Here is What Those Who Responded to Yesterday's Blog are Asking For

     I kind of got the results that I thought from my question in yesterday's blog.  There are thousands of rums on the market and it a very difficult to know myself what they are with out a guide book.  For the customer at the bar it is even more difficult.  Here recently, there has been a real push for better classification of rum, something more substantial that just gold, dark, spiced or flavored. A prominent group of rum producers and vendors have gotten together and come up with a new classification system that makes it a lot easier to know what type of rum that you are buying.

     The Gargano Classification system gives buyers a much better understanding of what they are buying and makes it much easier to know the basis of the rums that they are buying.

The Gargano Rum Classification System

• Pure Single Rum – this would apply to all pure pot-still rums
• Single Blended Rum – blends of pot-still and column-still rums 
• Traditional Rum – traditional column-still rum 
• Agricole Rhums  - Appellation d’ Origine Controlle"  for rums produced on the island of Martinique that meet certain local standards. 
• Rum – all other rums

This is a a great basis for getting into the ballpark as to what you are buying, but with rum and it's minimal number of rules, there are many different tasting rums is each classification.  As a barman, it is critical for me to have a feel for the rums in the area of taste as well as classification.

     From the comments, you seem to want some one to guide you to a new rum similar to the one you like or in the range of the one you like. " I've tried matching rums to similar whiskeys, both in terms of quality and sweetness. I've never been successful that way, even with long-time friends. However, I think a flight of 3 or 4 rums of similar quality would be a great start. Have the potential "convert" pick her favorite of the flight, then present another flight built on that preference."   I too find this to be an excellent method to finalize a customer's selection.  To this end at the "Speakeasy Inn's Rum Bar", I created a "Rum Run" served in a prohibition era model boat.  Over the years, this has worked very well to finalize the decisions.

     It takes all of the parts of the game to put the correct rum into a customer's hands when you are serving the end customer.  I have found in the past a good list of your rums that is classified, in the past I've used the country of origin, but with a new and viable system of classification this would be the better way, especially if it is the standard industry wide.  But this is only the beginning to get your customer into the ball park.  You have to have the skills of a sommelier to finely get the rum the customer is looking for.

     Thank you for all of the input.  I see this is a great start, and I hope that the industry can agree to a new and accurate classification for the category.