Are you the groom at a loss for a gift for your best man and groomsmen? GroomGroove.com suggests finding Ron Zacapa Centenario, the world’s best rum. Not to be mixed with Coke, Centenario is a rum grooms and attendants can drink together over many years. A bottle will last you until your children are old enough to get married themselves!

The groom's drink of choice, back in the day?

Rum deservedly gets a bad rap for drunken college expeditions to the Caribbean. In those years before the groom met Missus Right, what the groom and best man were drinking was exceedingly cheap rum mixed with cola syrup and water. (Or not mixed at all.) Be it Captain Morgan or Bacardi, all of these pale in comparison (literally and figuratively) to Centenario, the pride of Guatemala. You read that correctly; It’s from Guatemala, and not Puerto Rico, Jamaica or other usual suspects.

Why is it so good?

Aged an average of 23 years using the solera process (whereby different rums from different years are blended together over time), Centenario is exceptionally sweet and does not serve up an unpleasant burn when drank. While most rum is prepared from fermented molasses (a by product of sugar cane), Centenario is produced from the juice of sugar cane itself. Did we mention it is sweet? It’s unlike any other rum you have ever had, and is meant to be drunk on its own, with or without ice, but certainly not with Coke. Pictured here, this rum is dark, and you can actually taste molasses, nuts and honey. (ed. - Sounds like breakfast…) And with an average price of around $35-45 per bottle, it’s at the right price point as a gift from the groom to the attendants.

Wine Enthusiast magazine gave this rum a 98 out of 100, and it has won a ton of awards at international competitions, including first place amongst super-premium wines at the International Rum Festival for five consecutive years (1998-2002). That’s a pretty good showing. In fact, this rum is not used in competition anymore, but as the standard against which all other rums are measured in the competition. Wow.

Why it's a great gift from the groom

Now, a groom might be thinking that rum has a reputation for being a cheap drink, and that wine is a better buy. However, rum will last indefinitely, if kept properly, whereas wine will age in the bottle, be opened, enjoyed and be done with. If you want to add a bit more significance, ask that the recipient drink the rum only with you. For a gift that will represent your thanks as a groom to the groomsmen, a fantastic bottle for rum does the trick.