Rum & Cheese: A Rum Lover's Cheese Board

Contrary to the amount of airtime they receive when it comes to cheese pairings, wine, beer, and cider aren’t cheese’s only companions. Various spirits can be an inspired choice when it comes to cheese. Yes, You Can Pair Spirits with Cheese. Spirits, in fact, can be especially spirited pairings for cheese, if the cheese board you’re noshing from is designed with a particular spirit in mind. As evidence, I offer our recent examination, Gin and Cheese: A Gin Lover’s Cheese Board. Now we move our collective attention to another spirit that deserves more attention: rum.

Is Rum a Great Pairing for Cheese?

Rum pairs well with cheese and here’s why. The flavors in rum mirror the butterscotch undertones of certain aged cheese and the inherent sweetness of young, milky cheeses. It is also a natural fit with all kinds of sweet accompaniments we often put on our cheese plates: honey, dried fruit, chocolate, etc. so it’s really no wonder it also works with cheese.

As with any kind of spirit, different styles of rum may require different approaches. A simple white rum such as Ten to One White Rum, has fresh, floral, or lightly citrusy notes. Think fresh sheep’s milk cheese or brebis. Read more about brebis and read an interview with Ten to One founder, Marc Farell. Rhum agricole like Dillon Rhum Vieux Agricole Hors d’Âge XO, distilled from fresh sugarcane juice, often yields a light herbal note or funk in the flavor profile. Think washed rind cheeses. Extra aged rums such as Appleton Estate’s 21 Year Old rum leads with caramel and spice, and those with cask finishes such as Ron Don Miguel Sherry Cask Finished Pedro Ximénez Extra Añejo 10 años has even more nutty complexity. Think aged Gouda. Aged rum is really where the pairing magic happens with cheese, especially as a dessert course cheese board, but hopefully this range of rums shows you that rum can provide soulful pairings for many kinds of cheese.

Cheese & Rum Pairings

Sheep Cheeses

Brebirousse d'Argental and Ten to One Rum, photo courtesy of Murray's Cheese

The starchy quality of sheep cheeses, regardless of age, lends itself well to a hotter beverage such as rum, and the spirit helps bring out some of the undercurrent sweetness in the sheep’s milk itself. Cheese expressions with a little age can also mirror rum’s nutty qualities. Manchego provides a salty/sweet contrast when paired with rum. Rum can stand in for the cherries that are invariably served, Basque-style, with an Ossau Iraty. Or for an approach to really prove what rum is capable of, try a Brebirousse d’Argental, a young, creamy sheep’s milk cheese whose unctuousness can stand up to rum, and whose annatto-stained exterior also provides an on-theme color palette for the festivities.

“Sweetened” Cheeses

La Noix d'Argental and Don Miguel photo courtesy of Murray's Cheese

Many cheeses get sweeter as they age, but for rum’s sake, you can also look for cheeses whose make or aging treatment sweetens the cheese, or offers a perception of sweetness, in a different manner. Among their many flavored and infused cheeses, Sartori’s BellaVitano line often includes a rum-infused cheese called Rum Runner. Read more about BellaVitano. Seattle-based Beecher’s offers a holiday-inspired take on their flagship cheese which is soaked in red wine and blackberry honey known as Yule Käse. Even blue cheese can get in on the rum business. Rogue River Blue’s pear liqueur treatment brings fruity, honeyed notes to the table that are rum-friendly. Or my personal favorite: La Noix d’Argental, a walnut liqueur-washed cheese that somehow turns a washed rind number into something resembling candy.

Gouda Style Cheeses

Gouda and Appleton Estate Jamaican Rum — Roomano Extra Aged and Appleton Estate Jamaican Rum

Any crumbly, aged cheese can be put with rum, especially when it starts to develop those cravable tyrosine crystals, but if ever there was a cheese meant for a rum love match, it’s gouda. Gouda’s curds are washed with water after formation — washed curd not to be confused with washed rind — removing additional lactose before the cheese is shaped and aged. Without the lactose to convert to lactic acid, the cheese never takes on the sharp, acidic notes of other aged cheeses, and retains a sweetness that’s really gouda’s calling card. From young, delicate gouda such as The Farm at Doe Run Seven Sisters, to mildly tangy goat gouda, (Murray’s makes several expressions,) to aged, butterscotch goudas such as Roomano Extra Aged, there is basically a gouda for every type of rum.

Accompaniments for a Rum Lover’s Cheese Board

Fruits and Nuts

Naturally, fruits and nuts easily belong on just about any cheese plate. Rum pairings, however, don’t only amplify the cheeses on your Rum Lover’s Cheese Plate, but their common accompaniments as well, given the undertone of fruits and nuts in the spirit itself. Any pantry raisins or almonds you have on hand would be fine, but for some elegant or exaggerated options, look for products that elevate the category further, doubling down on caramelized flavors such as honey roasted nuts, fruit-and-nut-studded nougat candy, or Mitica’s Date Almond Cake.

Rum Infused

While you’re not likely to find a rum-infused sausage option, as we had with gin, there are plenty of exciting cheese board accoutrements that have a rum inclusion or infusion, or even just a rum-forward vibe. Rum-soaked fruitcake, for example, provides the spirit and bread pairing all in one. (Pair that with the Yule Käse mentioned above and that’s a combo to give classic holiday matchup Stilton and Port a run for its money.) Any banana bread or other quick bread on hand also handily approximates fruitcake in a pinch. Rum-soaked chocolates or caramels would also work well here, especially given the inherent sweetness in some of the cheeses. One to try: Zotter Chocolates Tiramisu a milk chocolate bar filled with mascarpone ganache and coffee ganache with rum. Read more about Zotter.