The 21 Best Rums Of The 21st Century (So Far), Ranked

Photo courtesy Mount Gay

Writing “listicles” can be loads of fun and super-easy. Wow, a whole lot of new bourbons were released this month. Hey, Editors, how about a round-up of “8 New Bourbons You Need To Try This Very Instant”? Editors love to publish them, readers seem to love to click on them… everyone’s happy. And yes, I’ve written my share of them and will proudly continue to do so. Listicles may not win Pulitzers, but they can, when done well, be informative and enjoyable to read.

Then there are listicles like this one. It was an honor to be asked by Robb Report to write about the 21 best rums of the 21st century (so far). And it was a relief that my editor is still speaking to me even after I got the copy to him a couple of weeks late. But making a list of the best anything is to invite ridicule and scorn from all corners, usually in the form of comments along the lines of, “This writer clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.” (I’ve received my share of ‘em over the years.) And then to have to RANK them is to ask for even more abuse. “How could he put a Barbados rum at #4? The philistine!”

Distilling, as it were, all the amazing rums created in the last couple of decades down to less than two dozen was no easy job, especially considering all the rums that never even make it to the U.S. And of course it’s almost impossible to find any information on limited edition rums that came out 15 or 20 years ago, let alone a sample of the actual liquid to taste. All that said… I did a lot of research and got a lot of guidance from a lot of experts before going with my gut and my taste buds. Two people who were of invaluable assistance, and whose blogs are essential reading if you care at all about rum, are Matt Pietrek, aka Cocktail Wonk, and Lance “The Lone Caner” Surujbally. Lance actually called me out on his blog for asking the experts at the Ministry Of Rum Facebook page to let me pick their brains. I was equal parts flattered and mortified. But after I reached out to him privately and we hashed things over, he could not have been more generous with his knowledge and advice.

Oh, right, the article! Here’s the link. So far, at least, the kind comments have far outnumbered the snarky ones, which either means that rum geeks are getting kinder or I did a not-terrible job. I’ll let you be the judge.