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The Nine Essential Tiki Rum Styles – A Beginner’s Guide

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BY MATT PIETREK JUNE 1, 2023

Wherever Tiki geeks gather, one question invariably arises, “I’m new to Tiki; what rums should I start with?” It’s understandable because the sheer quantity of different rums called for in recipes can easily overwhelm the newcomer.

Some time ago, I took a stab at answering the question for recipes originating in tiki’s golden era.” My article, The Six Essential Tiki Rum Categories, is excerpted from the statistics-based approach I followed when writing the Minimalist Tiki book. (Golden era refers to the mid-20th century when Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic loomed large.) However, times and rum brands change. Today’s tiki hotshots use rums that weren’t available decades ago. Thus, it’s worth periodically revisiting the question to account for current brands and recipes.

What follows are nine rum styles worth owning if making a wide spectrum of Tiki/tropical drinks is your mission. You can make almost any tiki recipe with reasonable fidelity if you have at least one bottle from each style.

I devised the nine styles by extensively reviewing hundreds of recipes from 1934 to the present, including those in today’s popular recipe books. I then placed the nine styles into two groups: Basics and Beyond the Basics. I suggest starting with the six Basics styles and expanding into the Beyond the Basics styles afterward.

I provide numerous examples for each style to help make the criteria clear. While the rums within a style will certainly have flavor differences, the end result will be close enough for most palates once they’re intermingled with the other bold flavors in tiki recipes.

8-bit Tiki Rum Bottle Shall we make a Mai Tai?

The selections are biased towards brands and expressions that should be reasonably available in major markets, including the US, the UK, and the EU. The expressions listed are also biased toward rums that are fully up to the task while reasonably economical. Appleton Signature and Appleton 21 Year are both aged Jamaican rums, but the 21 costs several times more than the Signature. The subtle nuances revealed while enjoying Appleton 21 in a snifter can get lost in the cacophony of lime juice, orgeat, and passionfruit. Likewise, El Dorado 5 Year and 15 Year are both aged Demerara rums, but the 5 Year gets the job done and is more budget-friendly. If you want to make a “Millionaire Mai Tai” using Appleton Legend, go for it! Just understand that my suggestions are rums you might find regularly used in a craft tiki bar’s well.

The set of rums listed for a style is not all-inclusive. Nor will every rum under the sun fall into one of these categories—this is expected. The focus is just the rums that will find the most frequent use in tiki recipes.

The styles presented here aren’t rigorously defined by technical production criteria like the Smuggler’s Cove classification uses, e.g., pot still, column still, blended, etc. Instead, the styles below derive from the flavor profiles most often used in tiki recipes, regardless of how they were distilled and blended. Readers of Minimalist Tiki will note that the Basics styles mostly map to the book’s styles, while the Beyond the Basics styles came into use in the modern Tiki era.

Regarding style names: The style names are chosen to convey what differentiates each style from the others. They’re not short and catchy like “white rum” or “Black Jamaican rum,” but it’s worth the effort to truly understand what the style encompasses rather than falling back on worn-out tropes like white, gold, dark, and overproof.

Tiki Rum Basics

These six rum styles get you started making golden-era recipes like the Mai Tai, Zombie, Navy Grog, and Three Dots and a Dash.

Note 1: during the golden era, “Martinique rum” was not rhum agricole, i.e., cane juice rum. Instead, the Martinique rum available to bartenders was molasses-based and described by Trader Vic as close to Jamaican rum in flavor. Thus, rhum agricole isn’t among the Basics styles below. When an old recipe calls for a Martinique rum, you can reasonably substitute a moderately-aged Jamaican rum.
Note 2: Many modern recipes call for “151 rum” without additional qualifications. This is a terrible idea. However, Demerara rums at 151 proof are distinct enough and called for often enough to be their own style.

The six Basic styles comprise:

Jamaican Rum – Moderately aged

Rums of this style have a moderate amount of the “funk” or “hogo” that Jamaican rum is famous for. They are not high-ester flavor bombs like Hampden Estate DOK.

Showcase cocktail: Classic 1944 Mai Tai

Target Strength: 40% to 46% ABV.

Primary Examples:

Smith & Cross is conceptually within this style. However, because of its higher strength (57% ABV), you should adjust how much you use unless the recipe specifically calls for Smith & Cross or another high-strength aged Jamaican rum.

Jamaican Rum – Caramel forward (“dark”)

8-bit Tiki Mug

This style is related to the moderately aged Jamaican style above but with a key difference. Rums in this style use enough caramel coloring to influence the flavor substantially and turn the rum dark. These rums are often referred to as “dark Jamaican rum” or “black Jamaican rum” and are often found floating atop a less-than-authentic “Mai Tai.”

Showcase cocktail: Hurricane

Defining Jamaican caramel forward rums as a different style may raise questions in some quarters. In the past, Jamaican rum makers were often a little heavy handed with their house-made caramel coloring, and the influence on flavor was noticeable. These days, most coloring uses a different type of caramel that is used in lesser amounts and does not change the flavor as much. My take is that there’s room for old-school, caramel-heavy Jamaican rum and modern Jamaicans like Appleton Signature and Plantation Xaymaca.

Primary Examples:

Lightly Aged and Filtered

8-bit Tropical Cocktail

These rums represent what “white rum” meant decades ago before cane juice rums and blended multi-style blends came on the scene. Today, “white rum” isn’t a good description for any old rum that happens to be clear.

