Zero Proof

Last year we had a lot of fun blind tasting a lineup of 9 NA rums and ranking the best, but there were a few we couldn’t get in time, and now a year later a couple new options have come to market. So we’re back to fill in the gaps and see if a new NA rum champion emerges.

This non-alcoholic rum from Bare Zero brings an interesting funkiness to the NA light rum format, but is more successful as a mixer than a spirit to sip neat.

Dark & Spicy is a rum-inspired non-alcoholic spirit from Caleño that’s tasty, but fails to live up to its name.

Light and Zesty is a non-alcoholic rum-inspired spirit with a fresh, fruity nose and palate and a light finish.

This non-alcoholic rum from Philters has a spice-forward profile and works both served neat and mixed.

The non-alcoholic rum from Espadafor is an absolute acid bomb.

This non-alcoholic rum from Arkay is full of fire but lacking in flavor.

This non-alcoholic rum from Clean Co avoids the worst of the common NA pitfalls, but fails to stand out or taste particularly like rum.

This non-alcoholic rum from Ish utilizes a novel dealcoholization method, and is itself quite novel. While it’s a bit challenging as a neat sipper, it shows up nicely in cocktails and captures a funkiness elusive to most NA rums.

This non-alcoholic rum from Seir Hill let us down, and while it didn’t taste great, it avoided some of the worst failures of zero proof.

This non-alcoholic rum from Bare Zero has a banana-forward profile that plays great in cockatils.

This zero-proof rum from 270º Botanicals gave us strong notes of latex and pineapple, with subtler hints of bubblegum.

This zero-proof rum from Lyre’s gave us strong notes of pineapple and coconut, with subtler hints of butter, ginger, flowers, chile, citrus.

This zero proof rum from ArKay gave us strong notes of vanilla cake and refrigerant, with subtler hints of bubblegum, cotton candy, coconut, and crayon.

This zero proof rum from 270º Botanicals gave us strong notes of latex and burnt meat, with subtler hints of caramel, artificial coffee, and nondescript nut.

This zero proof rum from Lyre’s gave us strong notes of caramel, with subtler hints of cola, butterscotch, baking spice and mint.

This zero proof rum from Strykk gave us strong notes of mint, and ginger, with subtler hints of black tea, orange, vanilla and oak.

This zero proof rum from Crystal gave us insanely strong notes of bubblegum and not much else. Perhaps this was a bit of peach.

This zero proof rum from Monday gave us strong notes of cereal and oak, with subtler hints of oak, caramel, citrus, banana, and decaf coffee.

This zero proof rum from Ritual gave us strong notes of cereal and baking spice, with subtler hints of charred apricot, oak, ginger, cinnamon and citrus.