When all else fails DRINK RUM. It is the one spirit that can be drunk year round despite the sun splashed implications of their origins. It can be ever so much the bone structure of a really well built drink for lazing around. And, though each Caribbean island [and a couple of neighboring SA countries] makes its own and so they all have distinct nuances, rum basically comes in 3 forms: white, gold, and dark.
Spectacular white rums tend to be hard to find, AND do stay away from the tanker brands like Bacardi if you want a drink experience that isn’t reminiscent of siphoning gas. Most white rum drinks are spare things. If you must, use those from Martinique. All the others taste like unaged whiskey - oddly sweet, in a way that makes me nervous.
Gold rums at the low end are simply white rums with color added for the most part. But as you buy up you soon discover these are the heart of the category. You can drink for years and never find two the same. They exhibit the brightness of white with a hint of the substance of dark rum. Personal tastes are crticial to happiness here. The good news is that there is a rum out there exactly distilled for you. And the place to start looking, as far as I'm concerned, is the island of Martinique.
As for the darks, whoa! No end of experience awaits you here. I find two sides to dark rum: the Jamaican side, sweeter and for the most part meant to be in summer drinks, and the Sipping side which are those aged rums which are meant to be treated like aged bourbons and cognacs. They are the heftiest spirits made. But maybe their greatest role is that offered by Charles Baker [see Resources > Books]. In his Words to the Wise No. IV he suggests that adding a tsp of Jamaican rum to any white rum drink "is our invariable rule now" as it "adds a definite something to all fruit juice drinks; and especially to those based on light rums."
What IS worth noticing is the spelling. RUM is made from molasses and is to be found in most of the Carribean that is NOT French colonial. RHUM AGRICOLE is made from the sugar juice run of the cane and is to be found in the French colonial islands. It is cleaner if you will, than the RUM varieties. The heart of RHUM AGRICOLE is to be found on the island of Martinique, the home of the only AOC designated rum.
The source distinction is significant. The taste of Rhum is very umami, left of center. Use it with care in the beginning, and then realize you have discovered another tier of liquor all together.
Unlike the flavored vodkas, which are the greatest waste of money in the world, just after mohair geriatric diapers, flavored rums can be quite useful. The difference is that the sweetness in rum allows the flavors to impact the drinker as natural. I mean the orange with no sugar and a big alcohol hit, as is found in flavored vodka, is like being victimized at a rave. But try it in a rum form, and you have somethinga hottie accidentally rubbing up against you in a crowded bus. Particularly with those key tropical fruits that most American markets can never get really ripe, like mango, guava, . . . .
The last offering in the list, Falernum, is a curious item, almost completely unknown in the drinking world. It is not unlike Orgeat. It is based on almond, ginger, cloves, lime and maybe vanilla. When added to rum drinks it brings dept of character to what might otherwise be passed off as a flightly sunshine only experience.