Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Note: We need your help to make the most of this episode! Go to rumcast.com/vote after listening to help determine the winner of this year's Fantasy Rum Draft. Thank you!

For the fourth year in a row, we're back with our annual Rumcast Fantasy Rum Draft. In this annual competition, we compete head-to-head to “draft” rums from the selection of an online liquor store (or, in this year's case, TWO online liquor stores) for 10 different rum categories. The goal? To create the superior desert island rum bar.

Following his big win last year, we were excited to welcome 2024 champion Arminder Randhawa from The Rum Revival back to defend his crown!

We drafted our picks from the rum inventories currently available (as of 9-7-2025) at Burlington Wine and Spirits and Baytowne Wine and Spirits. The categories were:

Unaged

Lightly Aged (1-4 Years)

Aged (5-13 Years)

Long Aged (14+ Years)

Cane Juice Unaged

Cane Juice Aged (Any Length)

Multi-Country Blend

Non-Caribbean

100% Column

100% Pot

After you listen, head to rumcast.com/vote to access the complete list of picks, along with a link to our Fantasy Rum Draft Command Center if you'd like to have a look.

May the best team win!

Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

Today's the day! We’re revealing the identity of the second cask selection that will be featured in our upcoming Rumcast Reserve release. And since two reveals are more fun than one, we're also unveiling the finished (pending TTB approval) label design.

In addition to the reveals, we also take you through the work that went into them — from the twists and turns designing our label to the debates we had when choosing from our top 8 casks at The Main Rum Company.

We also make one final decision regarding the label live during the recording, after some spirited debate of course.

Have a listen and let us know what you think of our choices! We're excited to hear your thoughts and any questions you have.

Check out Boston Rum Week — coming up September 14-21

Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

In this episode, we caught up with Dawn Davies, head buyer for The Whisky Exchange—one of the premier spirits stores in the UK.

Dawn is a huge rum fan with an excellent palate (she's one of the very few Masters of Wine in the world), and her position at The Whisky Exchange gives her a fascinating perspective on the world of rum.

You can watch the video version of the episode here.

We discussed:

What goes into managing a store selection that includes nearly 1,000 rum SKUs

Balancing esoteric rum geek bottles with mass market selections

Which rums should be on more store shelves right now

Standouts from The Whisky Exchange's 5th annual Rum Show this past July

What it takes to go through the grueling 5+ years long Master of Wine process

How Dawn approaches tasting rums

Revisiting The Whisky Exchange's rum classification system 6 years in

Annoying label terminology

And more!

Relevant links mentioned in the episode:

Follow Dawn on Instagram

The Whisky Exchange website

The Whisky Exchange rum classification system

The Whisky Exchange rum flavor camps

Check out Boston Rum Week — coming up September 14-21

Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

After releasing Part 1 last week, we're back with the second installment of our guide to all Guyana rum. We kick off Part 2 with a discussion of DDL's influence on the modern rum landscape through its El Dorado releases and notable releases from independent bottlers.

Next up, we confront the additives questions that have been associated with the distillery since the early 2010s. What have they said about their practice of aging with caramel in the barrel? What's the current status of the practice at the distillery?

At the end, we close things out with a game of True or False with the Demerara Rum GI. What does the GI say about aging at origin? And sweetening Demerara rum?

Tune in for all this and more, and catch up on Part 1 if you haven't already.

We consulted a good amount of sources for this episode, which you can peruse below:

The Lone Caner's "The Age of Velier's Demeraras" Series:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Du Rhum interview with Luca Gargano

Velier's catalog of DDL releases

Our own interview with Shaun Caleb

The Demerara Rum GI

The Ian Burrell Facebook post on the Demerara Rum GI we referenced

DDL's statement in response to social posts about the GI

Demerara Distillers Annual Shareholder Reports

The RumX community's amazing "Crowdsourcing Guyana Rum Marks" thread

El Dorado Official Website

Barrel Aged Thought's epic Demerara piece

A number of Cocktail Wonk pieces:

Demerara Distillers Ltd. Pt. 1 and Pt. 2

Q&A with Shaun Caleb

Q&A with Komal Samaroo

Q&A with Sharon Sue-Hang

Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

In the latest chapter in our Rumcast Guides series, we turn our eyes to Guyana and the legendary style of Demerara rum. As one of the world's most distinct, essential rum categories, this episode has been a long time coming. Whether you're new to the rums of Demerara Distillers Ltd. or a seasoned enjoyer, there's something in here for everyone.

In Part 1, we set the stage by going over the factors that make Guyana's rums so unique, along with a brief timeline of rum production and a deep dive into the country's lone remaining distillery and its collection of historic stills.

Part 2 will follow next week (with a focus on DDL's influence on modern rum, the additives question, and the Demerara Rum GI), so stay tuned!

We consulted a good amount of sources for this episode, which you can peruse below:

The Lone Caner's "The Age of Velier's Demeraras" Series

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

The RumX community's epic "Crowdsourcing Guyana Rum Marks" thread

The Demerara Rum GI

Demerara Distillers Annual Shareholder Reports

El Dorado Official Website

Our own interview with Shaun Caleb

Du Rhum interview with Luca Gargano

Barrel Aged Thought's epic Demerara piece

Velier's catalog of DDL releases

A number of Cocktail Wonk pieces:

Demerara Distillers Ltd. Pt. 1 and Pt. 2

Q&A with Shaun Caleb

Q&A with Komal Samaroo

Q&A with Sharon Sue-Hang

Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

We're back with another chapter in our series of blind rum reviews — this time with two rums we've both had before, including one we just reviewed in a bonus episode for you a few weeks back!

We begin with that very rum: Roaming Road's 17-Year Spain Rum. See how close we came to identifying a rum we both just argued over within the last month (and how not knowing its identity impacted our enjoyment of it).

Next, we move to a rum we briefly sampled during our visit to The Black Parrot in London in January: Dead Reckoning's "The Black Pit." It's a blend of Port Mourant, Versailles, and Enmore still rums from Demerara Distillers Ltd. that features a rather unique cask finish.

A big thank you to Patreon member Jordan from DC for supplying these mystery samples to both of us. Believe it or not, he actually sent these well before we independently tried and reviewed Roaming Road's Spain Rum. So it was a happy accident, not an evil trick!

Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

In this episode, we sat down with Mike Gilmore, founder of Roaming Road Spirits, to go behind the scenes at one of the newest independent rum bottlers in the U.S.

Roaming Road first got on our radar last year when they came out of the gate hot with an impressive slate of initial rum releases that included a memorable <>H Hampden rum, among others. With Roaming Road's second wave of releases now out (which we tasted through on a recent bonus episode), we figured now was the right time to get their full story.

We chatted with Mike about:

His journey from liquor store owner to rum bottler

Why he thinks store barrel picks have gotten worse in recent years

Why he travels thousands of miles to sample casks in person (rather than receiving samples by mail)

His tasting process

What he looks for in a great rum

How he ended up bottling a 17-year-old rum from Spain (and details on where it came from)

The impact of cask finishes

And much more!

You can learn more about Roaming Road on their website.

This episode was sponsored by the Key West Rum Fest. You can get more info on their website.

Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

You can watch the video version of this episode on YouTube.

It's finally time — we're revealing which rum we will be releasing for the Rumcast Single Cask Project (and our release date goal)!

This is the cask we ultimately purchased from Main Rum Company following our in-person visit, where we sampled over 20 casks that originated from all over the world. We covered many of those casks in our previous Cask Project episode that took you inside our Main Rum visit.

This episode was sponsored by the Key West Rum Fest. You can get more info on their website.