Dark rums, light rums, chocolaty tasting, or fruity: the Caribbean is a great destination to sample them all.

In my opinion, you have two options for watching the sun set in the West Indies. You can go barefoot on a deserted beach with not another sail in sight, accompanied by a loved one and a pitcher of rum punch. Or you can settle down in a comfy chair at a tony resort and let the bartender do his stuff. In either case, the rum is axiomatic.

The beach is best when it has no name. For the resort, a good choice might be the low-key Caneel Bay on the pristine Virgin Island of St. John. Here you can sip your cocktail atop an elevated deck right next to the bar to see the clouds turn from pink to purple to black. I always find it distressing how short Caribbean twilight is - by the time you're ready to order another daiquiri it's dark. Console yourself, however, that after dinner, you can return with a glass of fine aged rum as you watch the distant twinkling lights of St. Thomas compete with the stars above. For there are, you see, two ways of drinking rum and two very different kinds of rum to drink.

Most of us think of rum as a fairly neutral, slightly sweet beverage that is best mixed with Coke to make a Cuba Libre or whirled in a blender to make a Piña Colada. Just about every island in the West Indies has its own brand of this firewater. There is another kind of rum though, that should be slowly savored as an after-dinner drink, swirled in a brandy glass to release its aromas of vanilla, brown sugar, and tropical fruits. These so-called sipping rums are produced in small batches by select distilleries, where they receive the care of fine whiskey or cognac.

 All rum begins as sugar cane. Once sugar is processed, the remaining dark molasses is combined with water and yeast, allowed to ferment, and then distilled to make a relatively flavorless spirit. This is then mixed with water to bring down the alcohol content to 40% or 80 proof, though there is 151 proof rum, in other words, over 75% alcohol. (Airlines consider this rum a fire hazard and will not allow you to bring it on board!) These days, there is a huge market for white rum for making cocktails, but traditionally, the spirit was aged in oak barrels to give it more complexity. Most dark rums have been aged in this way though some of the cheaper varieties just add coloring to white rum to make their darker varieties. Generally, the longer the rum is aged, the smoother and more flavorful it becomes. Finally, various batches of rum are blended to achieve a house style.

At Caneel, try the local Cruzan Distillery's Single Barrel Estate produced on nearby St. Croix. To make their top rum, Cruzan combines rums that have been barrel-aged for up to 12 years and ages this blend once again in a single barrel. The resulting drink is quite delicate with a perfume that suggests pineapple, toffee, and perhaps just a trace of nutmeg with a smooth flavor that hints at caramelized apple.

Each island's spirit has its own distinctive personality, which is particularly noticeable in its best rums. Perhaps the most widely available is the Haitian Barbancourt, which is aged in French oak barrels for up to 15 years (this is sold as Réserve Spéciale). Not surprisingly the rums produced on the French Islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe are particularly suave and complex. Worth searching out are Saint James Rhum Agricole Hors d'Age with its almost chocolaty bouquet and J. Bally Rhum Vieux Agricole for aromas of vanilla and orange peel. On other islands keep an eye out for Appleton Extra (Jamaica), R.L. Seale's Finest Aged (Barbados), and Ron del Barrilito Three-Star (Puerto Rico). Also not to be forgotten are some remarkable rums produced on the Caribbean's shore, in particular the full-flavored Flor de Cana Centenario 21 Year Old Limited Edition Rum (Nicaragua) and the silky Santa Teresa 1796 Ron Antiguo de Solera Rum (Venezuela).

Empires once fought over these islands for their sugar fields and rum. The sails in the distance once belonged to pirates and galleons of gold. Yet at the end of the day all that remains is the crimson sky and the gold in your glass.