Hamilton 86 Demerara Rum

Beachbum Berry named Hamilton 86 one of only six rums a tiki enthusiast will ever need — and it's the Demerara rum the Navy Grog was built for. Ed Hamilton is the Ministry of Rum: the sailor, author, and importer who spent decades documenting Caribbean distilleries and then began bottling their rums under his own name, unsweetened and honestly labeled. The 86 is a blend of Guyanese rums from Demerara Distillers Limited — the last distillery in Guyana, home to the last wooden pot still and wooden Coffey still on earth — marrying pot and column marques aged up to five years, bottled at 43% ABV (86 proof) with no sugar or additives. Memphis Rum Club found brown sugar, molasses, stewed cherry, pineapple, and almond paste on the nose, then a definitely-not-sweet, faintly bitter palate of grilled pineapple, overripe berry, and a slight smoke, finishing with oak tannin, molasses, and tobacco — a drier style that doesn't shy from flavor, which is why tiki bartenders love it: it blends without stealing the show. Rum Ratings' drinkers call it the pinnacle of simple Demerara rums, rich, caramel, oaky. Wikipedia's Navy Grog entry recommends it by name as the best Demerara for the drink. Honest note: it's a mixing rum first, though the proof sips fine over one cube. For a Navy Grog, a Jungle Bird, a Mai Tai, a Zombie base, or a Demerara Old Fashioned, it's the bottle on every serious tiki back bar.

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