In the world of brown spirits, age is becoming.

Later this month, Mount Gay Rum plans to get into the ultra-premium liquor market with Mount Gay Rum 1703 Old Cask Selection, a blend of rums aged 10 to 30 years.

There's been a lot of talk on Slashfood as of late about what aging can do to rums like Ron Zapaca (aged 23 years) and Old New Orleans (10 year using a special Hurricane Katrina weathering process). Recently Slashfood got to sit down with Chesterfield Browne, the mixologist for Mount Gay, to sip their oldest offering.

Mount Gay is best known for its bottle, which used to carry a detailed map of Barbados used -- legend says -- by sailors to navigate the island. The rum has been made there since 1703.

"We're the rum that invented rum," Browne said over a small glass of the 1703. Thirty years in an old white-oak bourbon barrel on the island of Barbados turns a harsh spirit made from molasses into some seriously smooth liquor. It's still rum, yes, but as smooth as any well-aged Scotch.

"It's About Time" used to be Mount Gay's catch phrase and Browne thinks its apt for 1703 -- the third offering from the company that also produces Mount Gay Eclipse, a rum aged 8 years, and Mount Gay Extra Old, aged 12 to 17 years and colloquially known on Barbados as "Mount Gay Black."

1703 is liable to be known as "Mount Gay Gold" for its label and its $99-a-bottle price tag.

To read more about the other aged rums Slashfood has covered, check out these posts on Ron Zapaca and Old New Orleans.

When it comes to rum, I have to admit a definite prejudice: after years of drinking Polynesian cocktails with names like Zombie, Suffering Bastard, and Planter's Punch, I have developed a definite tendency toward dark rums. This makes sense; while white rums are great for degreasing engines or cleaning wounds, there's a lot to be said for flavor!

The classic dark rum is Myers's, a rich and flavorful potion with notes of vanilla, molasses, and a very slightly burned taste. Unfortunately, at $23 for a fifth, it is also fairly expensive. On the other hand, Cruzan Black Strap Navy Rum is a lot cheaper ($14), and even more delicious. Made with a heavy wallop of molasses, it has a very rich, sweet flavor, a lower alcohol content, and a dark, almost impenetrably black color. Best of all, like Myers, it holds up very nicely against fruit juices, egg nog, and all the other rich flavors that make most lesser rums quail.

For more refined tastes, there is nothing like a golden rum. Unfortunately, this is one of those places where low quality translates pretty directly into low taste. Luckily, Appleton Gold ($14) and Mount Gay Eclipse ($16) are both outstanding and relatively cheap. Steer clear of Bacardi.

If you absolutely must go with spiced rum, you're probably better off making it yourself. That having been said, I have to admit a deep appreciation of Rogue Hazelnut Spiced Rum. It has a subtle, adult flavor that tastes fantastic in a simple grog. Unfortunately, at roughly $30 per bottle, it's a little pricey!

If there is a more evocative spirit available behind the bar than that of rum, I'm not aware of it. Pour me a glass of rum and within the vapors rises a raucous and even romantic history of joy, tragedy and debauchery: tippling houses in Barbados in the early 1600's, where British settlers supped the earliest permutation of rum, which they referred to as "kill-devil"; jug wielding pirates careening through the streets of Port Royal in Jamaica, wildly spending their pieces of eight plundered from the Spanish and British empires; independence-minded American revolutionaries huddled in taverns drinking rum Flips and plotting their resistance against the heavy taxes imposed upon them by the British; Americans fleeing Prohibition downing Daiquiris and Swizzles in the jammed bars of Havana; opulent tiki palaces serving Mai Tais, flaming Scorpion bowls, Hurricanes and Fog Cutters to lei-festooned business-men and June Cleaveresque housewives. I think of Piña Coladas at the pool, mojitos in a sweaty nightclub, an authentic Daiquiri while laying on a Caribbean beach with the tropical sun dipping into the sea at the horizon line.

Rum is making a comeback, as it has throughout it's history. Whether it's taxation by the British, temperance loonies railing against "demon rum", the long national nightmare of prohibition or weird shifts in tastes toward vodka and synthetic flavoring, rum has always bounced back, and today traditional mixers are left behind. More and more behind the bar, connoisseurs are treating the premium rums with the same regard usually given to high-grade scotchs, bourbons, cognacs and tequilas.

After the jump, in alphabetical order, are a few of those premium rums we're sipping neat these days. It is a wonderful, intoxicating world of flavors I hope you can enjoy as much as I do: