Before I knew anything about liquor, I thought all rum was alike and used the Captain whenever a recipe called for rum. Even though I quickly figured out my mistake, I held a grudge against spiced rum and remembered it as "that gross stuff." Then, one freezing night, I was out of whiskey and desperate for a hot toddy. I had a dusty bottle of spiced rum leftover from the bad old days and figured, what the heck, it's better than going outside... More

Spiced rums are dodgy creatures. True, the sweet, vanilla-tinged Captain Morgan has an agreeable enough flavor, but for rum fans the Captain's appeal is not unlike that of fast food--satisfying on a certain level but ultimately disappointing and altogether forgettable. More