Sometimes you need a good brown rum. Not one with a particular character or flavor signature—not Jamaican or Demerara or agricole. And not a bunch of sugar, of course. Just a delicious rummy rum to make a drink with.
What are the go-to brown rums in 2025 for this purpose? I used to have my own grasp of the best options, but I feel I’ve fallen behind. The impetus for this question was @slkinsey questioning what to buy for an Old Cuban now that Bacardi 8 is dogshit, and I realized I had no idea what to suggest. I also realized that I don’t even really have a candidate in my inventory, right now, and that suddenly felt like a crisis.
Of bottles that are generally available at a reasonable price, R.L Seale’s 10 year makes me very happy. The wife is partial to The Scarlet Ibis. You said “not Jamaica” but I can’t refrain from mentioning Papalin Jamaica 7 year, a Velier blend of Hampden and Worthy Park. I think the Barbancourt 8 year is overrated, but the Barbancourt 4 year is vivacious and I’ve already mentioned I love it in old recipes that call for “Santa Cruz” rum. There are some fun rums out of New England, like Bully Boy and Privateer.
And the “Old Cuban” was not on my radar, but visitors at mine are welcome to my supply of Havana Club 7. Have yet to get my hands on the high test stuff though.
Despite being ostensibly Cuban (there is some doubt what proportion of Cuban rum is actually in the bottles), no Havana Club products seem particularly suitable to the Old Cuban.
Bacardi’s “Havana Club” is, of course, just dogshit from their Puerto Rico refinery. The problem with Cuban Havana Club—I am told by folks like Ed Hamilton—is that the numbers don’t seem to add up, that there’s just not enough juice distilled in Cuba to fill all those HC bottles. Suspicion is that it’s padded out with contract distillate from Trinidad or whatever. May not be true.
For that drink specifically I would think Mount Gay maybe Black Barrel? My go to all purpose rum would generally be Flor de Cana but I can’t say I’ve sipped much of either in recent years.
For those times when I’m in the mood for general aged rum / nothing that wants to really wrestle with you (like Jamaica, Martinique, etc.), I usually find myself turning in the direction of Barbados. For a basic 40% “brown” rum, Mount Gay Extra hits a sufficient number of happy points in my brain, or nudge it over to Black Barrel like Camper suggested, if that’s your inclination. (Have you had the MG Navy Strength? I loved that one, maybe I should pick up some more.) The R.L. Seale bottle is also great to keep around (though my bottles seem to disappear rather quickly). I don’t have the budget to make Foursquare my house well, though maybe this year, my ship will come in!
I have too much rum here in the house, but most of it is here for mixing – tiki drinks particularly – so I can’t say I am sipping much of it.
Having said that, I have Barrilito 3-Star, Doorly’s XO, Cruzan Single Barrel and Flor de Caña 7 that I think fall into this category. The latter is really my go-to mixer because it’s inexpensive, but I probably like the Barrilito most of all those. (In fact, if I’m sipping, I probably go for Appleton 12 most often.)
For “go to Mixer” rums i don’t really have any single bottle i just have like - second best options? I prefer stuff with funk over things like Mt Gay which seem to exist in my head to bridge the gap between oak loving scotch drinkers and their fear of any thing different. Being propped up by spirits platform for the most recent years is where a lot of that assumption comes from as they’re primarily a premium spirits supplier so it simply must be good if they have the ocntract. My own jaded views aside - if you want a rum that fucks hard while others just talk about fucking hard you get Coruba. if you cant find Coruba that’s fine too (Because no one else can either) you just need to have extra cash laying around.
Blend:
two parts Goslings black seal
one part Appleton 8 or signature, whichever moves the least on your shelf
one part Bacardi 8 (the shit one that sucks is my preference here) or Havana 7 (the actual one, sorry USA).
for a 700ml bottle that’s 350 goslings and 175ml of the other two.
Bingo bango now you have a Coruba analogue and the blend is a workhorse for all your classics. mai-tai, zombies, it’s solid.
If you want something that is strictly just one rum and you need it to be just one rum - i like angostura 5 or 7 - for sipping 1919?
many of the drinks i prefer to make don’t really revolve around that lighter aged style, i’m either all in on a white column still rum or i’m over in funkytown with pineapple juice and angostura bitters.
