How flavoured and spiced rum are faring along the premium path - Category Intel

Rum’s versatility and diversity has long been viewed by many in spirits as both a blessing and a curse. The fact that the category runs a gamut of styles from highly mixable white variants to dark, aged expressions better-suited to sipping and savouring allows rum to target a very broad demographic – but what is its true identity? Party spirit, complex drink on par with the finest cognac or single malt? Or something in between?

This conundrum is also reflected in the changing environments for flavoured and spiced rum. For years, this combined segment probably sat most naturally at the party end of rum’s spectrum – but in a world where premiumisation is on everyone’s lips, things are changing.

“The current trend towards the premiumisation of flavours in rum is a very promising development,” says Miguel Riascos, MD of La Hechicera, the Colombian rum that was majority acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2021. “It initially seemed that the focus was shifting away from flavoured rums to a more traditional approach, mirroring the premium and craft characteristics found in other brown spirits.

“However, the tradition of using tropical flavours and exotic spices in rum is integral to its identity and charm. It’s only natural to see innovative approaches to flavouring now being considered within the overarching premiumisation trend.”

Flavour and spiced driving rum’s growth

This premiumisation of flavours in rum is increasingly linked to notions of authenticity and origin, as the international MD at Edrington-owned Dominican rum Brugal, Eileen Livingston, describes. “We’re seeing a noticeable trend among premium rum producers of enhancing flavours without resorting to added sugar, flavouring and colouring,” she says. “Not only this, provenance and transparency are playing a key role in the premiumisation.”

This shift in the perceptions of flavoured and spiced rum is a natural consequence of the segment’s popularity, says Bacardí Rum global senior VP, Roberto Ramirez Laverde. “Globally, rum is one of the fastest-growing spirits categories, and much of this is driven by the growing interest in spiced,” he explains. “Spiced rum is also being increasingly recognised for its premium potential, creating an opportunity to innovate and challenge expectations.”

With Ramirez Laverde citing a 140% increase in premium rum sales in the UK over the last five years, coupled with 50% growth in demand for flavoured and spiced rum, in March last year the company launched Bacardí Caribbean Spiced, the brand’s first premium spiced expression created using natural tropical flavours including pineapple, coconut and coconut blossom, and currently available in the UK and Benelux markets.

However, as flavoured and spiced rum explores the higher-value echelons, the wider category has retained its broad appeal that encompasses a wide variety of price points and styles. At the savoury end of the flavour spectrum, last summer Halewood Artisanal Spirits teamed up with fast food chain KFC to launch Dead Man’s Fingers 11 Herbed and Spiced Rum, which retails in the UK for GBP25 (US$32) per bottle.

“A focus on experimentation and new flavour combinations has always been at the core of the Dead Man’s Fingers proposition,” says Halewood’s brand & communications manager, Georgina Hilliard. She adds that the KFC tie-up was “a truly unique proposition that really resonated with audiences, while also cementing our position as pioneers in flavour”.

Meanwhile, Duppy Share has hired its first brand ambassador, Julia Maltby, with a mission to provide “mixologists and consumers with education and training that can be incorporated into a wide range of cocktails, further driving the premiumisation trend”, says Duppy Share campaign marketing manager Olivia Copp.

“Spiced rum taps into the emergence of the Spritz as a summer serve,” she says, “with the flavours and sweetness of the rum meaning it can pair perfectly with flavoured sodas from Fever-Tree and Double Dutch.”

Looking inward for innovation

At the other end of the spectrum, Brugal is taking flavour exploration to new levels, developing an innovative new cask treatment technique that involves toasting European virgin oak casks with Dominican ingredients, then removing them and filling the casks with rum.

This ‘aromatic cask toasting’ technique, claimed as a world first, has resulted in the release of Brugal’s Colección Visionaria Edición 01 Cacao, which uses Dominican cacao in the process. Created by fifth-generation maestra ronera Jassil Villanueva, the limited-edition rum is bottled at 45% ABV (RRP of GBP80 [US$102] per bottle). Colección Visionaria is the result of a determined effort by Brugal to find a flavouring technique that conveys quality and provenance, while remaining specific to rum, rather than borrowing from other spirits categories. In a similar vein, Duppy Share’s spiced and white rums employ a “pioneering” technique that matches naturally occurring flavours from the dunder used in distillation and enhances the spirit with concentrated natural botanicals.

“Historically, a lot of rum innovation has been gleaned from whisky/whiskey trends, whether it’s a cask trend or a finish,” says Livingston. “At Brugal, we’ve set ourselves the challenge of not necessarily following these trends, such as cask finishes or cask strengths. Our vision is to bring something different, so we can be distinctive as a brand in the rum category – that’s what our latest innovations deliver.”

Others, though, are more relaxed about borrowing ideas from rival categories. “Drawing ‘flavour lessons’ from a whisky/whiskey’s cask finishing or exploring botanical nuances from gin or vermouth can significantly influence and elevate the already complex profile of rum,” says Ramirez Laverde. He highlights Bacardí’s limited-edition Cask Finish series, launched in 2021 and due to add a new expression each year until 2025. Initial releases Sherry Cask and Rye Cask were joined last summer by Bacardí Reserva Ocho Sevillian Orange, using casks previously used to mature vino de naranja (orange wine).

Meanwhile, La Hechicera’s Serie Experimental No. 2 – The Banana Experiment – infuses the brand’s rum with organic, sundried bananas, which Riascos says “underlines our commitment to innovating within the category while staying true to its roots”.

Successful techniques from other spirits, he argues, can be “wonderfully effective” in rum – simply because of the spirit’s versatility. “This adaptability is what makes rum so captivating,” Riascos says. “It’s a spirit that seamlessly merges tradition with cutting-edge innovation. Rum’s diversity and versatility are unparalleled; it can be enjoyed fresh and unaged in a cocktail or savoured after decades of ageing in a balloon glass – and every possible variation in between.

“By embracing techniques like cask finishing from whisky/whiskey or botanical infusions from gin and vermouth, we can further expand rum’s already vast spectrum of flavours and styles, continually surprising connoisseurs and casual drinkers alike.”