Showcase cocktail: Classic Daiquiri

Target Strength: 40% to 46% ABV.

All rums in this style are aged, even if only for a year. After aging, they pass through carbon filters that remove the color while retaining most aging-induced flavors. Many articles mistakenly refer to this style as unaged rum.

Lightly aged and filtered rums are a signature style of Spanish-heritage rum makers and are the correct style for making a classic daiquiri or mojito. However, rum makers outside Spanish-heritage countries also make excellent rums in this style. Think Trinidad, Barbados, and Guyana.

Primary Examples:
8-bit Banana 8-bit Coconut

Moderately Aged

Some rum styles bring bold and unique flavors that stand out in a recipe. Other styles provide the rhythm track beneath, present, but not necessarily taking the lead role. The moderately aged style is the latter.

Target Strength: 40% to 46% ABV.

Rum of this style have enough aging to be mellowed but aren’t as refined as their longer-aged siblings. The flavor of these rums derives more from aging than from exotic fermentations. I call these rums aging forward. Picture vanilla and oak rather than overripe banana and grassy flavors.

Moderately aged rums of this style are typically partially or fully column distilled. This doesn’t mean that the raw distillate is flavorless, however. Many producers blend a flavorful medium-bodied column distillate (“aguardiente”) with lighter rums.

Primary Examples:

Demerara Rum – Moderately aged

Rums from Guyana, aka “Demerara rums,” are famous for their signature flavor profile. These flavors derive from several factors, including the use of wooden pot stills, which make an unusual and easily identifiable distillate. The mineral content of Guyana’s groundwater and the country’s longtime use of caramel coloring also contribute to Demerara rum’s unique flavor. Many golden era recipes specifically call for Demerara rum because of these flavors.

Target Strength: 40% to 46% ABV.

Primary Examples:

Demerara Rum – 151 Proof, lightly aged

This style is related to the moderately aged Demerara style above, but with two important distinctions beyond just alcoholic strength. First, the 151 Demeraras are rougher around the edges because they’ve not aged as long. Secondly, they tend to have more caramel coloring flavors and a darker color because of, well… more caramel coloring!

Showcase cocktail: 151 Swizzle

Target Strength: 75.5% ABV.

Primary Examples:

Beyond the Basics

While you can go far with the rums in the Basics styles above, you’ll inevitably want to add more to your portfolio. These Beyond the Basics rums primarily find use in tiki revival era recipes.

Jamaican Rum – Overproof, unaged

Jamaican overproof rum is quite different than the two Jamaican styles in the Basics set. They’re fermented to contain high amounts of esters/funk, are devoid of any aging refinements, and are bottled at 63% to 65% ABV. Jamaican overproofs are as subtle as an air-raid siren, so many recipes call for only a half-ounce or less. They weren’t available to Vic and Don during the golden era but have found immense popularity with today’s tiki practitioners.

Showcase cocktail: Jasper’s Punch
Primary Examples:

Cane Juice Rum (“Agricole”) – Unaged

Just as Jamaican rums are instantly recognizable from their fermentation flavors, so are cane juice rums, although a very different flavor often described as “grassy.” The rhum agricoles of Martinique and Guadeloupe are flagship examples of this style. However, cane juice rum from other regions has become more common in the past five years.

Showcase cocktail: Ti Punch

Cachaça, Brazil’s national spirit, is also made from cane juice. While I won’t say that rhum agricole and cachaça are indistinguishable, the distinction may matter less in the tide of tart citrus, fruit syrups and spices. Don’t hesitate to get both, however!

Primary Examples:

Blended Multi-Region Rum – Clear

This style consists of blends of several rums with different flavor profiles. Some may be aged, others unaged. It really is an “anything goes if it tastes good” category.

Showcase cocktail: Daiquiri (Alternative)

A hallmark of blended multi-region rums is the inclusion of Jamaica rum to add a bit of hogo without overwhelming the other rums. These rums are relatively new to the rum scene, with the earliest popular examples being Banks 5 Island (2010) and Plantation 3 Stars (2012).

Primary Examples:

Bonus Rums

While the nine styles above are brand agnostic, two rums are used repeatedly in dozens of popular Tiki recipes. Since neither fit within the styles above, I’ve included them as bonus rums to consider.

Plantation Stiggins’ Fancy

8-bit Pineapple

While pineapple-flavored rum has been around for centuries, Plantation’s Stiggins Fancy has a particular flavor profile that bartenders embrace.

Showcase: Stiggins’ Daiquiri or The Reverend’s Tai

Plantation O.F.T.D. Overproof Rum

A collaboration between Plantation’s Alexandre Gabriel and a group of high-profile bartenders and writers to make the “ultimate overproof” rum for a wide range of tiki recipes. The blend consists of Jamaican, Guyanese, and Barbados rums bottled at 69% ABV. It is frequently used in place of Demerara 151 rums when the latter isn’t available.

Showcase cocktail: O.F.T.D. Swizzle

Final Words

Every dedicated Tiki-loving bartender knows that rum is a journey, not a destination. The styles presented here are what I’d start with if I only had room for nine (or eleven) bottles. While they don’t cover every situation, they will get you well underway in making Tiki drinks without buying dozens of rums. And if you’re like many of us tiki-heads, you’ll end up with hundreds of bottles within a few years. Just don’t say I didn-t warn you!

Originally Posted: Cocktail Wonk

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