Message: | Frankly, trader joes or vendome liquors will have what you want for a good price. For upscale Rums, Wally's on Westwood Blvd has a good selection.
A tip: if you're mixing, don't use an aged rum. It's more expensive and would be like putting single-malt scotch in a highball - unnecessary. Avoid, for mixing, any rum named Anejo. In general, Jamaican rums are famous as dark rums, Cuban as light rums ALTHOUGH Bacardi makes both, and Jamaican distillers also make both. The most famous of the dark rums, non-Jamaican, are the Demerara from Guyana (Lemon Hart well known) and the black rum from Bermuda, Black Seal. Black Seal mixes exceptionally well, and is NOT a good sipping rum.
For a rum treat, pick up a bottle of the Haitian Barbancourt rum. It's is "aged" in oak and tastes like a perfectly acceptable cognac.
Also, although it's also made of sugar cane, aguardiente is really closer to vodka than rum, being pretty much flavored neutral spirits (same for Cachaca from Brazil). Do not substitute aguardiente (even from sugar cane) for rum/ron/rhum.
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