What is the most drunk rum in the world? Surely, it’s Bacardi! Or, could the Captain have pulled into the lead? Perhaps it’s Havana Club, which dominates the world outside of the US? Nope! It’s Tanduay, hailing from the Philippines, and its massive world record setting consumption is… surprisingly mostly domestic. It’s actually pretty hard to find a bottle of this stuff. Though, after driving around for a while, I stumbled upon a liquor store that happened to have it, and I decided to see what the most consumed rum has to offer! They also had a gold version along with the silver, but I decided to try the silver first and come back for the gold if I liked it a lot. Spoiler: I didn’t come back for the gold.

Review

Smell

It smells like a typical lightly aged Spanish style rum. Harsh alcohol, rummy vanilla coconut… pretty much smells like Bacardi Superior, but side by side, I think that it actually smells harsher than Bacardi.

Taste

It’s actually surprisingly flavorful. It’s not fruity like Havana Club 3, but it’s just bold with the vanilla and coconut Bacardi-like flavor, and it actually doesn’t burn as much as Bacardi when it comes to taste, though it still has quite a bit of burn. Tanduay does have a very nice clean, crisp flavor that I really appreciate in a white rum. It’s aged just enough to burn less than Bacardi, but not so much that the oak flavor makes a strong presence. In a daiquiri… you just get a decent daiquiri. Tastes pretty much the same as a Bacardi daiquiri.

Verdict 4.5/10

(Edited from 5.5/10 on 1/21/26)

I like Diplomatico Planas quite a bit, but one thing that sort of bothered me is that it doesn’t really feel like a white rum. It really gives me aged rum vibes— it just happens to be filtered clear. Now, of course, I like it overall more than I like Tanduay (Planas just kills it with the smoothness), but I still get that nice crisp, clean, rummy rum flavor that I look for in a Spanish-style white from Tanduay, and it’s certainly an upgrade over Bacardi Superior. Not a big one, and beating Bacardi isn’t exactly a very high bar, but it makes a similar daiquiri, so, in my opinion, it’s a 5.5. Just half a point above Bacardi.

January 21, 2026 Update:

It’s not exactly the same as Bacardi, but upon revisiting, I am struggling to really see a strong improvement over it.