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Until just a few months ago, the Jamaican rum enthusiast favorite Wray & Nephew Overproof Rum was available nearly everywhere. Recently, however, the iconic yellow and green bottle has mysteriously disappeared from many liquor store shelves.
Wray & Nephew Overproof has a unique place in the world of spirits. It’s one of the most popular rums in Jamaica, but it’s also quite aggressive. It’s bottled at a staggering 63% ABV and packed with intense flavor.
“One of its main hallmarks is that it has these big, bold, kind of funky flavors and aromas pointing towards things like tropical fruits, and overripe bananas,” says Arminder Randhawa, the content creator behind the rum and cane spirit-focused channel The Rum Revival.
So where did all of the Wray & Nephew go? According to a statement from J. Wray & Nephew Limited, the current shortage is due to unexpectedly heavy rainfall at the distillery. The abundance of rain has made it incredibly difficult for the distillery to properly dispose of its waste, so production has slowed considerably. To alleviate this problem, a new waste disposal facility is currently being built. Once it’s up and running, we should start to see Wray & Nephew Overproof back on shelves shortly thereafter.
Home mixologists and rum fans aren’t the only ones affected by the shortage, bars have had to adapt as well.
“We’ve been forced to adapt a lot of our recipes, and make tweaks and adjustments to account for the difference in profile,” says Adam Sandroni, the bar manager at Test Pilot in Santa Barbara, California. “This has become something of a routine in a post-Covid world with supply chain disruptions being the norm rather than the exception, so we’ve gotten pretty good at adapting on the fly and finding new spirits to fill in the gaps.”
Thankfully, Wray & Nephew isn’t the only heavyweight Jamaican rum on the market. There are a handful of other rums, from Jamaica and other nations, that present similar, high-octane flavors.
“Some [rums] can come off smelling sweet to sometimes peppery,” says Tony Prosper, the bar manager at Cococabana, a Caribbean-style cocktail bar in Oceanside, California. “I would say ‘funky’ has been used to describe the smell. I have even heard people say it gives off a gasoline smell.”
Until we can easily find Wray & Nephew again, here are our favorite punchy, high-octane rums that have just enough funk to scratch the same itch.
Rum Fire
Hampden Estate Rum
Among rum enthusiasts, Rum Fire has developed a cult following. Distilled at the Hampden Estate distillery, Rum Fire is 63% ABV and completely pot-distilled. Among all Jamaican alternatives, it has the most intense flavors and aromas. Rum Fire is not for everybody, but those who are into it, love it dearly.
“[Rum Fire] has this kind of harsh, plastic, diesel kind of note,” says Randhawa. “You get a lot of that on the nose, like some really nice fermented grilled pineapple. Once you put it in cocktails, there’s a radical transformation. Suddenly all these juicy, technicolor, tropical fruit flavors come out,” he says.
Monymusk White Overproof
Monymusk Rums
If Rum Fire presents a more intense sipping experience, Monymusk offers a slightly more gentle alternative to Wray & Nephew. It’s still a 63% ABV unaged Jamaican powerhouse, but just not quite as rough around the edges.
“Monymusk overproof white rum is milder in the ‘funk’ department, with a little baking spice and less of the overripe fruit tones,” says Sandroni. “It’s also smoother, even at the high-proof level, so it works as more of a ‘toe in the water’ for the Jamaican overproof white category.”
The Funk
The Funk
This pot-distilled Jamaican rum presents a classic Jamaican rum flavor profile featuring familiar notes of ripe tropical fruit and a bit of earthiness. However, this rum is bottled at 50% ABV, making it a bit gentler than some of the other alternatives.
“This [lower proof] makes it nice to use as a base for a cocktail since the proof comes in a more approachable range for most people versus the 126 proof the other unaged rums are hitting,” says Sandroni.
Try The Funk in a Daiquiri or Mojito to give those classic cocktails a bit more of a kick.
River’s
Antoine distillery
Grenada’s River Antoine distillery, where River’s rum is produced is almost like a window into the past. It operates the same way as it did in the mid-1800s. The copper pot stills are heated by wood fire and the fresh sugarcane used to make River’s is milled using a water wheel.
“River’s is a truly old school agricole style rum,” says Sandroni. “It leans less into the tropical fruits and more into the fresh cut grass and sugarcane notes.”
River’s has a different overall flavor profile than Wray & Nephew, but at 69% ABV, it’s extremely bold, with a distinct briny funkiness.
Doctor Bird
Two James distillery
Imported and bottled by Two James distillery in Michigan, Doctor Bird is a bit of an outlier in this list. It’s the only barrel-aged rum and is bottled at 50% ABV. This gives it a bit of a softer profile with slight hints of vanilla and baking spice to balance out the intense funky notes.
Doctor Bird’s more tempered aromas have made it a popular tool for bartenders. “This is one of my favorite rums other than Wray & Nephew,” says Prosper. “It has a sweet smell to it, but has a very strong earthy taste.”
Paranubes
Paranubes
Although Oaxaca is best known for mezcal production, this Mexican state is home to a handful of rum distilleries. Paranubes, like most Oaxacan rums, is distilled from freshly pressed sugarcane instead of molasses. In Mexico, these spirits are often referred to as aguardiente de caña.
But don’t let the base ingredient fool you. Paranubes is as wild and punchy as any of the rums on this list. “The scent of the spirit is initially very funky in the best way with some ripe banana and spice. The flavor profile is very warm to start, and finishes with a classic grassy vibe,” says Prosper.
Worthy Park Overproof
Worthy Park Estate
Worthy Park’s new overproof offering is unique in that it’s a blend of molasses-based rum and fresh sugarcane distillate. “There is a milder aroma that leans less into ripe fruit and has more minerality and grassy notes,” says Sandroni. “It plays more like a rhum agricole than a traditional Jamaican overproof.”
Despite mixing up the base ingredients a bit, this rum still has a lot of the trademark Jamaican tropical fruit funk to it. “I often associate Worthy Park’s rums with the signature banana note. And I think this definitely has that,” says Randhawa.
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