Start here.
Start with how they drink, not the occasion
The occasion tells you when to give it. The drinker tells you what to give. Before you look at a single bottle, answer one question: how does this person drink rum?
If they sip it neat or over one cube, the liquid is the whole gift. Buy the best bottle you can and leave the accessories alone. A serious drinker already owns a glass they like.
If they mix it, the serve matters as much as the spirit. A bottle with the right glass and a measure turns a present into an evening. The Storm and Spice and The Old Standard are two builds that need nothing exotic.
If they are new to rum, choose the gift pack. It includes the glass and the measure, and it assumes nothing about their bar.
If they drink dark or aged rum and never reach for spiced, buy them a dark or aged rum. Spiced rum is a different drink, and a spiced bottle will not stand in for the one they like.
If you do not know how they drink at all, a gift card lets them choose for themselves.
Your budget decides the format
Under £20 buys barware: a glass, a jigger, spirit stones or a hip flask. These suit someone who already has a bottle they like.
Under £50 buys a bottle of Expedition Spiced Rum, with room for the presentation box alongside it.
Under £100 buys the gift pack: the bottle, a Crystal ICE hiball, a 25ml and 50ml jigger and a slate coaster, boxed together. It is the most complete gift for someone starting from nothing.
Four things on the bottle tell you if it is worth giving
A rum label tells you more than the packaging around it. Reading a rum label covers the whole label. These are the four lines that matter for a gift.
Strength
Look for 40% ABV. Rum must be at least 37.5% ABV, but a spiced rum is sold as a spirit drink and can legally be bottled as low as 15% ABV. In our experience bottles below 40% ABV tend to taste thin.
Real spices or flavourings
A spiced rum made with real spices will usually name them. One made with flavourings will say "natural flavourings" and stop. The ingredients behind Expedition Spiced Rum are published in full: seven real spices, two natural sweeteners, and bourbon oak.
Batch numbers
A numbered bottle from a small batch is traceable to the run it came from. It also means the person can look up their own bottle, which is a small thing that lands well as a gift.
Awards judged blind
An award is worth something when the judging was blind. The International Wine and Spirit Competition judges that way. Expedition Spiced Rum took Bronze there in 2026, and the serve with Franklin and Sons cola took Silver.
Most rum gifts take one of four forms
A bottle, a boxed bottle, a set with the barware to serve it, or a gift card.
The bottle
The bottle on its own suits the person with a home bar. Expedition Spiced Rum is 700ml at 40% ABV, and the bottle is considered enough to hand over as it is.
The bottle in its box
The presentation box is sold separately and sized for the 700ml bottle, so add it to the basket alongside the bottle. It turns the bottle into a gift without wrapping paper, and it is the right choice when the bottle will sit under a tree before it is opened.
The gift pack
The gift pack is a complete first pour: the bottle, a Crystal ICE hiball for the cola serve, a 25ml and 50ml jigger, and a natural slate coaster, in a branded box. Someone who owns none of those opens it and can make the serve that evening.
The gift card
The Jerry Can Spirits gift card comes in £25, £40, £75 or £100. It is emailed to them on the day you choose, up to 90 days ahead, with your message, or sent to you to print and hand over. They must be 18 or over to spend it.
Add a glass or a tool only if it will be used
Add barware only when it will be used. A glass the person already owns is clutter. A glass that changes the drink is a gift.
For someone who drinks neat, a rocks glass and a set of spirit stones keep the pour cold without watering it down. For someone who mixes, a highball holds the cola serve or the Storm and Spice. A jigger is the one tool every cocktail recipe assumes, and 25ml and 50ml are the measures the recipes use.
A hip flask is the exception. It is a gift on its own, and it suits the person who is outdoors more than they are at a bar.
The glasses are in rum glasses, and the tools, spirit stones included, are in bar accessories.
The glassware guide explains which glass does what, and barware worth investing in covers the tools, if you want to go further.
For someone who makes cocktails at home, gifts for cocktail makers sets out the tools and glasses by the drinks they make.
