Spiced and Flavored Rum

Where it started

Rum has long been mixed with spice and fruit, from punch bowls to tiki mugs. Difford's notes that most spiced rums today are continuously distilled light rums flavored with spices including ginger, cinnamon, clove and vanilla.⁵ Flavored rums, in its wording, are just one more layer of rum's already huge diversity, alongside vanilla and orange versions.⁶

Where and how it's made

In the U.S., flavored spirits are their own class. A base spirit, such as rum, that meets its own standard of identity has natural flavors, wine or other natural flavoring materials added, with or without sugar, and is bottled at not less than 30 percent alcohol, 60 proof.¹ Plain rum must be bottled at 80 proof or more,³ so the lower floor is one reason a spiced rum can be lighter than the rum it started as. The label must name the single base spirit and the most predominant flavors, in the regulation's own example "Pineapple Flavored Tequila."¹ If wine makes up more than 2.5 percent of the finished product, its kind and percentage must be stated.¹

There is a threshold below which a rum stays a rum. Flavoring or blending materials that are not essential to the class may be added up to 2.5 percent by volume without a new designation; above that, the product must be redesignated.² Certified colors (the regulation's example is FD&C Blue No. 2), carmine and cochineal extract always force a redesignation.²

The EU is stricter. Its rum definition says rum shall not be flavoured, and may contain added caramel only to adjust color.⁴ A spiced product made from rum therefore cannot be sold in the EU under the bare name "rum."

How to taste it

Pour a small measure over ice and smell before you sip: vanilla should not hide the rum entirely. Try it beside the plain white or gold rum from the same producer to see what the spice adds. It is happiest in a highball with ginger beer or cola. Pairings: spiced apple cake, pumpkin pie, jerk pork.

Styles and what the label means

• Spiced rum — usually light column rum with vanilla, cinnamon, clove and ginger.⁵
• Flavored rum — named flavors such as coconut, banana or raspberry essences.⁵
• "Pineapple Flavored Rum"-style names — U.S. designation pattern: predominant flavor, then the single base spirit.¹
• Spirit drink (EU) — how flavored rum-based products are classed in Europe.⁴
• Overproof spiced — high-strength spiced rum for tiki drinks. overproof-and-navy-rum →