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Celebrate National Rum Day with the best rums in Toronto

Yet another National [insert random ingestible here] Day is upon us, and this time we’re pseudo-celebrating sugar’s contribution to the booze pantheon – rum, baby.

If you’re not about fake food and booze holidays, that’s cool – we think they’re bullshit, too. (Fun digression: even tripe has a day. Because stinky stewed innards are cause for 24 hours of revelry).

But really, rum deserves all the love it can get, and since 2017’s summer been a wildly fickle A-hole so far, why not pour a few fingers of rum into a coconut and make the most of the sporadic late-August sunshine.

The New Kid: Noxx & Dunn

A blend of two, four and five-year-old rums, Noxx & Dunn is made and aged entirely in the state of Florida (right down to Floridian sugar cane) and its spice-suffused peachiness and prickly butterscotch suggests that its home state might not actually be the worst – when it comes to rum, at least. In fact, Robin Wynne, the bar manager at Miss Thing’s (1279 Queen West) in Parkdale and a self-professed rum geek, pinpoints both Florida and Hawaii as emerging New World rum producers. Since its Ontario release last month, Noxx & Dunn has been Wynne’s go-to pour for cocktails because its youthfulness and fruitiness stand up to all sorts of flavours. Unlike many rums, Noxx & Dunn has no added colour or flavour.

$29.75 | 750 ml, LCBO 486712

The Sipper: Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva

If straight rum’s burn and bristle has got you shook, then you clearly haven’t met Diplomatico. Hailing from Venezuela, this weighty and awarded rum is a blend of sugar cane spirits made in three types of stills and aged in whiskey casks. Master Blender Gilberto Briceño, a trained chemical engineer with 30 years of experience in the spirits industry, likens the process of building this super premium rum to “a mathematical formula.” Still, he admits that his job is about “70 per cent sensual and 30 per cent science.” Sweet and velvety upfront with splashes of vanilla, smoke and ripe red and tropical fruits, this rum is made for slow sipping and maybe a contemplative cigar.

$58.20 | 750 ml, LCBO 366633

The Baller Pour: Kill Devil Jamaica Hampden Distillery 17 YO Single Cask Rum

The Kill Devil brand is a lineup of independently bottled rums, many of which are, like this 17-year-old Jamaican expression, limited to the contents of a single cask. Essentially, Kill Devil is designed for the badass (and not broke) rum connoisseur. And it’s incredibly exclusive – a grand total of 341 bottles were produced from a batch originally distilled in 1998 at Hampden Distillery in Jamaica, a facility long known for its supremely ester-packed pot still rums. Pretty mild on the funk scale for a traditional Jamaica rum, it smells like heaps of fermenting banana peels, green apples and pears and tastes a little like fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookies packed in a saddle bag. A hot, fat treat – especially if someone else is paying.

$200.15 | 700 ml LCBO online only, 286582

The Classic: Appleton Estate Extra 12 YO Rum

While we’re on the topic of Jamaican rum, never forget about the widely available and consistently great Appleton, home of the inimitable Joy Spence, who lays claim to being the spirits industry’s first female Master Blender. Back in the day, Jamaican rums laced a ton of tiki drinks with their thick and distinctive funk, which explains why Toronto’s Shameful Tiki Room (1378 Queen West), where the drinks strive to be as historically accurate as possible, blasts through a monsoon’s worth of Appleton 12. If a two-step drink is more your speed, this honeyed spice rack of a rum plays well with ginger ale.

$42.20 | 750 ml, LCBO 105742

drinks@nowtoronto.com | @S_Parns

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