Looking for a go to.

Falcon: I visit my doctor every 4-6 months after a blood test. The results of my blood test always keep improving and I am no longer a diabetic after about 30 years. I just smile and tell myself that rum is gluten free and stay away from all added sugars. One cannot tell doctors too much these days because they will try to impose their religious views upon their patients. I am smart enough to catch these episodes and find another doctor..

OFTD for sure for Tiki-drinks ! I love it neat but use it most for Cuba Libre. WARNING for Beginners: Never drink OFTD neat ! ;-)

@Paul - Sorry to hear why you had to move away from sweet rums. My best friend has the same rum taste as me (he's not a rumratings member), and his doctor recently told him he can't drink any sugar based alcohol drinks or drinks with sugar in them. He's pretty bummed, but getting used to whiskey now instead. @Rene - Yes, the range of rums is simply amazing. Sampling the many different styles is a big part of the fun of rum tasting. :-)

Plantation OFTD could kill some inexperienced beginners :) Better to start with three Maltecos.

Hey guys, that’s the cool thing about rum. The amazing range you can choose from for your rum journey. From sweet to dry, week to strong, bland to high ester. I prefer all kind of rum, witch depends on mood and season. I recommend as a to go rum under 50.-, the Malteco Triple 1, it's also a smooth high proof rum for beginners. Don't forget the Plantation O.F.T.D.

Falcon: I had to switch from sweet rums to dry rums out of necessity for those two reasons mentioned earlier. At first, I hated having to do this. Then as I got used to dry rums and being able to add anything that I wanted to them, I could no longer appreciate those original sugar bomb favorites. Now I restrict myself to rums with no more than 28 gpl of added sugar, with Dos Maderas 5x5 being the only one to have more than that with 36 gpl of added sugar. I love sweet rums, but they just don't love me. And as I once told everyone in my wine drinking days, if it does a number on your system the next day, then it is not a good wine no matter how many points it has earned.

Thanks Paul! I realize you don't like the sweeter rums as much as I do, but I'll disagree that people will move from sweet to dry rums as they become more experienced. I know a large number of experienced drinkers that still prefer sweet rums to dry rums. It's kind of like telling people they'll grow out of Frosted Flakes and move to Corn Flakes. Sure, maybe some people do, but certainly not everyone. I definitely agree with what you've said before in that people have different tastes, and you should try to find reviewers with similar tastes as your own to help find new rums, rather than just looking at a rum's overall score.

Why not go with the basics? Seale 10yr Appleton 12yr Doorly's 12 or XO

Falcon: Good to see you back in the discussions! Jg33 would probably like your sugar bomb recommendation that has 40 gpl of added sugar. However, for me, I have that one ranked in my lower 36% of my best buy rums. My order of favorites from Ron Centenario is the 9 year Commerativo, followed closely by their 12 year. Their 7 year trails quite a bit and their 20 Year qualifies for me to never buy again. That experience was so bad that I refuse to try their 25 year or 30 year. I did like all rum newbies and started out with very sweet rums. I had a rather large and proud collection to start with. Then after only two months, almost all of those sweetened rums changed flavors for the worse. Heavily sweetened rums do not last in the bottle! The added sugar also wreaked havoc on my internal plumbing. For those two reasons, I have now avoided overly sweetened rums like the plague. The only sweet repeat purchase rums for me are now Plantation XO 20th Anniversary and Vizcaya VXOP 21. If I run across the sugar bomb of Dos Maderas 5x5, I will also gladly buy that one.

For under $50 I would recommend the Centenario 20-Year. It's a bit sweet, but I like rums that way. :-)

Jg33: Here are my top 20 best buy rums. Notice that most of them are dry or semi-dry with a few overproofs where water or ice can be added to your liking. Since almost everyone starts off with the most popular rum on this site, I must mention that DRE is a sugar bomb with 41 grams per liter (gpl) of added sugar. As for Kirk & Sweeney, their 12 Year was one of the first ones that I tried from them and I wound up hating it. Stick with their 18 Year, which I have ranked as 32 out of 346 in my best buy rums.. So here goes it with my list. Blackwell's Reserve Plantation OFTD 138 Overproof South Bay Small Batch (if found) Dictador 12 Clarin Le Rocher (if found) Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaican 100 Overproof El Dorado 8 Pusser's Gunpowder Proof 109 Overproof Plantation Original Dark Double Aged Depaz Blue Cane Amber Rhum (if found) Carta Vieja 8 Anos Ron Cartavio Solera 12 Ron Alegro XO Vizcaya VXOP 21 (sweet) Matusalem Gran Reserva 18 Santa Teresa 1796 Angostura 1919 Carta Vieja Golden Cask 18 Doorly's XO Foursquare Spiced I hope this helps. I saved you an awful lot of research on this site.

You can follow Capn Jimbos recommendation to build a basic reference collection. http://rumproject.com/menuitem5.html