In-depth features, education, and commentary
Article
In the Caribbean heat, rum barrels lose spirit at two to three times the rate of Scotch whisky — and this dramatic evapo...
Walter Graves
April 9, 2026
Article
The still is the beating heart of every distillery — and the choice between pot and column fundamentally shapes the char...
Walter Graves
April 2, 2026
Article
Long before Jamaica, Cuba, or Guyana entered the conversation, Barbados was distilling rum — and its claim to be the spi...
Walter Graves
March 26, 2026
Article
From Barbados to Jamaica, distillery tours are becoming a cornerstone of Caribbean travel — and the rum industry is inve...
Walter Graves
March 19, 2026
Article
From crisp Cuban whites to tropically aged Jamaican pot-still legends and solera-blended Guatemalan sippers, our editor-...
Walter Graves
March 18, 2026
Article
For decades, rum was the spirit you mixed. Now, aged expressions from Barbados, Jamaica, and Guatemala are competing wit...
Walter Graves
February 20, 2026
Article
Barbados makes elegant, refined rum. Jamaica makes funky, fruity rum. Guyana makes heavy, complex rum. The reason is not...
Walter Graves
February 10, 2026
Article
Every rum begins in a still, and the type of still used shapes everything about the spirit — its weight, its texture, it...
Walter Graves
January 25, 2026
Article
Three ingredients, no garnish, and two hundred years of argument about the right way to make it. The Daiquiri is the coc...
Walter Graves
January 5, 2026
Article
The raw material defines the rum. Molasses produces the rich, sweet rums of the English and Spanish traditions; fresh su...
Walter Graves
December 15, 2025
Article
Created in Oakland in 1944, contested in origin, and butchered by a million beach bars — the Mai Tai is the most misunde...
Walter Graves
November 28, 2025