Great Rums For Summer Cocktails

Brinley Gold Shipwreck Spiced Rum is named in honor of a British troopship that sank off the island of St. Kitts in 1782 and was recently rediscovered. This rum is distilled from fermented molasses before being aged for at least four years in charred American oak barrels.

This spiced rum is produced at the Foursquare Distillery in Barbados. Foursquare has quite the (good) reputation of not using artificial flavors or added sugar post-distillation unlike many rum bottlers and this spiced rum is no exception. Only real herbs and spices were used.

Bundaberg is a rum brand and distillery which was established in 1888 and named after the city where it is located in Queensland, Australia. This overproof rum is a little on the low side, proof-wise, clocking in at only 115 proof. Bundy, as it is affectionately called by its many fans, is available around the world, with the United States being a notable exception.

This rum bottling previously had no age statement, but was widely known to have been aged at least 10 years. This Bajan rum is distilled at the Foursquare Distillery and adds no sugar pre-bottling. The packaging must be noted as it is black glass and appears to be melting.

This Navy Rum was created by London-born Alfred Lamb in 1849. His creation is a blend of 18 different rums from the Caribbean islands of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad. This is bottled at 80 proof. Note: This is currently not available in the US.

This Bajan rum is distilled at the Foursquare Distillery, an independent distillery owned by the Seale family. Doorly's was a rum brand that had been established on the island in the 1920's. In the 1990's the Seale family acquired the brand. The rum is made from a combination of pot and column-still rums and is aged in refill bourbon barrels.

The El Dorado rums are distilled at the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) in Guyana from molasses sourced from 100% Demerara sugar. They have acquired quite a few different stills from closed distilleries on the island and use a combination of them for each marque. The 8 year uses four different types of stills including an Enmore wooden column-still and a two column-metal-Coffey still. The rum is blended and aged in ex-whiskey barrels.

El Dorado is distilled from molasses from 100% Demerara sugar. They have 9 different types of stills at the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) and for this bottling they use a four-column French Savalle still and an Enmore wooden Coffey still. The rum is blended and aged in ex-bourbon barrels.

Myers's Rum, named for founder Fred L. Myers, has been produced in Jamaica since 1879. This molasses-based dark rum is a blend of up to nine rums made in both continuous and pot stills. It's aged up to four years in ex-bourbon barrels.

Malibu Original coconut flavored rum was designed as an all-in-one cocktail, a low-proof liqueur rather than a full proof rum for safe consumption in warm-weather party settings. It was later embraced by a generation of bartenders who used it in Piña Coladas and other tropical cocktails. The flavor is derived from coconut extract.