Rum Tasting for Two in Miami: A Date Night Plan

If you're searching for a rum tasting for two in Miami, most of what turns up is a daytime walking tour or a ticketed festival. That's fine if you want a crowd. If you'd rather sit somewhere dark and quiet with the person across from you, three pours in front of each of you and a bartender explaining what's in the glass, the better move is to book a table at Kaona Room, our 45-seat tiki speakeasy hidden inside The Leinster in Edgewater, and order flights.

Here's how two people can turn our rum list into a proper tasting date without guessing.

How a rum tasting for two works at Kaona Room

Every rum flight on our menu is three pours, served with tasting notes and stories from the bartenders. There are three of them: the Caribbean Journey ($28) runs Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad, the Agricole Experience ($32) is rhum agricole from Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the Aged & Rare ($45) is premium 12, 15 and 21 year selections.

The trick for a couple is simple. Don't both order the same flight. Order two different ones, taste across, and swap. You get six rums on the table instead of three, and the conversation writes itself, because the two of you will almost never agree on which glass is the best one. That disagreement is half the fun. One of you will love the funky, high-ester Jamaican pour that tastes like overripe fruit, and the other will want the grassier, floral agricole that's distilled from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses.

Our pick for a first date night is the Caribbean Journey plus the Agricole Experience. Between them you cover five islands, two very different raw materials and both pot and column still styles. Save the Aged & Rare for later in the evening (more on that below).

Add a navy strength rum cocktail between flights

Sipping rum neat for two hours is a lot, even for the people who love it. A cocktail in the middle resets your palate and shows you what these spirits actually do when they have a job. If you want to keep the tasting theme going, go for the navy strength side of the menu, because those drinks are built to carry big, high-proof rum.

• Midnight Monsoon ($17): navy-strength rum, coconut, blue curacao, orgeat and citrus. Rich and tropical, with plenty of backbone under the coconut.
• Navy Grog ($16): a navy rum blend with honey, lime, grapefruit and allspice. Drier and spicier, and a good one to share if one of you doesn't love sweet drinks.
• Painkiller ($16): Pusser's Navy rum, coconut, pineapple, orange and fresh nutmeg. The easy-drinking one of the three.

Ordering two different cocktails and trading sips works here too. If you'd rather taste the house style, The Kaona ($20) is our signature rum cocktail, and you'll have to ask the bartender for the story behind it.

A small plate in the middle helps as well. The Coconut Shrimp ($16) comes with mango chutney, the Poke Bowl ($18) is fresh ahi tuna with avocado, seaweed, sesame and ponzu, and the Tropical Ceviche ($16) is catch of the day in coconut milk with citrus, chili and plantain chips. Splitting one between two flights is plenty.

A date night bar in Edgewater that ends on a nightcap

The room does a lot of the work. Bamboo, hand-carved tiki masks, warm amber light, a haze of dry ice and a jazz club feel make it the kind of place where two hours disappear without anyone checking a phone. We like to call it a two-hour vacation to paradise, and it plays well for a date because it's small. Forty-five seats means you can actually hear each other.

That's also why the Aged & Rare flight belongs at the end. Three long-aged rums tasted slowly are about as good a nightcap as Miami offers, and they make more sense once your palate has already learned what younger rum tastes like earlier in the night. Split it, take your time, and let the bartender walk you through what a decade or two in the barrel did to each one. If you're coming from dinner nearby or heading out after a show, this is the flight to come in for on its own.

Getting in is part of the evening. Kaona Room has no sign. The entrance is somewhere inside The Leinster at 1600 NE 1st Ave, and we can't tell you exactly where, because finding the door is the first chapter. Give yourselves a few extra minutes to work it out together.

Booking your table for two

We're open Wednesday through Saturday starting at 6PM. Walk-ins are welcome when space permits, but with only 45 seats there's no guarantee, so reserve ahead. Friday and Saturday regularly sell out, and we recommend booking at least 1-2 weeks in advance for those nights. Weeknights are usually available with a few days' notice, and honestly a Wednesday or Thursday is a lovely night for a slower, chattier tasting.

The dress code is smart casual, think tropical elegance. Hawaiian shirts are encouraged, and flip flops and athletic wear are not. Guests need to be 21 or older with a valid ID.

When you're ready, head to our reservations page, pick your date and a party of two, and you'll get an instant confirmation. Six rums, two cocktails, one door to find. We'll save you a seat at Kaona Room.