The World's Best White Rums, According To The SF World Spirits Competition

Forbes

5 days ago

The Unaged Rum Finalists From The 2025 SFWSC
Photo, courtesy Tasting Alliance/San Francisco World Spirits Competition
Five rums are finalists for the World's Best Unaged Rum at the 2025 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The SFWSC is one of the world's most prestigious spirit judging events, and both consumers and the beverage industry closely follow its results. Below are brief backgrounds and tasting notes for the finalists.
Burdekin Rum is a small-batch, Australian craft, Jamaica-style rum distilled in Queensland. The Coral Sea Strength edition is a high-proof unaged rum. It's made from molasses, distilled on a pot still, and designed to highlight the raw, estery potential of Queensland sugarcane.
The rum is fruity and briny on the nose, featuring green banana, overripe pineapple, molasses funk, and a hint of coastal salinity. It's robust and full-bodied on the palate, with a rich oily mouthfeel. It exhibits layers of tropical fruit, white pepper, herbaceous and grassy notes, and burnt sugar. The finish is long and fruity, with lingering notes of fermented or oxidized fruit, a hint of minerality, and a funky, estery tang.
Oak House Distillery, based in Gainesville, Georgia, produces Silver Rum from 100% molasses. Distilled in small batches, it's crafted to be a mixable, slightly fruity white rum with a subtle flavor profile and minimal burn, ideal for rum-based cocktails.
The rum is ester-forward and aromatic on the nose, featuring vanilla sugar, coconut cream, honey, tropical fruits, especially banana, and digestive biscuits. It's smooth and balanced on the palate, expressing molasses and candied/marshmallow sweetness, almond and tropical fruit. The finish is long and slightly sweet, with lingering notes of earth and fruit.
Dark and Stormy Rum Cocktail with Lime and Ginger Beer
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Based in Washington, D.C., Cotton & Reed produces this pot-stilled white rum using a wild yeast fermentation of grade-A molasses. According to the company, 'the rum is designed to capture fermentation complexity' and showcases the distillery's signature estery, bold character.
The rum is herbaceous and estery, featuring Rhum Agricole-style notes of fresh and oxidized apple, ripe plantain, lemongrass, and funky, overripe melon. It's aromatic and slightly estery, with a funky note on the palate, exhibiting brown sugar, citrus, pineapple, and a hint of earthy funk. The finish is medium-length, with lingering fruit notes and a touch of wet stone minerality.
Ten To One is a Caribbean rum brand founded by Marc Farrell. The brand has been a perennial medalist in international spirit competitions. This expression is a blend of Dominican Republic and Jamaican rums. It's non-chill filtered, unaged, with no added sugar or additives, and showcases a combination of Jamaican funk and Dominican smoothness in a versatile, premium white rum.
The rum is aromatic and fruity on the nose, featuring tropical fruit with hints of pineapple, lychee, lemon peel, and fresh-cut grass, layered over persistent but subtle molasses aromas. On the palate, it's lightly funky, with a layered complexity exhibiting guava, white pepper, coconut, and citrus zest flavors. The finish is dry and crisp, with a slightly peppery backdrop and lingering fruit notes.
Planteray (formerly Plantation) 3 Stars is a blend of unaged and lightly aged rums from Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad. It's charcoal filtered to maintain a clear appearance. Each island contributes a unique component: fruitiness from Barbados, funk from Jamaica, and crisp lightness from Trinidad.
The rum is very aromatic on the nose, featuring banana peel, vanilla, citrus oil, and a hint of herbaceous grassiness. It has a light to medium body on the palate, showcasing notes of brown sugar, apple, tropical fruit, white chocolate, and a hint of funky esters from the Jamaican component. The finish is long and crisp, with lingering fruity and spicy notes.
White rums are typically used as a cocktail base, but these rums offer a degree of layered and nuanced complexity that would make them equally adaptable for cocktails or enjoyed straight up. Stylistically, they run the gamut from traditional, column-distilled molasses-based rum to more Rhum Agricole-style rums, featuring a range of flavors from fruity to Jamaican-style funk. If you're a rum enthusiast, there's bound to be a rum here that you'll enjoy.