Review: Banter Rum – White and Amber

Maggie Campbell has been making and blending rum for decades, first at Privateer and then at Mount Gay. Now she’s running her own operation, American Cane, which is a Louisiana-based blender with two rums on the market. Banter is billed as a “revival rum,” designed to be a no-nonsense, “low-drama,” good-value pick for cocktailing. There’s no detail on where the rums are sourced from aside from “the Americas,” but we won’t let that stop us from delving into their charms.

Both are outstanding values.

Banter White Rum Review

A blend of unaged pot and column rums — both cane juice and molasses-based. For an unaged rum this has a lot of depth and minimal funk, though the nose has some of the classic, youthful astringency you would expect from unaged stock (especially including cane juice). Alternately grassy and nutty as it develops, the nose eventually takes on a more floral tone, evoking potpourri and, later, incense — quite heady.

The palate has a light-handed sweetness and ample grassiness, cane juice doing most of the heavy lifting and giving the body an agricole-like quality. Vanilla-driven sweetness soon emerges and tempers any hogo, the esters here well-integrated and supple, helping to create a creamy, undulating body. Fleeting notes of lemongrass and coconut linger on a lengthy finish that eases its way out in a layered fashion that’s more gentle and sweeter than you’d expect.

80 proof. A- / $23

Banter Amber Rum Review

Also a blend (with the same information provided, likely the same as above), aged up to four years. No caramel color appears to be added.

From the jump this is a surprisingly seductive rum. The nose has none of the astringency of the white rum, diving headlong into silkier, sweeter notes of vanilla and caramel, layered with raisiny fruit. A whiff of charcoal suggests a wise filtration, leading to a darker chocolate tone as the rum develops in glass.

The palate is sweet, clean, and rewarding, moving from a more straightforward vanilla-caramel note into butterscotch and more orchard fruit — peaches and apricots, both building on the sunny, tropical finish. The conclusion continues to develop and steadily becomes more tropical, with a lightly grilled pineapple bent. Clean and sweet on the finish, it drinks like it’s already halfway to a tiki cocktail without anything else added. Amazing in this price band.

86 proof. A / $27

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