A dark rum drinker wants a dark rum
Dark rum takes its colour and depth from time in the cask, and often from added caramel. Spiced rum takes its character from the spices. Dark rum and spiced rum are different drinks, and someone who sips aged rum neat will want another aged rum.
Expedition Spiced Rum is a spiced rum. For an aged rum drinker, choose from a rum house they do not own yet. Rum, rhum and ron explains the main styles, and the rum houses guide covers the producers behind them.
If you cannot tell which style they like, specialist retailers sell tasting sets of five or six 3cl samples, so they can try several before choosing a bottle. We do not sell miniatures or tasting sets.
Send it direct, or send it to yourself
You can send the bottle straight to the person. Enter their address at checkout and the parcel goes to them.
Every delivery of alcohol is age-verified, so the person receiving it must be 18 or over and may be asked for photo ID by the courier. Orders placed before 3pm on a working day are dispatched the same day and delivered within one to two working days. Weekend orders go out on the next working day.
No printed note goes in the parcel with a bottle, so send your message separately. A gift card carries one.
For Christmas, the last order date goes on the delivery page once it is set. After it, a gift card set to send on Christmas Day still arrives that morning.
If the person is hard to pin down at home, send it to yourself and hand it over. The presentation box was made for that moment.
The occasion settles the details
The drinker still comes first.
Birthday
The bottle in its box, or the gift pack if they are just getting into rum. Hand it over yourself if you can.
Christmas
A bottle under the tree needs the box. The Christmas drinks guide covers what to pour with it on the day.
Father's Day
Most fathers will not buy themselves a good bottle. That is the case for buying one for him.
Weddings and leaving dos
A bottle each for the best man, the groomsmen or a departing colleague turns a thank-you into something they keep. One customer gave seven bottles to his best man and a group of close friends at his wedding, and wrote afterwards that it became a memory none of them will forget.
For twelve bottles or more, for a team, a mess or a wedding party, corporate and regimental orders go to one address at a per-bottle price, paid by invoice.
If the bottles are for clients or staff, corporate Christmas gifts covers the tax and VAT rules and how to choose for a mixed team.
For someone who served
Jerry Can Spirits was founded by two Royal Corps of Signals veterans, and 5% of profits goes to forces charities. For someone leaving the forces, or the family of someone serving, that is part of the gift.
Rum gifts by budget and recipient
Sips it neat or over one cube
- What to give
- A good bottle on its own
- Budget
- Under £50
- Where to look
- Rum gifts
Mixes long drinks or cocktails
- What to give
- The bottle with a highball and a jigger
- Budget
- Under £100
- Where to look
- Gift sets
New to rum
- What to give
- The gift pack: bottle, hiball, jigger and slate coaster, boxed
- Budget
- Under £100
- Where to look
- Gift sets
Already has a bottle they like
- What to give
- A glass, spirit stones, a jigger or a hip flask
- Budget
- Under £20
- Where to look
- Gifts under £20
Drinks dark or aged rum
- What to give
- An aged rum from a house they do not own, or a tasting set
- Budget
- Varies
- Where to look
- A specialist retailer, not us
You do not know their taste
- What to give
- A gift card, emailed on the day you choose
- Budget
- £25, £40, £75 or £100
- Where to look
- Gift card
A team, a mess or a wedding party
- What to give
- Twelve bottles or more at a per-bottle price
- Budget
- Quoted
- Where to look
- Corporate gifts
| Who it is for | What to give | Budget | Where to look |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sips it neat or over one cube | A good bottle on its own | Under £50 | Rum gifts |
| Mixes long drinks or cocktails | The bottle with a highball and a jigger | Under £100 | Gift sets |
| New to rum | The gift pack: bottle, hiball, jigger and slate coaster, boxed | Under £100 | Gift sets |
| Already has a bottle they like | A glass, spirit stones, a jigger or a hip flask | Under £20 | Gifts under £20 |
| Drinks dark or aged rum | An aged rum from a house they do not own, or a tasting set | Varies | A specialist retailer, not us |
| You do not know their taste | A gift card, emailed on the day you choose | £25, £40, £75 or £100 | Gift card |
| A team, a mess or a wedding party | Twelve bottles or more at a per-bottle price | Quoted | Corporate gifts |