Rum has a new king in the form of Plantation. It’s been reaching for the crown for a number of years and this year takes it from both Havana Club as best selling and Zacapa as top trending.
Plantation has been the talk of the bartender community in the past year or so. While its toppling of Havana Club and Bacardi is a surprise, nobody’s falling off their seats.
With fans willing to spend big in bars from Asia’s Manhattan and 28 Hongkong Street to Europe’s Dirty Dick in Paris and Tales & Spirits in Amsterdam, it’s not hard to see why Plantation takes pride of place in both lists.
Bacardi, which invests heavily in the trade, might have expected to be in the top spot, but it just goes to show, when the high-end trade gets behind a smaller brand, such as Plantation, it often does so en masse.
Casting an eye further down the tables, rum tastes haven’t changed a great deal. Diplomatico, Appleton, El Dorado and Flor de Cana are still the tipples of choice.
Wray & Nephew and Angostura are casualties this year, failing to appear in trending or best selling.
When it comes to cocktails, Bacardi still seems the one to beat in the world’s best bars. It’s the top brand in the rum classics, Daiquiri and Mojito.
The rum heavyweight has an enviable record in the bars report as it tops four out of a possible eight best selling lists and has come second in two others.
Find our Vodka list here.
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Methodology
The Drinks International Annual Bar Report looks to gauge the buying habits of the best bars in the world by conducting a survey of their owners, head bartenders and bar managers.
The bars that took part – what we refer to as the best bars in the world – are a sample of 108 bars that finished in the top 250 places of the World’s 50 Best Bars survey, now owned by William Reed Business Media. Given the depth and scope of The World’s 50 Best Bars poll (voted for by 476 global bar experts) we feel this is the most credible place to source our sample of bars.
In each instance we asked the bartender to rank their three best selling products in each category, giving us an indication of the brands that are selling best.
As we know, a best selling brand, even in the best bars in the world, earns its place on more than taste, so we also wanted to know the brands that are not necessarily doing huge volumes but have cool-appeal right now. This is where the Trending brands come in. These are the brands customers are increasingly asking for, perhaps because of word of mouth, or even on bartenders’ recommendations.
For more on the methodology see How we did it
