How to drink rum
There’s no one way to drink rum. That’s why we’re here to take you through all the tasty options you have to enjoy one of the world’s finest spirits.
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Rum is such a complex spirit category. There's aged and unaged rum There's dark, gold, spiced, and white. Even rum liqueurs and spirit drinks based on rum. All the different types of rum available might some feel slightly overwhelmed (our guide on Types of Rum should help). But no singular style also means there’s no one right way to drink rum.
Every bottle can be appreciated in a multitude of different ways and the ‘best’ approach is really down to you and your taste. The occasion, the weather, the company you’re with, where you are, and what other drinks and food you have at your disposal all play a role in how you can enjoy your rum. Whether that’s drinking rum neat, with water, with ice, with food, with mixers, in classic cocktails and serves. Let’s go through the various options to help you understand what you’ll like best.
Drinking rum neat
Your first experiences with rum were probably in mixed drinks like rum and coke, or in a cocktail like a Mojito.
Can you drink rum straight?
But a good rum can be drunk neat, at room temperature with nothing added, too. While a straight spirit might seem intimidating at first, once you develop a palate for it, there’s no better way to understand the spirit in your glass.
Unadulterated, you can truly assess the character of the rum before you in detail, giving you a chance to see the intricacies of its production process and to detect the different flavours and aromas. A tapered, tulip-shaped tasting glass will help concentrate and present best. Aged and unaged rum can be enjoyed neat, but generally, a more premium bottling will shine best.
Rum that's delicious neat
These rums are wonderful if you like yours straight up.
Rum can be enjoyed neat, but it's absolutely fine to add water or ice.
Should you add water to rum?
If you want to. A neat spirit will have a high ABV, at least 37.5% in the case of rum, so adding a few drops of water can help open up the spirit and release different notes. Add just a couple of drops at first and taste test, because you don’t want to drown the rum. You can always add more water. It’s not quite as easy to take water out once it’s added (unless you’re some kind of wizard mage. If you are, get in touch).
Rum and ice
Rum can be enjoyed, much like whisky or brandy, ‘on the rocks’, which is to say over ice. This approach can be looked down on by some but remember, it’s your drink and you should enjoy it how you want. Of course, ice will dilute and dull some flavours because it’s very, very cold, but it also lengthens the drink and makes it refreshing, particularly in hot weather. A rum enjoyed in the sunshine with ice is a hell of a drink.
Typically this will be served in a rocks glass or a tumbler, but there’s no actual hard and fast rule. Bigger ice cubes will dissolve slower too. Remember, ice is essentially an ingredient in this serve, so the better quality the ice, the better quality your drink will be. Again, a more premium rum will stand up to the diluting quality of ice better.
Rum is fun. You can mix it and make great cocktails, like the Piña Colada!
Rum cocktails and mixers
The typical way to drink rum is when it’s mixed or in a cocktail. There’s the classic rum and coke, a favourite for a reason. It’s easy to make, it’s available pretty much everywhere, it’s not expensive, and it tastes delicious. Rum also works great with ginger ale or beer, but you can really play around with different mixers to find your favourite.
Lemonade, soda water, tonic water, coconut water, heck even certain teas will work. Simply fill a glass with ice, pour in a measure of rum (in the UK a single is 25ml, a double 50ml), and top with your chosen mixer. You can also garnish a mixed drink with fruit like citrus peels or herbs like mint. There’s really no rules here, just experiment and you’ll find something you love.
Cocktails with rum
If you like Piña Coladas, you’re not alone. Rum is a classic cocktail spirit and has been since people first started mixing up glorious boozy concoctions. Today, rum is enjoyed in cocktails from cheesy Tiki bars to high-end establishments and local boozers alike. If you haven’t had a rum cocktail before, you simply haven’t lived, we’re afraid.
There’s a basic rule that lighter rums suit cocktails like Daiquiris and more full-bodied rums shine in Mai Tais, but once again there’s just so much sheer variety and nuance in the wide world of rum that the best way to find your favourite is to explore. Go to rum bars, make your own recipes at home, and embrace the magic of mixology.
Some traditional rum cocktails you’ll surely recognise, like the refreshing Mojito, a Cuban cocktail made with white rum, fresh mint leaves, lime juice, simple syrup, and soda water. Then there’s the fresh Daiquiri, which is just rum, lime, and sugar shaken with ice and strained into a glass, as well as the frozen slushy-style varieties like the Strawberry Daiquiri.
The aforementioned tropical favourite that is the Piña Colada is made with white rum, coconut cream, and pineapple juice, blended with ice. Then there are Tiki stalwarts such as the Mai Tai and the Zombie. The first is whipped up using light rum, dark rum, lime juice, orgeat syrup, and orange liqueur. The second spooky sounding serve is made with various rums, fruit juices, and flavoured syrups.
The Rum Punch is one of the earliest rum creations, a fruity cocktail made with various types of rum and fruit juices (like orange, pineapple, and lime), as well as grenadine, and sometimes soda water. Two drinks that are both cocktails but also essentially mixed rinks are the Dark 'n' Stormy and the Cuba Libre. The former is made with dark rum (it has to be Goslings to legally be called a D ‘n’ S) and ginger beer, while the latter combines rum and cola with a squeeze of lime.
You can also try using rum in place of other spirits in classic cocktails, like replacing the whisky in an Old Fashioned. We have a whole selection of traditional rum cocktails right here for you to enjoy as part of our comprehensive rum guides.
Rum to mix
These are rums to be played with, mix or use them in cocktails.
Rum and raisin, a delicious combination
Pairing rum with food
Rum can be drunk with certain foods. Chocolate makes a great pairing, particularly when drinking rum neat, as does cheese, while you can’t really go wrong by drinking rum and eating tropical fruit like mangoes and pineapples. You can also soak the fruit in rum. In Caribbean countries with a long history of rum production and culture, it’s traditional to serve rum with certain dishes, like in Martinique where rhum agricole is served with saltfish accra. Desserts too work great with rum. Some recipes incorporate rum into baked goods, like rum cakes, or into ice cream, like Rum Raisin Ice Cream, made from vanilla ice cream with rum-soaked raisins. Rum is also used to great effect to create sauces and glazes. Rum ham, anyone?
More rum guides
Find out how rum is made, about the different types of rum available, and more...
