The multi-distillery colossus Bacardi, led by its Superior expression, has taken top spot this year, with just under a third of our polled bars making it their house rum. In more than half the sample, Bacardi was on the podium.
Though the Mojito and – more importantly at this end of the pyramid – the Daiquiri call for light rum, Bacardi’s new expression Cuatro has found a sweet spot between its Superior and Ocho, boosting footprint.
Havana Club, which is now narrowing in on younger drinkers, has a following for its three-year-old when it comes to Cuban classics. The brand trailed Bacardi in our sample, with 20% making it their go-to rum pour.
More than a third made it among their top-three pours. The love for Plantation among bartenders is clear. It finished third in our bestselling list but topped the trending list – the brands that do well in this ranking are so often recommendations from bartenders. And if that wasn’t enough, it topped our Bartender’s Choice list.
But when it comes to competing for house pour and working its way to the top of our bestselling list, it couldn’t fight off the muscle and global reach of Pernod Ricard and Bacardi this year. The Maison Ferrand blended rum, which leads with its 3 Stars variant, was the top pour in 11% of bars polled and was part of the supporting cast in just under a third. Rum – a conflation of many countries’ productions – is as diverse as they come.
If the top of the list is dominated by lighter styles, we then follow a path through the Caribbean. Appleton provides the punchy, funky Jamaican style, and Zacapa and Diplomatico the rounded styles from Guatemala and Venezuela respectively. Angostura represents Trinidad, Mount Gay Barbados, and El Dorado the demerara style of Guyana. We finish with Gosling’s of Bermuda. Rum has a style for every cocktail occasion.
Methodology
The results of this report are the culmination of a questionnaire of 106 bars around the world, each cherry-picked to take part based on their performance in global bar awards. We aim to find out not only which brands sell best but also what’s trending. These two data sets give us an insight into the brands that are doing the most volume and the brands that are hot right now.
To read more on the methodology of the Brands Report click here.
