Top 10 rums to buy for Christmas

Is 2024 going to be the year of rum? Your guess is as good as ours but what we do know is that rum offers an incredible amount of flavour for your pound. It also makes a great gift for Christmas and not just for seasoned rum aficionados. Whisky drinkers are waking up to the sheer quality to be found in the rum category. So if you’re looking for an unusual present for someone or just want to treat yourself, here are 10 rums to buy for Christmas (and new year).

Top 10 rums to buy for Christmas

#1 Takamaka Grankaz

A meeting of rums, cultures and continents here. The Takamaka Grankaz expression brings together pot distilled rum from the Seychelles matured in medium toast new French oak casks blended with rum aged in bourbon casks, as well as rum from the Foursquare Distillery in Barbados. The flavour profile is richly creamy with vanilla pods, honeycomb, floral sugarcane sweetness, cola cubes, and a hint of cardamom.

#2 Plantation Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy Rum 

If you’re thinking of making a festive punch this Christmas, then you’re going to need a bottle of this. It was created by the company’s cellar master Alexandre Gabriel and drinks historian David Wondrich for Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans in 2015. To make it, they infuse the rinds of Queen Victoria pineapples in their white rum for a week then distil it, and infuse the fruit of the pineapples in dark rum for three months. These are married together and left to age in casks for three months. Pineapple deliciousness galore! 

#3 Reizinho (That Boutique-y Rum Company) 50cl

Behold, the second batch of awesome unaged rum from Madeira’s O Reizinho, independently bottled by That Boutique-y Rum Company! Portugal may not be the very first place you think of when it comes to rum, particularly intensely funky, bold rums with a savoury edge, but after you taste this one, that might just change. This second batch comes in at a hefty 57% ABV, and still features the funky olive king on the label, an homage to the rum’s flavour profile.

#4 Chairman’s Reserve Finest St Lucia Rum 

St. Lucia Distillers was founded in 1972, a product of the merging of two historic distilleries, Dennery and Roseau. Chairman’s Reserve shows the depth of quality at this island distillery. The process includes ageing Coffey and pot still rums separately, then mixing and ageing them again. This method gives Chairman’s Reserve a unique taste, balancing bold flavours and smoothness. This is the perfect budget sipping rum.

#5 Signature #1 Full Proof

To celebrate its fifth anniversary, That Boutique-y Rum Company bottled up this special “full proof” edition of its Signature Blend #1! This expression is a blend of predominantly unaged rums, and rhums from Jamaica and Martinique. The combo of rich, bold, Jamaican funk with the vibrant, grassy notes of Martinique make this a superb choice for Daiquiris and the like, and this special edition has been bottled at a big, bold 59% ABV, which ought to excite bartenders and rum buffs across the land.

#6 Hampden Estate 8 year old

If you want to sample the full majesty of high ester, dunder-soaked Jamaican rum, then look no further than this 8-year-old expression from this historic producer. Based in Trelawny Parish in the north west of Jamaica, Hampden Estate is one the oldest sugar estates in Jamaica, and is the only distillery in Jamaica that specialises exclusively in the making of heavy pot still rums. Originally these were distilled to go into blends but they are now being appreciated as single estate bottlings. Expect big flavours of pineapple, mango and banana leavened with spicy oak. Great neat, it makes a thunderously good Mai Tai. 

#7 Eminente Reserva 7 Year Old Rum 

Eminente Reserva 7 Year Old is a particularly snazzy Cuban rum, made with 100% Cuban sugar cane. Bright and clean, but with plenty of complex and depth as it develops on the palate, with rich coffee and tobacco notes sitting alongside fruity cherry and floral wafts. This is a rum for brandy lovers. Should do very well simply sipped neat, but we reckon it’ll also make for a great Palmetto or Rum Old Fashioned. 

#8 El Dorado 12 Year Old Rum

The Diamond Distillery in Guyana has to be one of the most fascinating rum producers in the world because it contains stills from now closed distilleries across this small Latin American country. These include wooden pot stills and wooden column stills! Wooden stills, you’d think that wooden work. Sorry. Anyway, this is a blend of various stills to produce a punchy but harmonious flavour profile with flavours of chocolate, toffee, dried fruit and smoke.

#9 Clément 10 Year Old Rum 

This is a rhum agicole from Marintinque  a style that is prevalent across the French-speaking Caribbean, which means that it is made from pure sugar cane juice rather than molasses as is more common across the Caribbean. After spending 10 years in a selection of re-charred and virgin oak barrels, this has taken on generous notes of vanilla, cinnamon and fresh baked goods alongside the trademark grassy freshness and fruit that’s typical of a rhum agricole. 

#10 Dunderhead Rum 

If you’re a fan of rums that are packed to the brim with funky notes of overripe banana, pineapple, sharp oranges and the like, you might be a dunderhead. That’s not an insult. It’s another way of saying you like the high-ester rums produced in Jamaica using dunder in the fermentation, which imparts those funk-forward flavours. If you do fall into that category, you’ll probably rather like this rum. If you’re looking for the ultimate mixing rum at a great price then this is the bottle for you.

And if you want more inspiration, read our Rum Guides. 

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