The word on the street is that rum is the next big trend in the world of spirits. It’s easy to see why. The best rum comes in many different shapes, sizes, styles and importantly, flavours. There’s something for everyone.

In its simplest form, rum is a clear liquid distilled from various forms of sugar, like demerara and molasses. However, this is often followed by barrel ageing in oak casks and, like some of the modern craft beers, some have fruit or spices added.

This means you can get white, golden, dark, navy, spiced and fruit rum - and then combinations of those types. Traditionally rum comes from the Caribbean, but these days you can get it from all over the place including Scotland. Here’s a selection every rum lover should try.

20. Banks 7 - 43%

Blending spirits is an art, not a science and this example contains no less than 23 hand-selected rums. The ‘7’ in the name doesn’t refer to age but the places they are from: Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guatemala, Panama, Guyana and Java.

The result is a complex golden rum with a darker side of molasses but balanced with fruitiness and spice. A great rum to drink neat or in cocktails.

19. Pirate's Grog Spiced Rum

Another spiced rum that is better than its non-spiced variant - Pirate's Grog is a tasty, golden rum with hints of vanilla and all spice. It's not too sweet but there's a subtlety there. Everything has been matured in American oak, bourbon barrels for five years which seems to add to the smoothness.

18. The Duppy Share - Aged

The Duppy Share is named after the dark duppy spirits that would, as legend has it, swoop between Caribbean islands stealing the best share of the rum.

The spiced edition is a great rum but this blend of 3-year-old Jamaican rum from Worthy Park and Foursquare Distillery’s 5-year-old is our favourite. The younger rum brings vibrant hits of sweet tropical fruit while the older expression balances things with earthy oak and spice.

17. Grander Panama Rum

Unlike many rums on this list, Grander has one point of origin for its rum and that is Panama. This gives it a fruity feel with more than a hint of bourbon and vanilla. It's matured in the tropics, so those eight years really go a long way to give this rum a distinctive taste. Don't be fooled by the colour - there's a deep taste here.

16. Plantation - Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy - 40%

Fruited rum is great but can often be over the top. Plantation has got it spot on here, delivering authentic fruit flavour alongside others, such as ginger, cola and vanilla.

Pineapples are infused with Original Dark then distilled, later to be blended with 3 Star white rum, which has had the rind added. The name, if you’re wondering, comes from Reverend Stiggins in Dickens’s Pickwick Papers, whose favourite drink is pineapple rum.

15. Spirited Union - Lemon & Leaf

White rum can be a little boring and typically one you keep in a home bar for making cocktails like a Mojito. However, Spirited Union has taken a different approach as the world’s first botanical rum distillery.

You can think of it as a sort of gin-rum hybrid and a great gateway drink for gin lovers to get into this spirit. A range of flavours is available with Lemon & Leaf being the original, distilled with - apart from lemon - a combination of earthy, herbal and spicy notes from kina bark Sarawak pepper, Sarsaparilla root, eucalyptus leaves and black tea.

14. Gosling's Black Seal Rum

If you were looking to make a Dark'n'Stormy then Gosling's is the official rum to do this with - using the brand's ginger ale at the same time. The rum is rich in taste, with a caramel palate. This rum is the winner of The Beverage Tasting Institute's Platinum Medal and it's easy to see why - it's a great all-round dark rum.

13. Wood’s - 100 Old Navy Rum - 57%

Navy rum must be at least 57% abv (alcohol by volume). Wood’s is one of the few rums you’ll find at this strength. Not only is it like drinking alcoholic toffee, it’s affordable too.

If it’s too much for you neat, try using it in cocktails for a real depth of flavour and body.

12. Pampero Aniversario Rum

If we were basing this one purely on looks, then the awesome leather bag packaging would win this list hands down. Thankfully the taste is great, too, with a rich, Christmas pudding taste. It's got a bit of heat on the way down, so it's better paired with a glug of cola.

11. Two Drifters - Overproof Spiced Pineapple

Pineapple rum is often overly sweet and artificial tasting but Two Drifters has produced one of the best we’ve ever tasted. As the name suggests, it packs a punch at 63% but also in flavour with gorgeous flambeed pineapple bringing a burnt caramel balance to the fruit and vanilla sweetness.

