The best rum cocktails to celebrate World Rum Day

Every second Saturday of July, rum bars, brands, distillers and rum lovers across the world celebrate World Rum Day. Rum is hard to categorise but, put simply, there is white and dark rum and these different grades lend themselves to different cocktail recipes due to their distinctive flavours.  

Dark rum traditionally has a deep, caramel flavour with notes of cinnamon and spices, whereas white rum has more of a straight flavour with a signature fruity finish.  

To celebrate World Rum Day, we’ve rounded up our favourite rum-based cocktail recipes for you to try. 

There’s nothing better than a traditional rum punch and this recipe uses dark rum, white rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, lime juice, and grenadine. To present your punch properly, make sure you invest in a large punch bowl to give it that flair factor, as well as adding an orange slice to your glass.  

You may have heard about a Moscow Mule, but what about a Honey Mule? A mule traditionally uses dark rum and this honey mule recipe combines the sharpness of lime juice, the sweetness of honey and floral notes from the addition of elderflower. To complete the flavour wheel of this drink, this recipe serves the mule with a cinnamon stick to give it a fragrant note. 

Mojitos are known to be a crowd pleaser, but have you ever tried a fruity take on the classic mojito? This blackberry mojito recipe uses light, white rum along with mint and blackberries – which are at their best during the summer. Crush fresh blackberries at the bottom of the glass to give this cocktail a tart-sweet kick, and don’t skimp on the ice! 

Did you know mai tai translates to “the best – out of this world” in Tahitian? A mai tai was created to celebrate the true flavours of rum before it began to be mixed with fruit juice in modern times. But this classic mai tai recipe produces a rum-forward cocktail, only using white rum, dark rum, orange curaçao, lime juice, and orgeat (a sweet and creamy syrup). A beautifully balanced cocktail.  

When you hear daiquiri you almost always think ‘frozen’ or ‘strawberry’, but what happened to the classic daiquiri? Frozen daiquiris only became popular in the 1990s, whereas a classic daiquiri recipe goes back hundreds of years, with only three ingredients: rum, lime and simple syrup. A beautifully simple cocktail that looks gorgeous in a wide-rimmed cocktail glass with a lime wedge. 

Will you be giving any of these recipes a try for World Rum Day? If you do, we’d love to see your pictures over on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.