Rum has spent years playing second fiddle to whiskey on back bars and liquor store shelves, and a handful of distillers are done accepting the arrangement. Heading into National Rum Day on Aug. 16, two producers are borrowing whiskey’s oldest tricks, staking bottles on a single place of origin and the patience it takes to let a spirit age properly.
Kōloa Rum Company in Hawaiʻi and Ron del Barrilito in Puerto Rico are two producers making that bet. Kōloa builds its identity around Kauaʻi’s rainwater and cane sugar. Ron del Barrilito leans on a production process the company says hasn’t changed since 1880. Both are testing whether drinkers respond to the same pitch whiskey has used for decades.
Rum’s Rough Patch Has a Silver Lining
Rum producers making that bet are stepping into a difficult period for the category. U.S. rum sales have been sliding for over a decade, and distillers sold about 19 million cases nationwide last year, well off the pace of the category’s 2013 high of about 25.6 million cases.
Flavored and spiced rum still make up more than half of everything sold, which is exactly the segment premium producers are trying to step around.
Kōloa Rum Treats Kauaʻi Like a Single Vineyard
Kōloa Rum Company stakes its identity on the idea that everything in the bottle traces back to one island. The distillery in Kalaheo sources its cane sugar from local farmers and cuts its rum with water filtered through volcanic rock from Mount Waiʻaleʻale’s watershed, one of the wettest spots in Hawaiʻi. COO Robert Ramer said that island connection runs through every bottle the company makes.
Heidi Bruaw of Real Life of Lulu tasted two of Kōloa’s flavored rums. The Coconut Rum came across toasted and tropical, with lime zest and caramelized pineapple, and nothing artificial-tasting. The Coffee Rum poured deep brown with espresso, vanilla, hazelnut and chocolate notes that would work well in a mocha shake.
Ron del Barrilito Bets on an Unchanged Process
Ron del Barrilito pushes the age-statement idea back even further, to 1880. The distillery makes its rum at Hacienda Santa Ana in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and nothing in the bottle is artificially flavored or sweetened.
Director of Sales and Marketing Eduardo Bacardi said guests are often surprised the process has been preserved for 146 years. Walking through the aging rooms, past ex-Oloroso sherry casks, is where visitors start to understand how time and craftsmanship shape every bottle.
Christian Davila, beverage director at Donna in New York, called Ron del Barrilito Puerto Rican history in a glass. He said it holds up neat, over ice or stirred into a cocktail.
Stephen Alonso, co-founder of Identidad Cocktail Bar in San Juan, described it as a complex rum with ripe fruit, vanilla and crisp, dry notes that fits everything from a Manhattan to an old fashioned.
Rum’s premium push is happening against a tough spirits market overall. U.S. spirits sales slipped 2.2% last year to $36.4 billion, even as volume ticked up nearly 2%. Brands like Kōloa and Ron del Barrilito are betting their story sets them apart from anything mass-produced.
For National Rum Day, skip the syrupy stuff and taste what a place and a process actually add to the glass.