Rum Journal: From Jamaica, a Legendary Brand Grows Up

“We have Myers’s.”

If you were a rum enthusiast a few decades ago, you’d know this common refrain. 

You’d walk into a decent-looking bar in the United States, scour the back shelf, ask for an aged rum, and get that reply. 

For a long time, Myers’s was the loneliest rum, a nomad on American bar shelves, a solitary ambassador for Caribbean rum in a sugarcane desert. 

It was an unfortunate position for a storied rum brand that dates back to the late 19th century in Jamaica, one that has a strong cocktail making pedigree and still holds a place in the hearts of all rum drinkers. 

As the rum world has changed in the last few decades, though, Myers’s now has company on bar shelves, and while it can certainly hold its own in a mai tai, it will never be mistaken for a sipping rum. 

That’s why I was so surprised on a recent Total Wine trip to find that there was a new Myers’s on the market. 

Except it wasn’t that simple, robust, pungent spirit. It was something new. 

This is Myers’s Rum Single Barrel, a 43-degree expression aged in Sazerac Rye Whiskey barrels (Sazerac owns the brand), although the company doesn’t reveal the aging length. 

This is a grown-up, more premium Myers’s, and it’s a rather exciting development. 

So what’s it like?

The nose has caramel, mango, chocolate and orange peel. 

The flavor profile is marked by dark chocolate, paper, citrus peel and banana, with some good-old-fashioned Jamaican funk. 

The finish? It’s anise and cane stalk, and another wallop of funkiness. 

This is a cool rum. The original Myers’s is there. But there’s something more — it’s Myers’s with a collared shirt and a smoking jacket. 

If you were in those bars two decades ago, you’ll undoubtedly agree. This, you see, is a rum drinker’s rum. 

Rum Journal Review

92 Points