white rum

Most strictly, white rum indicates an unaged rum, bottled (except for dilution) straight from the still. These rums are invariably colorless, generally bottled at higher proofs, and—in the best examples—most evince the flavors of the molasses or sugar cane juice they were distilled from. However, in practice, light rums that are actually aged but stripped of their color through filtering are frequently referred to as “white” through habit or mistake. This inconsistency leads to confusion. If a rum is labeled as “white rum”, then it may well be unaged spirit, which would quite normal if it’s a rhum agricole from the French West Indies and somewhat exotic from anywhere else. The most common exception is Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum, which is, indeed, an unaged Jamaican molasses-based rum. If a recipe calls for “white rum”, it probably implies a filtered (stripped) light bodied molasses rum, unless there’s some additional context to work with.