The Top 10 Rums of 2025
Few spirits are made in as far-flung locations and environments as rum. While it’s associated with Caribbean, we’ve tasted rums from the U.S., Australia, South Africa, Cambodia, and more in recent months — and some of them are damn good.
With this annual update, we look back at the rums we loved that were released in 2025, selecting 10 top bottles that we’d categorically recommend for every home bar.
As always, you can find more great options on our previous top 10 rums of 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019. You can also search multiple stores at wine-searcher to find the best prices on all these products and more.
1. Mount Gay Master Blender Selection – Cognac Cask (Barbados)
The hits keep coming from Mount Gay and master blender Trudiann Branker, with 2025’s showstopper being a four year old product that spends its entire aging time in Remy Martin Cognac casks. The results are dazzling, with a massively fruit-forward rum that never feels hot despite a 58% abv. Floral elements you’d find in a good Cognac impregnate the rum, leading to an exotic and complex finish. A spirit that takes rum and brandy and provides a best of both of their worlds, it’s yet another masterpiece from Barbados’s finest distillery. 116 proof. $210
2. Ten To One Reserve Cask Rum 18 Years Old Trinidad
The blenders at Ten To One dropped a trilogy of 18 year old expressions this year, the highlight being this Trinidad bottling, which is a slightly older version of last year’s 17 year old expression from the same island. The character is fairly traditional but lovely — a classic presentation of the Trinidad style, featuring caramel, vanilla, and especially banana notes building and growing in complexity. Fans of easygoing but wholly engaging rums will fund this a beautiful and versatile bottling. 92 proof. $199
3. LM&V Flag Series Jamaica 2015
La Maison & Velier is arguably releasing the best quality rums available in the U.S. today, importing rare single casks from all over the world (Cambodian rum, anyone) and bottling them at cask strength. Considering the quality, they aren’t insanely expensive, either. This single barrel from Jamaica is one of our favorites of the year, a pot-distilled gem than spent 1 year on the island and 8 in Europe before bottling. Refined and delicate, it will challenge your expectations of Jamaican rum while dazzling you with its notes of spice, cooked fruits, and late-stage coconut. Incredible stuff. 120.8 proof. $150
4. Planteray Mister Fogg Navy Rum (Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana, and Jamaica)
Planteray’s big blend swings for the fences — or the ships in port, anyway — with a powerful navy strength offering designed to feature the four primary rum producers from the era when a daily tot of rum was afforded to men at sea. This expression leans heavily on its Jamaican influence, laden with fruity esters and showcasing lots of baking spice and sweetness. While hot as hell at 55.7% abv, the rum manages to come across with elegance and approachability — but the price is the best part of it all. 111.4 proof. $35
5. Mainland Rum California Single Cask 9 Years Old
Distilled in Pasadena, this single cask rum expression proves that great rum doesn’t have to hail from the Caribbean. This molasses-based spirit is classically constructed and aged in a full-size barrel that previously held Kentucky bourbon. The results are iconic, showcasing bold brown sugar and pineapple notes, backed up by marshmallows by the fire and toasted hazelnuts. Cherries are especially big on the palate. If you can find a bottle, it’s worth snapping it up. 121.8 proof. $85
6. Arhumatic Ybissap (Haiti)
Arhumatic produces flavored and infused rums with the botanicals included in the bottle. This makes for a dramatic presentation before you even open it up, with fruits, flowers, herbs, and more suspended in the mix. Ybissap — don’t ask me to pronounce it — is a“celebration of three iconic tropical flavors found all over the Caribbean: hibiscus, passionfruit, and banana frécinette,” and it’s absolutely loaded with flavor. Infused into a young cane rum from Haiti, the flavors of passionfruit, allspice, and so much banana make for a custard-like concoction that can be consumed straight from the bottle, sans any additional ingredients. It feels like tiki in a glass. 70 proof. $60
7. Holmes Cay Single Origin Reunion Island Rum Traditionnel
Reunion Island is part of France and is located east of Madagascar, making it one of the most remote rum production locations you’ll ever encounter. This is an oddball, too: made from molasses but column distilled in a method similar to rhum Agricole. It’s then aged for three years in ex-Cognac casks. The result is a highly tropical rum with a pinch of spice evident, moving from pineapple to red berries and hints of coconut on the finish. Florals weave in and out, making this excellent (and affordable) material for your favorite tiki drinks. 92 proof. $45
8. Ron Diplomatico Single Vintage 2013 (Venezuela)
Diplomatico has a well-deserved reputation for being very sweet (it commonly features some of the highest sugar dosage in the industry), but this single vintage expression, aged 10 years, is rougher and more brooding — a welcome thing for the brand. Yes, it’s a honey pot of a rum, fruity at first, then more traditional as it develops, with vanilla, caramel, and layers of baking spices to back it all up, but toasty oak and cola notes that emerge late in the game make for a warming and balanced experience. 86 proof. $120 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]
9. Lemon Hart & Son 151 Rum (Guyana)
The terms elevated and 151 proof don’t often go together, but Lemon Hart’s bruiser is surprisingly balanced and incredibly memorable. Toffee, coffee, and molasses notes emerge from the glass with grace, blooming subtly and richly to showcase Demerara syrup, dark berries, and vanilla on the silky, sugary palate. There’s plenty more on the finish, including baking spice, black tea, and dried apple. Drink sparingly on its own, over ice, or float it by the drop in your favorite rum cocktail. 151 proof. $35 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]
10. Santa Teresa 1796 Arabica Coffee Cask Finish (Venezuela)
Thanks to the name, there’s no mystery here: With this unique expression, Santa Teresa brews coffee beans with rum, puts the resulting mix into a barrel for six months, then removes the coffee to create a “coffee cask.” This is used to finish standard Santa Teresa 1796 for three months, giving the rum a subtle coffee tone. The results are great, with a finished product that is sweet, nutty, winey, and of course laced with coffee. The coffee flavor is more subtle than you think — and it works beautifully with the underlying rum. 92 proof. $60
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