Surprise! Coconut Rums Are Actually Good Now.

In my 20s, I always associated rum (and coconut rum) with poorly-mixed drinks at house parties. There was a lot of Bacardi Coconut and Diet Coke or Malibu with Crystal Light lemonade. It was about as close to mixology as I was capable of in the days before my brain was fully developed.

But coconut rum has come a long way in the intervening years. For one, they are actually starting to taste like coconut, not the fake flavors I’d previously experienced. And, as several bar professionals I interviewed can attest, coconut rum can add a touch of sweetness and depth if done right, leaning more into the sugarcane or molasses. That said, do me a favor and pick up one of these elevated expressions.

Don Q Coco

Sipping Don Q Coco practically transports you to the beaches of Puerto Rico — honestly, all you need here is to add a bit of ice and pineapple juice. It’s easy to see why this bottle has claimed top honors in the flavored rum division of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Popular for use in Piña Coladas on the island and beyond, the rum is aged for more than a year and incorporates real coconut.

Kōloa Rum

Founded in 2009, Kōloa Rum’s coconut rum features nutty macadamia notes. The Hawaiian brand uses locally-grown sugarcane and rainwater from Mount Waiʻaleʻale on the island of Kaua’i. It’s easy to see why it’s the rum of choice throughout the islands — you’ll find it in the Surfer Swell drink at The Surfing Pig on Oahu — and on the mainland, where you’ll find it holding court at Nightcap in Austin, Texas.

“Kōloa is my first choice for coconut rum,” says bartender Jake “Rico” Juarez. “The spirit is a pure cane sugar rum that has body, texture and a smooth finish that only comes from high-quality ingredients and a careful, intentional double copper pot distillation process. Whether I’m shaking up Snaiquiris for my ohana, or stirring up a rum Old Fashioned, this rum makes every cocktail a top-tier classic.”

The 24 Most Interesting Rums to Try

Our list favors diversity in distillers, flavors and locations — and eschews pirates.

Planteray Cut & Dry

Crafted in Barbados at the West Indies Rum Distillery (formerly under the name Plantation), Planteray’s coconut rum Cut & Dry is made from the white flesh of the coconut that is cut and dried in the sun. After trying it at a food and wine festival, Krissy Harris, co-owner and beverage director at Jungle Bird in New York City, added the rum to the bar’s Coconut Tree cocktail, a Negroni-style drink with mezcal and coffee liqueur. “Because the coconuts are ripe and then air-dried in the sun, you really get the quality of that husk and the dried fruitiness of it,” she says. “And it has that perfect little touch of roasted coconut flavor at the end.”

Rhum Clément Mahina Coco Coconut Liqueur

While not exactly a coconut rum, this rum-based coconut liqueur from Rhum Clément in Martinique is made by steeping the company’s famous rhum agricole with young coconut and sugarcane, giving it an earthy aroma. Sam Donner, bartender at Chicago’s Cuban-inspired Sparrow, enjoys pairing it with Yellow Chartreuse. “It is pretty new to the market, but I have absolutely loved working with it,” he says. “It’s an incredibly vibrant and light liqueur that can find its way through citrus no problem but shines in stirred cocktails where you can taste the grassy agricole base.”

Coconut Cartel

Founders Mike and Dani Zig started out smuggling coconuts in their suitcases to use on drink menus across Miami. One of the popular drinks they created was a shot of aged Guatemalan rum with fresh coconut, inspiring Coconut Cartel, their Guatemalan añejo rum cut to proof with coconut water (last year, the brand also launched a white rum). It’s the coconut rum of choice at Mr. H, a modern Chinese restaurant that recently opened in Boston, where it’s used in their Night Market cocktail, inspired by a trip to the night markets in Taipei (see below).

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“It takes a lot of the flavors you get from coconut water, which everybody loves, and bounces out a lot of those flavors in the rum,” says Ray Tremblay, director of beverage for the restaurant group. “It helps accentuate some other ones as opposed to just being in-your-face coconut or an official sort of sunscreen flavor.”