Rum can be distilled in any country warm enough to grow sugar cane, but the North American market is cornered by rums from the Caribbean. Light rums, distilled in Puerto Rico, Barbados, and a few other subtropical isles, are clear and best used for fruit-based cocktails. Regardless of their country of origin, gold rums are amber-colored because they’re aged longer. Most dark rums come from tropical isles like Jamaica, Haiti, and Martinique; they are heavier and richer from still longer aging. (See also A Word from the Bartenders.)
Competing with ordinary molasses-based rum in the twenty-first century is pure cane rum, distilled from sugar cane juice or syrup. Because of its clean taste, some rum lovers see pure cane rum—also known as rhum agricole—as the new vodka.