Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between white, gold, and dark rum?
White rum is unaged or very lightly aged, clean and clear, the base for Mojitos and Daiquiris. Gold rum has some barrel time, picks up colour and caramel notes, sits well in Mai Tais and punches. Dark rum (and its bigger cousin Navy rum) is heavily aged or deeply coloured, molasses-forward, and used in drinks that want weight and funk like the Dark ‘n’ Stormy.
Which rum is best for Mojitos?
A clean white rum with enough character to show up through the lime and mint. Havana Club 3 Year (where legal), Bacardi Superior, Flor de Caña 4, or Mount Gay Silver all do the job. Avoid overly sweet or overly neutral rums here; the Mojito has nothing else keeping it interesting.
What’s spiced rum and can I use it in any cocktail?
Spiced rum is gold rum that’s been steeped with spices (vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, citrus peels). It turns any cocktail into a warmer, dessert-adjacent version of itself. Spiced rum is fantastic in cola, in apple cider, or in hot drinks. It’s usually too sweet for classic cocktails built around white rum, so don’t substitute it one-for-one in a Daiquiri.
Why are there so many tiki drinks with rum?
Because rum was the cheap, abundant spirit in Caribbean colonial trade for three centuries, and Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic built the tiki bar industry around it in the 1930s-40s. The best tiki drinks layer multiple rums (a white, a gold, a dark) to create flavour complexity, which is why a proper Mai Tai isn’t the simple recipe people think it is.
Can I substitute one rum for another?
Within style, yes. Between styles, be careful. White rum to gold rum usually works with a small flavour shift. White rum to dark rum changes the character of the drink significantly. The one-to-one rules: lighter-aged rums can cover for each other, heavy aged rums should stay in drinks that were built for them. If a recipe calls for a specific rum by name, there’s usually a reason.
