The Rumcast

Thanks again to all who listened and voted in our Second Annual Rumcast Fantasy Rum Draft — we reveal this year's champion at the top of this new episode! After revealing the champion (and a bit of gloating from one of us), we get to our latest experiment: investing 6 inexpensive rums we normally would either overlook or outright reject to see if we could find some diamonds in the rough! We each s...

🗳️ Note: After you listen, go to rumcast.com/vote to help us determine the winner! 🗳️ It's here! After a year of trash talk, victory laps, and hardcore preparation, the second annual Rumcast Fantasy Rum Draft has arrived. In this annual competition, we compete head-to-head to “draft” rums from the selection of a single online liquor store for 11 different rum categories. The goal? To create the su...

At long last, we speak to our first rum producer from Réunion Island! In this episode, we welcomed Marie Ferrand (Cellar Master) and Yann Auberval (Director of Marketing) to take us inside Isautier Distillery's traditions of both cane juice and molasses-based rums. We discuss: The differences between the rhum agricoles of the Caribbean and Réunion Why Isautier has long focused on both rhum agricol...

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the dog days of summer are officially here. And if you're like us, that means it's the perfect time of the year for tasty rum cocktails that don't require much effort to make. So with that in mind, we picked out a handful of our favorite "lazy" recipes we've been experimenting with lately and walked each other through making them. Some are variations on...

In this episode, we sit down with Mike Streeter, founder of Down Island Spirits — a brand that's part of the new wave of American independent bottlers hitting the rum scene over the last few years. We talk through all aspects of starting a rum brand (and sourcing great rum), including: The hardest parts of becoming an independent bottler Down Island's process for selecting what to bottle How he ar...

At long last, we sit down to interview Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, decoder of the Zombie and scores of other classic tiki cocktails, author of books like Sippin' Safari and Potions of the Caribbean, owner of Latitude 29, and purveyor of multiple rum blends via his collaboration with Ed Hamilton. A true icon of the rum world! We covered a lot of ground in our conversation, including: His techniques for...

In this episode, we asked ourselves an interesting question: what gaps currently exist in rum brands' lineups that we'd love to see them fill? We each privately constructed our own list and then revealed and debated our wish list rums in real time. Have a listen and let us know — which of these rums would you most like (or NOT like) to see in the market? What ideas do you have for rums that should...

In this episode, we sat down with co-founder Elisandro Gonzalez Molina to learn all about Dakabend Rum — an aguardiente de caña made in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca in Mexico. We discussed: The journey Elisandro and his cousin, Edgar Gonzalez Ramirez, took from building their own mezcal palenque and brand (Mezcal Tosba) over the last 20+ years to getting into rum production The culture of agu...

In this episode, we sat down with Calbert Francis, global export manager for Antigua Distillery Ltd. to talk all things English Harbour Rum.  Antigua Distillery Ltd. is interesting, as it doesn't fit neatly into the English/Spanish/French categorizations (and is a great example of why they're flawed categories in the first place). While some might expect it to be "English" style, there isn't...

Hey Rumcasters, we’re making one of this month’s bonus episodes (typically exclusive to patrons ) free for all! This past week, Appleton formally announced the coming special release of the long-awaited Appleton 17-Year Legend rum, which they've billed as a "faithful recreation" of the legendary J. Wray & Nephew 17-Year rum used in Trader Vic's first ever mai tai. The reactions from the rum en...

In this episode, we caught up with Ben Jones (director of North America for Spiribam) to catch up on all things related to Spiribam's portfolio of rum brands/distilleries, like Rhum J.M, Rhum Clément, St. Lucia Distillers, and their latest acquisition — Saint-Maurice Distillery in French Guiana, makers of La Belle Cabresse and other brands. We chatted with Ben about: New and upcoming releases from...

In this episode, we embark on a journey to discover which Foursquare rums that are $50(ish) or less are truly the best value. To do this, we went through a blind tasting of 10 widely available affordable rums distilled at Foursquare Distillery: Alleyne Arthur's Special Barbados Rum (43% ABV) Old Brigand Black Label (43% ABV) Real McCoy 5-Year (40% ABV) Doorly's 5-Year (40% ABV) Doorly's XO (40% AB...

