavors (sometimes even hints of dried fruit) have all become popular additions. Molasses is added after to develop rich color before the rum is aged in oak barrels. 

You're probably most familiar with the Captain Morgan version, which brought national awareness to spiced rum when it was released in the U.S. in 1984. Since then, it's become a liquor shelf staple with several offerings from major rum brands and spiced specialists such as Kraken and Sailor Jerry.  A shot of the spirit can add depth to a classic rum and coke, spruce up a Long Island Iced Tea, or create a winning two-ingredient tipple when paired with apple cider or pineapple juice.

If you like piña coladas, you probably like light rum (and maybe, getting caught in the rain). The most common type of rum out there, white rum (also known as silver or light rum) is light in body, sweet in flavor, and has a pleasantly mild character. While it's still made from sugarcane juice or molasses (as other rums are), white rum is typically only aged for about a year, which is a much shorter time span than that of dark rums, and therefore yields a less-bold taste. Most white rums are aged in stainless steel tanks to prevent any color pick up, or filtered through charcoal to remove any tinge of color (but maintain a slightly deeper flavor) if they're aged in plain oak casks. 

Though generally not the boldest in flavor, white rum is like the little black dress of rums, in that it works seamlessly into any cocktail you can imagine: classic choices include any daiquiri and mojito or a piña colada.

Black rum can be a bit of a wildcard when it comes to what an imbiber can expect upon opening the bottle. One would think that the spirit's ultra-dark hue would mean that it's aged for decades, meaning you're getting the most full-bodied flavor from your pour, but black rums can be shaded with the caramel color of molasses to mimic the appearance of spending years in barrels (it sees very little, if any, aging otherwise). 

First popularized in the post-Prohibition era as a cocktail mixer (the idea was to make it the base of a punch), black rum was meant to mimic the look of a deeply aged rum at a lower price point, according to Martin Cate, author of "Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum and the Cult of Tiki" (via Liquor.com). Its production leaned into the assumption from uninformed imbibers that a darker, more opaque spirit equates to more flavor and better quality. That's not to say that there aren't some quality expressions of black rums out there. Gosling's Black Seal is produced in Bermuda and combines both pot-stilled and continuous-stilled spirits. The spirit is aged for three years in white oak and crafted with fermented molasses, so it offers much more body and interest.

Black rum blends seamlessly into a variety of rum cocktails with its molasses-forward flavor. It pairs particularly well with bright citrus and works well as a finishing element for tiki drinks vs. any cocktail where booze is the star.

Lightweights beware: Overproof rum, which is any rum that contains more than is over 57.15% ABV, packs a wallop. Like its close cousin, navy rum, overproof rum also made appearances on British navy ships, since the lack of water in the rum wouldn't ruin gunpowder's ability to light (like regular proof rum would) if the spirit spilled (via Flaviar). The test to determine what rum qualified as "overproof" developed as follows: a small bit of rum was blended with gunpowder. If it produced a flame when ignited, there was "proof" of alcohol and if it exploded like a cannon, it was categorized as "overproof." Later on, these findings came to form the definition of 100 English proof (57.15% ABV). 

Considering its high potency, we wouldn't recommend taking shots of Bacardi 151 and its ilk, but it's a good bet for drink floats and tropical tipples. And if you're looking to (safely, please) whip up an eye-catching flaming cocktail and desserts like a baked Alaska, overproof rum is your go-to for that flambé wow factor.

We all know that rum is the spirit of choice for pirates, but it turns out that the British navy had a strong taste for the stuff as well, enough to have its own eponymous style. Navy rum is a blended, aged rum that typically includes varieties from multiple different rum-making colonies in one single bottle. It's called "navy" as a reference to the rums that were found on early British navy ships — a blend of spirits from different ports visited across the Caribbean and parts of South America. Each one of the colonies produced rum and sailors would consistently grab casks to bring with them, so you can imagine how different each ship's selection was depending on where it docked. 

When it became essential to supply rum to all navy ships, the British navy teamed up with James Man in 1784 to provide the spirit to each fleet, creating a consistent product with a blend of different rums. Official navy rum ceased production in 1970 (via Robb Report), but if you have the research time (and the hefty budget) you can snag a true bottle of navy rum today. And if you don't mind forgoing a vintage bottle, Pusser's offers a great option that will satisfy your sailor's heart.

These molasses-based rums are made using traditional techniques — typically pot-still distillation (though some modern iterations make use of the column still) — in British colonies like Barbados, Guyana, St. Lucia, and Jamaica, and are considered the earliest iteration of the colonial rums (before the French and Spanish colonies). These colonies came on the rum scene far before their French and Spanish counterparts and were responsible for pioneering many traditional craft techniques. And since they were so successful in doing so, they stuck to their tried-and-true production methods of pot distillation for decades — column distilled rums were looked down upon until the technology started taking off in the late 1800s (via Cocktail Wonk). 

Modern-day British rums are characterized by the distilling method (now made using a mix of pot and column distilling) as well as a wild yeast-fermented molasses base rather than cane juice. These sweet, rich expressions are great on the rocks.

French style rhum is perhaps the most consistent tasting out of the three colonial styles of rum, since it must adhere to strict production techniques and standards such as distillation length. In the mid-19th century, France was invested in the rum-producing capabilities of its territories, so single-column stills came to the islands like Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Reunion Island quite quickly. These stills had to be tweaked to accommodate the nuances of working with sugar cane juice and ultimately became known as the Creole column still, according to Cocktail Wonk. 

Rhums, which hail from the French Caribbean, are all produced in column stills using sugar cane juice fermented for up to five days. The resulting flavor is softly sweet, with fresh grassy undertones and elegant hints of floral notes. Rhum agricole is considered a French rhum, but is subject to slightly more specificity than the general category. Today's notable rhum producers include Rhum JM and Rhum Clément and they can be enjoyed straight or on the rocks to appreciate the spirit's unique flavor properties, or blended into a delicate punch with a touch of citrus and sweetener to let its natural taste shine through.