Banks 7 Golden Age Blend Rum Has Complexity

A rum that pulls from the best flavors of the islands

There's a touch of terroir in most spirits.

But with globalization comes a blurring of traditional boundaries, and a new rum is showing how flavorful an international approach can be.

A mixture of 23 rums sourced from seven places, Banks 7 Golden Age Blend ($34) displays all the complexity a well-traveled spirit should have. Rum from Barbados lends a nutty character to the mix; Guyanese rum adds a touch of tropical fruit; and a molasses-rich Trinidad spirit gives the blend rugged assertiveness. Guatemalan rum contributes a deep earthiness and Panamanian rum a bracing dryness; these characteristics are topped by a heady, funky fragrance from Jamaican pot-distilled rum, and deepened with a spark of spice from Batavia arrack, a sort of ancestral rum distilled on the Indonesian island of Java.

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Named for Sir Joseph Banks, an 18th-century English explorer, Banks 7 Golden Age Blend plays well with others: We nabbed a summer-friendly twist on El Presidente from PDT's Jim Meehan to stretch the rum's legs (click here for the recipe).

Rum has long been arguably the most cosmopolitan of spirits; with this border-crossing blend, this summer's daiquiris will place the world in your glass.

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