The criteria for the top rums of 2025 are straightforward. The rum in question had to land on our virtual shelves after 2024 and before 2026, and it had to be dead good.
We don’t care if the rums happened to be released in a different market at an earlier or later date. This is Master of Malt’s Top Rums of the Year. By which I mean me, the writer of this here blog. And I like single-estate Barbados brilliance. I am charmed by Haitian cane juice rarities. A chocolate-fuelled internet fever dream sways me.
This year’s standout rums prove the category remains wildly creative and increasingly impossible to pigeonhole. Here are the bottles that made us stop, sip, and pour another.
Read more about this release on our blog
Mount Gay Single Estate Edition 4 70cl Rum
The fourth chapter in Mount Gay’s quietly revolutionary Single Estate series arrived in 2025. And once again, it raises the bar for what estate-grown rum can achieve. This release is molasses-based rum made entirely in-house from the 2019 sugar cane harvest from Mount Gay’s own land in St Lucy, Barbados. Fermentation averages nine days, then double pot distillation follows. The spirit finally spends five years tropically ageing in American oak bourbon barrels. It’s a beauty. Think toffee sweetness, red fruit depth, floral lift, and that gently bitter molasses edge that keeps things grown-up. Check out the QR code on the bottle that unlocks a frankly heroic level of production detail. Oh, and Mount Gay uses recycled glass for the bottle, too. Read more on Emma’s blog.
Foursquare Mandamus – Exceptional Cask Selection Mark XXIX 70cl Rum
If you know, you know. It’s Foursqaure. And if you do not, Mandamus is one hell of a lesson. This blend of pot and column distilled rum spent ten years in bourbon casks before an additional six-year finishing period in tawny Port casks. Bottled at 57% ABV, it delivers jammy cherries, ripe berries, rich oak, and a structured dryness that keeps the sweetness firmly in check. This Exceptional Cask Selection release confirms, once again, that Foursquare and Port casks are a near-perfect match.
Black Tot Master Blenders Reserve 2025
The sixth edition of Black Tot’s Master Blender’s Reserve marks the 55th anniversary of Black Tot Day. This is a perpetual blend of extraordinary pedigree, combining the final barrel of Black Tot’s 50th Anniversary rum with the 2024 Reserve, plus precious drops from original Navy flagons. Layer in rums from Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica, and you have a blend that is as historically resonant as it is flavour-packed.
This one surprised me
Phraya 8 Year Old
Thailand saunters into view in 2025 with fine rum, just as it did with Prakaan whisky. Phraya is made from high-quality molasses and water from the Ta Chin River. It then spends eight years maturing in charred bourbon barrels in this warm climate, which helps develop a plush texture and mellow richness.
Roaming Road 19 Year Old Haiti Rum
A proper slow-burner from the impressive Roaming Road. This independently bottled Haitian rum is made from cane juice and matured for a full 19 years in a single bourbon barrel before being bottled at cask strength. The long ageing lends refined oak structure and vanilla sweetness to the vibrant, grassy core of the spirit, creating contrast between freshness and depth. Keep an eye out for Roaming Road releases. We think you’ll be mighty impressed.
Project #173 Dubai Chocolate Rum
Dubai Chocolate has had quite the year (or two), hasn’t it? Project #173 tries to bottle the moment, and that’s what it did with this experimental release. I’ll be honest, on paper, this didn’t appeal to me at all. But, it turns out if you take quality Caribbean rum and naturally flavour it with milk chocolate, pistachio, and that distinctive crispy filo pastry note, you avoid the drearily obvious safe space of ironic creativity and land straight in the garden of intrigue and delight. Project #173 Dubai Chocolate Rum is decadent, playful, and far more versatile than it has any right to be. Make a White Russian with this and watch Lebowski and tell me you’re not having a great time.
