2. Sangster’s Rum Cream/Castries Peanut Rum Crème/Rumchata
Rum cream makes a brilliant winter drink, and a much tastier alternative to more standard creamy liqeurs like Bailey’s. A product of Jamaica, Sangster’s Rum Cream (which comes in different flavors like Blue Mountain coffee and coconut) is the cream of the crop but for years I’ve been confounded by its lack of availability in the U.S. Turns out it currently lacks a distributor here, leaving the duty free stores at Norman Manley and, yes, Sangster airports as the only way to get this stuff into this country. There’s at least one U.K. site which will ship Sangster’s to the U.S.—but you’d have had to order it two weeks ago to get it in time for Christmas. More readily available (compare prices here) is Castries Peanut Rum Crème out of St. Lucia, a sort of cross between rum cream and another Caribbean staple, peanut punch. Yet another alternative is Rumchata. Produced in Wisconsin of all places, this fairly new “Caribbean style” blend of horchata (rice milk with cinnamon and vanilla) and rum retails for about $20. A bartender at a baby Christening party introduced me to the drink this past spring, after I ordered a glass of Bailey’s. “I got something a million times better,” he told me, and he was right—soon enough the whole party was drinking the stuff. While I haven’t encountered Rumchata at any liquor stores or bars since, it’s easily orderable online for prices that average at about $20.