Zero Alcohol Rum

Aged Caribbean rum is the target here, not the light white stuff. The nose gives sugar cane, tropical fruit and fresh tobacco leaf, then the palate turns dark with burnt caramel, banana, butter pecan and oaky vanilla, with roasted coffee and mocha underneath. It finishes long and warm, which is what makes the swap believable in a stirred drink. The label is short. Water, cane sugar, natural flavor, citric acid and potassium sorbate, at five calories and low sugar, hand made in small batches in Southern California. Pour it one to one anywhere a recipe calls for aged rum. A daiquiri, a dark and stormy or a rum old fashioned all work, and it takes well to tropical fruit, citrus and warm spice. Note that Monday has not kept it in steady rotation.