Havana Club 15 años (Cuba) £125, Harvey Nichols Wine Shop , 020 7235 5000 Fantastic. It's a perfect balance of sweet and dry. You just have to go back for more and more. Excellent.
5 stars
Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 años
(Guatemala)
£51.95, www.thedrinkshop.com, 0800 169 6760
Sweet as could be, but not over the top. Lots of maple syrup, prunes and honey. Gorgeous.
4 stars
Barcardi 8 años
(Cuba)
£19.99, Oddbins
This smells lovely - soft, ripe bananas and guava. In the mouth it tastes like banana fudge and candied oranges. It's really moreish. This is a very good rum.
4 stars
Appleton Estate extra 12 year old
(Jamaica)
£21.99, Oddbins
This is really good quality You can tell it's been properly blended. It tastes like Christmas pudding. Lovely.
4 stars
Havana Club 7 años
(Cuba)
£26.50, Harvey Nichols Wine Shops
This is really, really nice in the mouth - sweet and then the alcohol sucks you dry. Really good.
4 stars
Mount Gay Eclipse
(Barbados)
£13.99, Oddbins
Smells of cooked pineapple and condensed milk but that disappears when in the mouth leaving only a faint touch of sugar and a tiny tingle of spice. Disappointing.
2 stars
Myers fine Jamaican rum
(Jamaica)
£22.50, Harvey Nichols Wine Shop
Not terribly impressive. It's fairly one-dimensional. There's treacle and toffee but it's just not all that nice.
2 stars
Doorly's XO
(Barbados)
£23.50, Fortnum and Mason
This is nothing to write home about. There's a lot of spice all the way through, too much really, and a bit of nuttiness.
1 star
Appleton 21 year old
(Jamaica)
£100, Selfridges
This tastes like a really mature Christmas pudding. It's sweet and although the flavour doesn't last all that long, it's good.
3 stars
Wray and Nephew White overproof rum
(Jamaica)
£21, Harvey Nichols Wine Shop This manages to be super-sweet but with a hectic amount of tongue sizzling alcohol. It's nice, though.
3 stars
Goslings Black Seal
(Bermuda)
£23, Harvey Nichols Wine Shop
Unchallenging on the nose, but lovely and delicate on the palate. Big smell of bananas and flat cola. Great cocktail rum.
3 stars
Rhum Clement VSOP
(Martinique)
£56.95, royalmilewhiskies.com, 0131 622 6255
There's hints of apple and pear and hibiscus syrup in this. It's a really deep rum with loads of different flavours going on.
3 stars
Havana Club 3 años
(Cuba)
£13.99, Oddbins
There's a bit of a vanilla and antiseptic smell here and then in the mouth, there's a nasty, old wood taste. It's quite harsh, but not bad.
3 stars
Woods Navy rum export strength
(Guyana)
£21, Harvey Nichols Wine Shop
Smells pretty weak, ethanolic, just booze really. But in the mouth it goes nuts - flambé your Christmas pudding with this and it'll burn to cinders. It's got great mouth feel. Really lovely.
4 stars
Lamb's Navy rum
(Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad)
£10.46, Tesco
Wow, this is bizarre. It's got a really savoury aroma - something like beef consommé or bourguignon. Wouldn't set your world on fire, but interesting to sip.
3 stars
Mount Gay extra old
(Barbados)
£25.95, www.thedrinkshop.com, 0800 169 6760
This is a really complex rum - there's tobacco and a woody dryness as well as vanilla. It somehow seems to get into the sinuses. Good.
3 stars
Morgans spiced
(Caribbean)
£13.99, Oddbins
This is student fare, to be drunk with Coke. It's far too soft and sweet, with vanilla and cloves. It's rubbish.
1 star
West Indian rich & smooth rum
(Jamaica and Guyana)
£10.25, Waitrose
There's a heady scent of overripe tropical fruit. It's thin and watery in the mouth to start with and then builds up to a fairly unpleasant burnt-sugar finish.
1 star
Tesco dark rum
(West Indies)
£7.37, Tesco
This is possibly one of the most disgusting things we've put in our mouths for a very long time. It's insipid.
0 stars
Calico Jack dark rum
(Guyana)
£12.49, Marks & Spencer
This has a gummy, adhesive smell. Thin, cheap and nasty.
0 stars