It tastes great neat but equally delicious mixed with coke. The Devon-based business makes rum from raw ingredients and is also the world’s first rum distillery to be carbon negative.

10. Appleton Estate - 8 Year Old Reserve

If you’re looking for an affordable rum that’s hugely versatile then Appleton Estate’s 8 Year Old Reserve is a front runner.

It’s got just the right balance of deep and complex flavours to be drunk neat - think along the lines of a classic Jamaican rum with notes of burnt sugar, dried fruit, vanilla, spices and Appleton’s signature orange peel. However, helped by the price point, you won’t feel guilty if you use it for cocktails.

9. Black Tot Rum - Finest Caribbean

Black Tot Rum is a modern take on the old fashioned rum that was enjoyed by sailors. It's packed with fruitiness, thanks to a mix of Barbados and and Jamaican rum but there's also a nice coffee and chocolate hit thanks to the Guyanan rum in there. This is a really accomplished blend that's good for sipping.

8. Angostura - No 1 - 40%

Angostura doesn’t just make bitters to go in your cocktails. In fact, it makes some of the best rums in the world and No 1 is one for special occasions and the connoisseur.

This rum has been carefully aged for a total of 16 years, 10 in American oak before being transferred, unusually, to French oak for the remaining six. The result is a sublimely smooth and characterful tipple.

7. Don Papa

This rum is made in the Philippines and has a rich vanilla and honey taste. It's well bodied with a hint of fire. It works well with a mixer (try ginger ale) but we were happy to have it neat, its lemony notes mixing well with what tastes like ripe banana.

6. The Kraken - Black Spiced Rum - 40%

With its distinctive bottle and branding, Kraken has quickly become a modern classic and a rum you’ll find in pretty much any pub or bar. It’s as dark as squid ink, rich and spicy yet somehow drinks just well neat as it does mixed with coke.

This really is a rum for any home bar.

5. Diplomatico Reserva Rum

This is a rum a lot of our readers were raving about so we had to get it in and weren't disappointed. It's a dark golden rum, distilled from molasses so expect really strong, rich notes - but these are all cut with a much-needed kick of fruitiness. There is added sugar here, but we loved the taste - it was great with cola, but also decent as sipping rum over ice.

4. Ableforth's Rumbullion! - 42.6%

Go big with this award-winning spiced rum. It kicks off with an intense hit of vanilla and orange peel on the nose. This continues upon sipping, but with a lot more complexity with clove, cardamom and cinnamon.

It’s a reminder of colder months eating toffee apples and Christingles. To top it off, each bottle is wrapped in brown paper, wound with twine and sealed with black wax.

3. Cut Rum - Spiced - 37.5%

Cut Rum is all about no fuss, authentic rum - strictly “no pirates. No sea monsters. No pin up girls”. No artificial sugars or flavourings allowed here either, this rum is made on the Worthy Park Estate in Jamaica - an estate which has been making rum since the 1740s.

This spiced rum doesn’t pack a punch in the way most spiced rums do (though there’s a definite warmth afterwards). Instead it’s creamy, with flavours of caramel and an aftertaste of vanilla. It’s smooth enough to be enjoyed neat, but would be equally good in a mixer.

2. El Dorado - 12 - 40%

When a rum has won no less than seven golds at the Carribean Rum Taste Test you know you’re onto a winner, quite literally.

This 12 year old rum is a blend of Coffey still and double wooden pot still rums. It has a really deep and rich, almost port-like flavour, and a robust body. With notes of caramel, spice, vanilla and prunes it’s really quite moreish.

1. Mount Gay - XO - 43%

Some rum is better taken without a mixer and Mount Gay, which claims to be the oldest rum distillery in the world with a deed from 1703, has created a corker.

‘XO’ stands for extra old and is a blend of different rums aged between seven and 15 years old. It’s dry and oaky on the nose, yet is fruity and slightly sweet in taste, then has a smooth finish.

This is a rum for the whisky lovers, who should try it as an old fashioned

Mount Gay XO has recently gone through a substantial rebrand, with Trudiann Branker, Mount Gay master blender, making it from a broader selection of rums, each aged in three different casks – American whiskey, Bourbon and Cognac.

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