The Best Jamaican Rums

Jamaica’s Worthy Park is the newest Jamaican distillery, with a modern facility built circa 2005. In addition to exporting bulk rums, they also offer the Rum-Bar brand in the Jamaican market. The distillery is a 100% pot-still operation, and their source molasses comes from their own sugar mill less than a mile away. The Rum-Bar White Overproof is a blend of three unaged rums.

Appleton Estate, founded in 1749 is perhaps Jamaica's most venerable rum and comes from the oldest distillery in continuous operation in Jamaica. Appleton's Master Blender, Joy Spence, is the first woman to be appointed Master Blender in the world. Appleton Estate Reserve Blend is created from 20 select rums aged on average for 6 years.

Highly regarded U.K. independent rum bottler Mezan now exports some of their gems to the U.S. The first wave of releases includes the Jamaica XO, a blend of rums from several distilleries, and with no age statement other than an XO designation. It’s created in batches of 5000, and batches may vary in their source rum ratios. After blending, the Jamaica XO undergoes additional aging in used American oak barrels. There’s no sugar or coloring added to this rum, a hallmark of the Mezan lineup.

Monymusk Plantation is part of the National Rums of Jamaica (NRJ) Group and now an official member of Authentic Caribbean Rum (ACR) authority. Special Reserve is a blend of rums produced at the Monymusk plantation in Jamaica. Before selection, they are individually aged in charred oak barrels.

The Jamaica 2001 is part of Plantation’s Historical Vintages line, which also includes the Trinidad 1999 and the Barbados 2001. As with other releases in the Plantation Rum Collection, the Jamaica 2001 is produced using traditional methods. The rum is then finished with Plantation’s signature aging process - rums are shipped from their country of origin and brought to the Ferrand estate in France, where they rest for several months in small French oak barrels.

J Wray & Nephew is a renowned overproof rum produced in Kingston, Jamaica weighing in at 126 proof. Wray & Nephew, as it's known behind bars, is not only a very popular spirit in its home country, but is also the top-selling high-strength rum in the world. It is produced from a combination of both pot and column distillations of a 30 hour fermentation of sugarcane molasses wash and proprietary house yeast.

Two James Doctor Bird Jamaican Rum is a pot-still rum created and aged for 6+ years at the Worthy Park Distillery. It is then transported to the Two James Distillery in Detroit, Michigan. There, it finishes its maturation in Moscatel sherry casks before being blended and bottled at 50% ABV.

One of the most beloved rums in the mixology and Tiki communities, Smith & Cross is revered for bringing back the funky, high-hogo style of rum that had been sadly absent for many years. Distilled at the Hampden distillery in Jamaica, it’s a blend of two styles of pot-stilled rum, Plummer and Wedderburn, which fall at different points on the funkiness scale. Its gold color implies more aging than you might expect – the oldest rum here is three years, and most is far younger.

Appleton Estate is one of the oldest brands of rums on the market having been established in 1779. The estate where the sugarcane is harvested, processed, distilled, and aged encompasses over 11,000 acres in Nassau Valley, Jamaica. American ex-bourbon barrels are used for aging, which in this case, is for a minimum of 12 years. Note: This was formerly known as Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year. The name was changed in mid 2015.

This rum replaces the previous 15 Year expression in the core range. It is named for the Black River in Jamaica’s Nassau Valley, the source of the limestone-filtered water used to proof Appleton Estate rum. It is a blend of pot and column still rums, aged a minimum of 15 years. It is bottled at 43% ABV and available as of June, 2021.