Flavored Rum
Flavored rum is simply rum to which additional flavors have been added after distillation. Many rum flavors tend toward the tropical, with mango, pineapple, and other bright fruit flavors popular. Coffee and chocolate are also commonly used flavorings, but perhaps the most commonly available flavored rum is Malibu, which uses coconut as its flavoring base (although other coconut brands are also common). At Drinkhacker we classify spiced rum as a distinct and separate category.
Top Flavored Rum Posts:
Malibu Winter
Tiki Lovers Rum – White, Dark, and Pineapple
Deadhead Dark Chocolate Flavored Rum
The problem with cherry flavored spirits, of course, is the cough syrup connection. Cherry flavoring is so endemic in over-the-counter throat and lung remedies that most drinkers immediately want to climb back in bed once a cherry liquor hits their lips. Bacardi bypasses that problem with its new cherry rum by “torching” it — now,…
Coruba is Jamaican rum (imported to New Zealand and sold from there). These two new bottlings are flavored rums that have been considerably doctored not just with flavoring agents but lightened down to just 42 proof. Coruba Mango Rum is an intensely sweet experience, and mango is really only hinted at in the finish. It’s…
Rum Jumbie (the name refers to spirits allegedly trapped inside the caves of the Caribbean who would possess the souls of rum drinkers) makes several light, flavored rums plus a rum liqueur. The flavored rums are all uncolored, are sourced from Panama, and are bottled at a scant 48 proof. Flavors are natural but otherwise…
Don Q is a huge rum brand from Puerto Rico. It’s now producing three flavored versions, two of which we were fortunate enough to review. Flavorings are natural and the proof level is rock bottom, so drink all you want. Don Q Coco Rum is (obviously) a coconut-flavored rum (aged at least one year). Quite…
Operating out of St. Kitts in the Virgin Islands [er, apparently not], Brinley Gold offers a lineup of five rums, all flavored with natural ingredients and all bottled at 72 proof. The focus at Brinley is clearly more on the flavor than on the rum — all of these spirits are designed for mixing (sometimes…
The original Malibu coconut-flavored rum isn’t just a staple of every bar, it’s also one of the most venerable flavored spirits on the market, dating back to 1980. Lately, Malibu’s been branching out into other flavors, since 2004 launching Mango, Pineapple, Passion Fruit, and Banana expressions. Malibu Island Melon marks the company’s first step into…
What is dragon fruit? Known formally as the pitaya, this Asian fruit has red skin and has a flavor described by some as a blend of “kiwi and Concord grape.” Bacardi uses dragon fruit and strawberry to create this “Dragon Berry” infused rum (its eighth flavor), and extremely flavorful concoction. Bacardi Dragon Berry Rum Review…
It looks like cachaca is continuing its rise, and now even mass market spiriters Seagram’s is getting into the mix. Seagram’s (yeah, the gin guys!) new line of Brazilian rum doesn’t say cachaca on the label (and doesn’t offer a whole lot of information about what they’re created from or where, aside from “Brazil”), and…
Complicated and heavily spiced liqueurs are always a difficult bag. They tend to blend poorly with other spirits and on their own can be imbalanced. Put it this way: No matter how much you like spiced rum, when’s the last time you had it mixed with anything other than Coke? Mekhong is an unusual spirit…
Pity the guava. No one really understands this tropical staple (go to Hawaii and you’ll be inundated with it), but it’s really quite good. A lot like a passion fruit, really, but with a decidedly unsexy name. Despite the lack of erotic appeal in the phrase “guava rum,” when you’re on your 12th flavored rum…