The One Thing You Should Always Do When Drinking Rum

Rum is a spirit category marked by nearly endless variables. Even though it’s always distilled from some form of sugar, rum can hail from anywhere across the globe, be aged in any type of cask, and distillers can employ myriad techniques to achieve desired flavor profiles — regional regulations permitting.

Regardless of the differences between different rum styles, anyone shopping for a bottle needs to consider how they intend to enjoy it. Are you looking for something to sip neat? Are you planning to make cocktails? Assemble a rum blend? Maybe you’re looking for a rum that checks all three boxes. Whether you’re a well-seasoned expert in the field or a relative newcomer to the category, there’s one thing you should always check to know whether a certain expression will be appropriate for the intended use: its alcohol content (ABV).

In general, rums can vary in strength from 40 percent ABV all the way up to 75.5 percent ABV. While ABV isn’t directly correlated with flavor, it does offer an idea of how intense and concentrated a rum’s profile will be, which can be a great indicator of whether it will shine as a standalone sipper, a base spirit in a cocktail, or something to add to drinks in scant amounts.

“I feel that in theory there is no upper limit of ‘too strong to sip’ in terms of ABV, but I think that, for me, ‘sippable’ ends somewhere just south of 65 percent ABV,” Dane Risch, the owner and beverage director of Brooklyn’s King Tai, tells VinePair. “I would adjust my upper threshold percentage a bit lower for white and unaged rums. In those, the alcohol just overwhelms the flavor for my palate after the mid-50s and 60s.”

When rums start clocking in above 65 percent ABV, many find them too hot to enjoy on their own. Essentially, your palate is going to process little other than alcohol — not to mention the increased risk of overconsumption that comes with sipping high-proof spirits. With these expressions, it’s best to use them like a seasoning, adding them in small amounts as necessary to cocktails.

“I love using Rum Fire in cocktails, but I don’t enjoy sipping it. It has so much flavor and funk that it’s got an almost burning petroleum and melting plastic stink to it, which sounds awful but is actually super delicious up against some bold fruit, spice, and citrus flavors [in cocktails],” Risch says. “Similarly, something like Wray & Nephew comes in handy if you have a rum cocktail that needs a little extra boost of alcohol and heat, because it isn’t as flavorful as Rum Fire or Smith & Cross.”

When a rum is on the lower end of the ABV spectrum, there’s a good chance that it might also not be a great sipper. As Risch tells us, Gosling’s Black Seal Dark Rum (40 percent ABV) is a bit one-dimensional. That’s not to say that it’s a bad product, but it shows its potential when mixed with other rums and ingredients. It’s all very case by case. However, if an expression falls between 45 percent ABV and the low 60s, there’s a good chance that it will be a solid sipper. You want it to have enough alcohol to deliver an assertive profile, but not so much that it’s going to burn.

“Generally speaking, I think ‘balance’ and ‘dynamic’ are good words to describe what makes a rum sippable. It should have enough going on to keep your palate entertained,” Risch explains. “You might want a combination of woody dryness, botanical notes, fruitiness, natural cane sweetness, and some amount of heat.” In a nutshell, you want a sipping rum to be multi-dimensional like a good whiskey.

This middle ground also represents expressions that can work well in rum blends to use in cocktails. They simply pack more of a punch in small quantities, so rums — like Smith & Cross, for example — can add some extra character to a cocktail when used in tandem with more modestly-proofed spirits.

Getting familiar with different styles of rum and the main countries that make them is also a crucial, exciting part of any spirit enthusiast’s drinking journey, but doing so takes time and training. As such, checking a rum’s ABV is a great way to make picking out a bottle feel less daunting.

*Image retrieved from sergantstar via stock.adobe.com

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