Top 10 Rums for a Daiquiri
Here are 10 of the best rums for a Daiquiri cocktail. By no means all of the best rums, though – which favourites would you add to the list? Comment below.
Three ingredients. Rum, fresh lime, sugar syrup. A Daiquiri is about balance, and in my book, plenty of zing. Prefer yours sweeter? You can, and should, adjust the sweetness and acidity to your preference, and also experiment with combining different types of rum.
Commonly, Daiquiris are made with colourless rum (unaged or with colour filtered), but with the right ratios, you can happily introduce darker, aged rums to the mix.
Start by working around a classic 3:2:1 formula, shaken with ice and strained. Try 50ml rum, 25ml fresh lime juice, and 12.5ml simple syrup, then tweak to suit your taste (and the zinginess of your limes) from there.
The Daiquiri, in all its glory
Top 10 Rums for a Daiquiri
Signature Blend #1 (That Boutique-y Rum Company)
My go-to for a Daiquiri since its creation. Developed with Pete Holland (of off The Floating Rum Shack fame), this combo of unaged rum from Martinique and some particularly bold dark rum from Jamaica delivers a vibrant profile, robust yet perfectly balanced, and just incredible when lime gets involved.
Trois Rivières Blanc
Agricole and limes = also perfect drinking companions. Hailing from Martinique, Trois Rivières is made with fresh sugarcane rather than molasses, resulting in a juicy, sweetly herbaceous character with wild, grassy funk. Go all out, or combine with another rum to find your perfect balance.
Clément Rhum Ambré
Another agricole from Martinique, this time with a touch of oak influence. Clément rests this rum in oak casks for 12 months, bringing delicate notes of vanilla and butterscotch to the vibrant, juicy cane at its core.
Doorly’s 3 Year Old
Doorly’s rum is produced at the legendary Foursquare distillery in Barbados. I don’t really need to say much more than that, do I? Aged three years and filtered (no murky Daiquiris here!), this is top quality, incredible value, and easier to reach than its collectable cousin, so you can shake up delicious Daiquiris to your heart’s content.
Clairin Sajous 2021
More sugar cane juice rum! I like my Daiquiris zingy, and I like them funky, OK? This one’s from Haiti, it’s fermented with wild yeast and bottled at a bold 54.2%. Punchy, estery, vegetal, unique. Try a touch of this combined with an aged rum for a Daiquiri with real depth.
Mezan Chiriquí
Indie bottler Mezan truly delivers when it comes to intriguing rums from around the world. This one hails from Panama, initially aged in bourbon casks and finished in moscatel casks, there’s lots of stone fruit, tropical fruit, and vanilla at play here. Perhaps one to combine with the Clairin above?
Veritas Rum
Three legends of the rum world combine in Veritas, a collab between Foursquare in Barbados, Jamaica’s Hampden Estate, and Italian bottler Velier. A blend of Coffey column still rum from Foursquare and pot still rum from Hampden delivers a fresh, tropical profile with incredible balance. This is a true Daiquiri rum.
Planteray 3 Stars White Rum
A blend of aged and unaged rums from Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados, carbon filtered to remove colour. Classic, well-balanced, and great bang for buck – this’ll shine as is in a Daiquiri, and is a great option for bringing balance to some of the wilder agricoles, or richer aged rums.
Havana Club Añejo 7 Year Old
Legendary rum from Cuba! Havana’s rums are superbly versatile, and this seven-year-old is ideal if you want to introduce some mellow age and extra complexity to your Daiquiris. Try half and half with Doorly’s or Planteray for the best of both worlds.
Mount Gay Black Barrel Double Cask Blend
Proof that aged rums work in a Daiquiri. The rich depth of Mount Gay’s Black Barrel (finished in heavily-charred bourbon casks) shines alongside the bright zest of fresh lime. The rum brings notes of vanilla, toffee, and elegant oak to the mix for a slower, richer sipper.
