Top 10 Best Selling Rum Brands of 2023

Best-Selling Rum

(Photo: Barceló)

Rum and its countless subvarieties — distilled using sugar cane or its by-products such as molasses — have developed a unique and occasionally inaccurate reputation for pirate shanties, revolutionary history and piña coladas since their believed invention in 1650. Since then, distillers from across the world have put countless twists on the concept, with some of the biggest heavy hitters these days originating from the Philippines and the Czech Republic.

With so many options to choose from, we thought we’d take a look at the brands leading the charge.

Going off of The Spirit Business’ recently released annual Brand Champions report, we’re rounding up the top 10 best selling rum brands of 2023. The lion’s share of recognizable names on the list are produced at famed rum capitals throughout the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Elsewhere, we saw a handful of popular contenders from India, the second-largest sugar producer in the world (Brazil is the largest but has a clear regional preference for cachaça, also distilled using sugar cane).

For each entry on the list, we’ll provide a brand name, the company that owns it and how many 9-liter cases it sold in 2023. Let’s dig in:

10 Best-Selling Rum Brands of 2023

10. Kraken (Proximo Spirits): 1.2 million cases

9. Contessa (Radico Khaitan): 1.3 million cases

8. Bozkov Tuzemsky (Stock Spirits Group): 1.4 million cases

7. Barceló (Ron Barceló): 2.1 million cases

6. Old Port Rum (Amrut Distillers): 2.1 million cases

5. Havana Club (Pernod Ricard): 3.8 million cases

4. McDowell’s Rum (United Spirits): 6.5 million cases

3. Captain Morgan (Diageo): 12.1 million cases

2. Bacardi (Bacardi Distillers): 20.6 million cases

1. Tanduay (Tanduay Distillers): 23.4 million cases

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Pedro Wolfe is an editor and content creator at The Daily Pour with a specialty in agave spirits. With several years of experience writing for the New York Daily News and the Foothills Business Daily under his belt, Pedro aims to combine quality reviews and recipes with incisive articles on the cutting edge of the spirits world. Pedro has traveled to the heartland of the spirits industry in Tequila, Mexico, and has conducted interviews with agave spirits veterans throughout Mexico, South Africa and California. Through this diverse approach, The Daily Pour aims to celebrate not only tequila but the rich tapestry of agave spirits that spans mezcal, raicilla, bacanora, pulque and so much more.