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Quoth AccountingDrone
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I am not a huge cream rum guy, so not sure on that, though by all accounts, Cruzan (St. Croix) has a good one.
If you are into flavored rums, the greatest flavored rums ever come from St. Kitt's: Brinley Gold. These are the Ferraris of flavored rums, so good you can (and many people do) enjoy them as sipping rums. I have personally tried their coconut, mango, and vanilla rums, and can swear by their amazingness.
From the British West Indies island of Anguilla comes Pyrat rums, which are my personal favorite. Pyrat XO Reserve is a lovely 15 year blend that is very smooth and has definite citrus overtones. It is my favorite rum that I can afford. My favorite rum that I can't afford is Pyrat Cask 1623, a 40 year blend that is the single best liquor I have ever tasted. Anyone who would use this rum in a mixed drink should be beaten senseless with a large blunt object. Adding anything more than an ice cube or two to this rum is, in my mind, a high crime. (By the way, despite the weird spelling, Pyrat is pronounced just like "pirate." I know this from having met some of the company's executives due to my participation in Pyrat-sponsored bartending contests the last few years.)
Again, I don't know what rums will be available where you'll be, but some other wonderful Caribbean rums I would be on the lookout for include:
--Pusser's 15 year, from the British West Indies. Regular Pusser's is alright for mixing, but not really a sipping rum. The 15 year, though, is awesome.
--most anything from Appleton Estates, including the VX, Extra, Reserve, and 21 year. All go really well with a Red Stripe beer in your other hand.
--Matusalem Gran Reserva 15 year (Dominican Republic/Cuba)
--Mount Gay Extra Old 12 year or, if you can, the exquisite 30 year, from Barbados.
--Zaya (Trinidad)--very smooth, sweet, and damn tasty. Had some last night. Yummy!
--Kilo Kai, which I mentioned already in an above post, from Curacao.
Atlantico (Dominican Republic), very smooth, strong taste of caramel, which as a caramel freak, I love.
Angostura 1919 (Trinidad), which is actually superior, in not just my opinion, to their Angostura 1824, despite being a younger rum (8 years as opposed to 12 years, respectively).
--Vizcaya VXOP Cask 21, a Cuban formula rum from the Dominican Republic.
--Meyers's Legend, from Jamaica. Though it is made by the same people, it is not the same as the typical Myers's. It's dark, but sippable. Now, I have nothing against regular Myers's. It makes a good cocktail great, makes many simple drinks complex, and will wow your friends if you use it instead of light rum in a pina colada. But as a sipping rum, it is an amazingly boring, simple, one note, syrupy liquid that is just not really designed to be by itself. Legend, on the other hand, is.
Now those are just the one off the top of my head that are from the Caribbean.
You may or may not find in your journeys some of the following I also highly recommend:
--Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva, from Venzuela, my boss's favorite. Somewhat cognacy in its qualities.
--Ron Zacapa 23 year old, from Guatemala. Rich, smooth, dark, utterly enjoyable as a sipping rum or a mixer, and makes the greatest mojito I have ever had in my life. Simply awesome.
--El Dorado 12, 15, or 25 year old rum. The 25 is the second best rum I have ever had, but is rather pricey....you get a lot of bang for your buck from the 12 and 15. Great product of Guyana.
--Zafra 21 year old rum, from Panama.
Some observant souls may have noticed a that Puerto Rican rums are absent from the above list. That is because the only Puerto Rican rums I have tasted are Bacardi products, and frankly, while Bacardi makes decent mixing rums (I especially like Bacardi Razz and Bacardi Peach Red for cocktails), when it comes to sipping rums, not so much. Frankly, the only Bacardis that I have tasted that I would ever consider tasting are Bacardi 8 and, to a much lesser degree, Bacardi Select. And just about every rum I listed above is, in my mind, superior to Bacardi 8.
Don Q is also from Puerto Rico, and while we sell two varieties of Don Q at my bar, I have never tasted either, so I am afraid I cannot comment.
Keep in mind one other thing. There are two styles of rum. Spanish style rums, which tend to be smoother, and French style rums, or "rhum agricole," which tends to be, to me, much harsher. I am not a huge fan of rhum agricole, so can't really recommend any all that highly, though I guess Barbancourt 15 year is a decent enough place to start for those.
Hope that's a good enough list for your vacation! And remember this: don't limit yourself to my silly list. If you see a rum that looks good, and the locals recommend, and it's not on my list--shit, try it! It may well be one I have not tried, sold, heard of, or even be able to get in this country. And above all, enjoy! Rum is fun!
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