It’s been another great year for rum. It continues to grow in popularity, as more and more people around the world continue to appreciate the quality and diversity of cane spirits. We’ve tried almost 130 rums this year from all over the Caribbean and the wider world, and while the choices were extremely difficult, the following rums have emerged as the year’s best. Here are the Rum Awards for 2013.

Rum of the Year

As always, this one was a hard-nosed battle, and the winner was actually one of the last rums we tried this year. Simply put, we didn’t see this coming. Bacardi’s new limited-production Facundo Collection is named after the brand’s founder, Don Facundo Bacardi Massó, and it’s a new level of premium rum-making for the company; the Facundo Collection Exquisito, a blend of rums between seven and 23 years old finished in sherry casks, is a superstar. There were strong finalists in the Zacapa XO from Guatemala and the El Dorado 15 Year from Guyana. But this Puerto Rican product was the best rum we tried all year, and we knew it the moment we tasted it: perfectly balanced, with just the right amount of sweetness and spicy character, and the smoothest finish of any rum we tasted. Congratulations to the Bacardi Facundo Collection Exquisito, Rum Journal’s 2013 Rum of the Year.