Rum Cocktails
Rum is not one spirit but a family: a filtered white rum, a molasses-heavy aged rum and a 75.5% overproof bottle are all called rum and none of them are interchangeable. These are the rum cocktails in our library and the style each one calls for.
Every recipe below lists rum — white, aged, dark, coconut or overproof — among its ingredients.
7 Brew Ocean Breeze
Blue Hawaii
Chicha Morada Cocktail
Daiquiri
Dark 'n' Stormy
Mai Tai
Mai Tai Punch
Mai Tai Swizzle
Mojito
Painkiller
Piña Colada
Pineapple Rum Smash
Rum Punch
Sonic Ocean Water Cocktail
Zombie
White, aged, dark or overproof
White, gold and dark. White rum is usually aged one to three years and then charcoal-filtered back to clear; it is bottled at 37.5–40% ABV and is the right base for a Daiquiri or a Mojito, where the lime and mint should lead. Aged and gold rums spend longer in oak and bring vanilla and dried fruit; dark rums often get caramel for colour, which adds sweetness as well as depth.
Overproof and tiki. Overproof rum such as a 151-proof bottling is 75.5% ABV, more than double a standard white rum. Tiki drinks use it deliberately in small amounts — a float on a Zombie, a split base in a Mai Tai — for aroma and heat that survive a long list of juices and syrups.
Cachaça is not rum, and that is fine. The Caipirinha is built on cachaça, a Brazilian spirit distilled from fresh sugar cane juice rather than molasses, so it stays out of this family; the Caipiroska in this library swaps it for vodka instead. Rhum agricole from Martinique is the French Caribbean version of the same idea.
Frequently asked questions
White or aged rum for a Daiquiri?
White. A light, dry, filtered rum lets the lime and sugar lead, while an aged rum adds oak and vanilla that compete with them. In a Mai Tai the opposite is true: a split of aged and dark rum is what builds the drink.
What is overproof rum?
Rum bottled above the usual 40% ABV, most famously at 151 proof, which is 75.5% ABV. At that strength it is flammable, so it is used in small measures as a float or a split base, never as the only spirit in a long drink.
How much alcohol is in a Mojito?
A standard Mojito with 50 ml of 40% white rum, sugar, lime and soda lands around 10–12% ABV — lighter than a Daiquiri at roughly 22%, because soda and crushed ice make up most of the glass.
Other collections
Same library, grouped by what is in the glass.