Rum from unexpected places: Autumn 2026 Tasting Flight
This is my second post in the quarterly tasting flight series where I put together a themed tasting flight focussing on the reasons behind my selections and the story they tell as opposed to my usual tasting notes and scores.
In future flights I’ll be creating tasting flights that explore cask finishes and production styles as well as taking a close look at specific countries, the impact of ageing and a few more abstract themes like this flight too. If you missed the first flight in the series, Cuba in a Glass, you can read that here.
The theme.
I started planning this post in the weeks following Manchester Rum Festival and The Rum Show where I was once again reminded that there are some fantastic rums being produced by brands I hadn’t heard of and countries I don’t typically think of when I hear the word rum.
This got me thinking that if I don’t always keep this in mind, others might have also forgotten, or perhaps they aren’t even aware that these countries are producing Rum at all. Theme decided, the next challenge was to narrow it down to a shortlist of countries, and from there, further refine it to a shortlist of potential rums.
Naturally I had to pour a few glasses to make a final decision on the selection and then determine the best order to present them in, which was a fun challenge as I was selecting rums that under any other circumstance wouldn’t usually sit within the same tasting flight. So let’s dive in and discover some Rum from unexpected places.
The flight.
Bottle 1. Kakira Gold – Uganda
I thought I’d start off in a rum producing region that gets overlooked a bit, so we’re kicking things off with Uganda, more specifically the Kakira Sugar Estate.
Naturally a huge sugar production operation results in a significant quantity of molasses as a by-product, so it’s a very logical next step to produce large amounts of rum.
I’ve been fortunate to taste the full Kakira range (in a blog here), so it took some deciding, but I chose the Gold because it felt like the right place to start. It’s approachable enough to introduce the idea without making the first pour feel too far outside the familiar, while still giving us a very different starting point to the flights I would usually put together.
Bottle 2. Phraya Gold – Thailand
Continuing round the globe, we reach Thailand, the home of Phraya Rum.
There was another reason I wanted Phraya Gold in this flight. Phraya shows that an unexpected origin doesn’t necessarily mean an unusual or experimental rum. This is a well-established, polished expression that is becoming a familiar name to many rum drinkers, despite Thailand not being one of the countries that immediately comes to mind when most people think about rum.
Since I first shared my review for Phraya Gold it has been one of my most searched for posts. What’s interesting is that I didn’t rate it especially high the first time round, but revisiting it for this flight I found myself surprisingly pleased with it. I’ll be sharing an updated review on the blog soon with my current thoughts, but for now I think it’s a great example of exactly what this flight is about. It doesn’t need to be the most unusual rum in the world to challenge your expectations. It simply needs to be a quality rum from a place you might not have expected.
Bottle 3. Burdekin, Vintage Cane Spirit – Australia
From Thailand we move further south, ending up the other side of the world to where I’m sat writing this… in North Queensland, Australia.
This was one of my standout picks from The Rum Show back in July this year and for good reason. It was very unexpected, not just because of where it comes from, but because of what is in the bottle. You can read my full review here.
Burdekin’s Vintage Cane Spirit is made from sugar cane rather than molasses and aged in Pedro Ximénez casks. This is particularly noteworthy as being one of very few cane juice rums that I’ve scored as outstanding. It was one of those pours that made me stop and reconsider what I thought I was going to find in the glass, which is exactly what I’m aiming for with this tasting flight.
Bottle 4. Outlier, Mistral – Isle of Man
And finally we come full circle, finishing close to home, because what better way to challenge your expectation of rum being produced in hot and humid countries than one known for being cold, wet and very windy (although maybe not this summer!).
I’ve chosen Mistral from Outlier Distillery as I think this is a really enjoyable and challenging profile. It’s a bold, distinctive profile, bottled at 63%, and it has spent time in both new American oak and an ex-Sauternes cask… I’m pretty confident that if you put this in a blind tasting nobody would guess this comes from the Isle of Man! Exactly the note I wanted to end this flight on.
I first discovered Outlier a few years back at the UK Rum Fest and since then I have been consistently impressed by their ability to curate delicious, bold flavour profiles without needing to add anything artificial to the process. At 63% I would probably suggest adding a drop or 2 of water but this makes a very fun neat sipper (my full review here) – there’s a reason I decided to end on this bottle!
What I got from this tasting flight.
On display here we have a range of ABV from 40% to 63%; Pot and Column distillates on display, molasses and cane juice, different climates and terroir, and different cask finishes. An incredible display of diversity within rum; and that’s just across 4 bottles. So it’s easy to see why I find this category so exciting.
When I came up with the theme of ‘Rum from unexpected places’, I was a little nervous that I would find myself stuck for choices and was pleasantly surprised that the opposite was the case. Once I’d ruled out the obvious countries I started looking through the countries that remained and which ones I had tasted rums from – it turns out these are pretty well represented in my collection.
I really enjoyed putting this tasting flight and enjoyed the opportunity to taste these 4 rums that are united by their differences.
A note on this series: Each quarter I aim to put together a themed tasting flight of 3 to 4 bottles and share what I found or why I chose the Rums I did.
Check back in December for the third edition of the quarterly tasting series.
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