Bacardi Carta Blanca

Bacardi Carta Blanca is one of the most recognisable white rums in the world, distilled in Puerto Rico on a column still from molasses and filtered to a pale, near-clear spirit. Bottled unsweetened at 37.5%, it is deliberately light and stripped back, a workhorse mixing rum rather than something made to be studied neat.

Neat, there is not much to dwell on: a faintly citrusy aroma and palate over a clean, spirity body that fades quickly. That restraint is by design, since the whole point of this style is to disappear into a drink rather than dominate it. Judged honestly as a sipper it is unnotable, but judged as what it actually is, a reliable, neutral cocktail base, it earns its place behind any bar. This is the rum for a Daiquiri, a Mojito or a Cuba Libre, where its clean lightness lets the other ingredients lead.