Best Craft Rum Distillery (2018)

Founded in 2012, Wicked Dolphin Distillery uses 100-percent Florida-grown sugarcane to create small-batch rums in a traditional copper pot still. The spirit then gets aged in used American white oak Kentucky bourbon barrels for a minimum of one year (and up to 14 years). Wicked Dolphin also produces a silver rum, coconut rum (made from real coconut water), black rum and vanilla bean rum.
Photo courtesy of Wicked Dolphin

Drum Circle Distilling in Sarasota is best known for their Siesta Key Rum, made in small batches in a copper pot still using molasses from Florida-grown sugarcane. The lineup includes silver and gold rums, as well as spiced rum, toasted coconut rum and rum finished in beer barrels.
Photo courtesy of Larry Hoffman / Flickr

Each rum from Arizona Craft Beverage starts with pure cane sugar, juiced and combined with a special yeast strain to produce delicate rums. The spirits are then aged in spent whiskey and wine barrels (or new barrels for black rum) to add complexity to the finished product.
Photo courtesy of Arizona Craft Beverage

Every spirit from Cannon Beach Distillery in Oregon is fermented, distilled and bottled on-site with no artificial colors or flavors and minimal filtering. Dorymen's Rum, a clear spirit, is distilled from evaporated cane juice sugar for a clean and creamy mouth-feel. Don Shanks Amber Rum is fermented from blackstrap molasses, giving it hints of butterscotch and caramel, and aged in charred American white oak for a smoky, woody complexity.
Photo courtesy of Cannon Beach Distillery

Rum lovers have numerous options to choose from at Lyon Distilling Company. This micro distillery on the Chesapeake Bay makes white rum, dark rum, Sailors Reserve Rum, Overproof White Rum, Overproof French-Oak Finished Rum and 151-proof rum.
Photo courtesy of Lyon Distilling Company

Privateer Rums start with a long and cool fermentation, followed by aging in oak barrels and cask-finished in used whiskey and brandy barrels. Since each barrel has its own flavor profile, so does each batch of Privateer Amber Rum. The distillery also crafts Silver Reserve, Navy Yard and Queen's Share rums.
Photo courtesy of Privateer Rum

At Lost Spirits Distillery in Los Angeles, rum starts with just three ingredients: molasses, yeast and water. The mash is fermented in open top vats and distilled in house-made dragon-headed copper stills. The resulting rums are supremely sip-able with no added sugars, colorings or additives.
Photo courtesy of Lost Spirits Distillery

Roulaison Distilling Co. prides itself on pushing the creative limits of rum. The New Orleans distillery takes a historic approach to distilling its flagship rum–a robust spirit with notes of pineapple and banana with a spicy, piney finish. The distillery also makes an overproof rum, aged rum and a floral and zesty herbal rum liqueur. 
Photo courtesy of Roulaison Distilling Co

Native sugarcane was growing on the Hawaiian Islands long before the first plantations existed. At Manulele Distillers, sugarcane is harvested by hand, pressed into juice and distilled into a pure cane rum in small batches. The white agricole rum rests in oak to produce the barrel aged agricole rum. There’s also a cask-strength rum and a cocoa and honey rum.
Photo courtesy of Manulele Distillers

Far North Spirits distills three styles of rum, inspired by the rums of Guyana and Trinidad. Each starts with demerara sugar from Florida and turbinado sugar from Louisiana that’s craft distilled into a white rum, golden rum aged in Roknar Rye whiskey barrels and a Nordic-style spiced rum infused by hand with whole spices.
Photo courtesy of Far North Spirits