In this episode, we sat down with Ed Tiedge, master distiller at Copal Tree Distillery (the makers of Copalli Rum) in Belize. Copalli is yet another example of a large, relatively new operation devoted entirely to making cane juice rum all the way from field to glass.  They have some interesting upcoming releases that caught our eye (we noticed them in the TTB label registry), so it was a goo...

In this episode, we sat down with Shaun Caleb, master distiller at Demerara Distillers Ltd. (makers of El Dorado Rum) to discuss a wide range of topics related to DDL and his career in rum, including... His path from Guyana to Princeton University and back to Guyana to work for DDL Learning to distill on some of the oldest stills in the world How DDL's range of both historic and modern stills allo...

Announcement: We’re now offering annual subscriptions that allow you to save 10% on the Rumcast Patreon community! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out. In this episode, we're picking back up with our Rumcast Guides series and turning our focus toward home with the United States. With hundreds upon hundreds of distilleries making rum (most of which have spotty distribution at best), it c...

In this episode, we sat down with Shannon Mustipher (rum educator, cocktail consultant, and author of Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails ) to dive deep into the art of making modern rum cocktails. Shannon has spent the better part of a decade designing and launching many rum-focused bar programs and is known for her modern approach to cocktail making. Topics discussed include: The creative process of...

In this episode, we complete our interview with Renegade Rum's Mark Reynier and Jane Nurse (we released Part 1 last week, and you can check it out here ). In Part 2, we get deeper into the production process of the rum and how each stage can impact terroir (for example, using cultured vs. wild yeast). They also took us through the long-term vision for Renegade's releases (which is quite different...

In this episode, we sit down with Renegade Rum's Mark Reynier and Jane Nurse to learn all about the Grenada distillery's terroir-driven approach to cane juice rum. This is one of the newest distilleries of its size in the Caribbean, and the path to bringing it to life was not easy. In Part 1, Mark and Jane take us through the winding journey of not only building a distillery from scratch, but also...

28 Distillery Visits. 11 Countries. 13 Months. In this episode, we sit down with Richard Nicholson, founder of the New Zealand Rum Society and your fellow Rumcast listener, to unpack what can only be described as a rum journey of epic proportions. Richard spent 13 months on the road taking 28 distillery visits, attending numerous rum festivals, and visiting three of his own personal rum "Holy Grai...

For the first episode of 2023, we're looking ahead and making 3 predictions each for the world of rum this year. Before we look ahead, however, we look back on the predictions we made for 2022, face the music on our misses,  and debate our hits. We're curious — what predictions do you have for rum in 2023? Email us at host@rumcast.com and let us know! Cheers to 2023! P.S. Did you know you can...

Hey Rumcasters, to celebrate the end of 2022 we decided to make December's bonus episode (typically exclusive to patrons ) free for all! In this edition of Release Rumblings, we share our rum wishes for 2023 before previewing a handful of interesting upcoming rum releases. If you'd like to get more episodes like this every month, just head on over to patreon.com/therumcast! Releases discussed incl...

It's time for our third annual Year in Review episode where we take a look back at our favorite rums of the year in the following categories: Unaged rum Aged rum (5 years or less) Aged rum (Over 5 years) “New to me” rum Best value rum Most surprising rum Overall rum Plus, we each make a pick for a new category irreverently dubbed, "Am I the a**hole for not liking this rum?" Along the way, we also...

In this episode, we dig deep into our rum cabinets to discuss each of our 3 favorite picks for daiquiri rums that are underrated, overlooked, or under discussed. While most rum fans are already familiar with the go-to top recommendations like Havana Club 3, Probitas, etc. we wanted to celebrate some of our favorites that don't get as much of the spotlight in conversations about the ultimate rum ve...

In this episode we sat down with Joshua Singh, co-founder of 1423 Spirits and S.B.S Rum, an independent bottler based in Denmark that's doing some very interesting things right now. Since it's the holiday season, we also talked about the making of 1423's annual rum advent calendar and what goes into selecting 24 different rums for it every year. Topics discussed included: The rum advent calendar s...

In this episode we sat down with Herbert Barbancourt-Linge Jr. of Providence Rum / Distillerie de Port-au-Prince and The Spirit of Haiti. Herbert took us deep into the making of one of Haiti's newest distilleries, which has already put out interesting releases like Providence First Drops and Providence Dunder & Syrup. We also talked all things clairin, which Herbert has helped rum enthusiasts...