There’s a familiar pattern that kicks in every Australian winter: the minute temperatures dip below 20ºC, everyone suddenly decides they’re a whisky connoisseur making a rather predictable beeline for the nearest speakeasy in the CBD. As the bar lights dim and the “roaring fireplace” screensavers load, out come the Old Fashioneds and the single malts.
Rum, meanwhile, remains trapped in holiday mode, filed away somewhere between beach resorts, frozen cocktails, and perky paper umbrellas. It means we’re resigned to overlooking both a brilliant winter drink, and a category that offers far better value than most realise. A daiquiri in winter? Hear me out.
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As Jordan Blackman, Beverage Manager at Odd Culture Group – the Sydney hospitality collective behind neighbourhood icons like The Old Fitz, Pleasure Club, and the more recently opened Razz Room – points out, the classic daiquiri is actually far more sophisticated than its reputation suggests.
“It’s a bartender’s litmus test,” he says. “Three ingredients – rum, lime, sugar – and nowhere to hide.”
Not unlike a martini, it reveals instantly whether a venue knows what it’s doing. And here's the part most people get wrong: the humble daiquiri actually holds up better in winter.
“Fresh lime is make or break,” says Blackman. “It’s non-negotiable. Bottled juice will ruin whatever you're making.”
Well, it just so happens Australian limes peak between May and September, meaning the colder months produce sweeter, juicier, and more aromatic fruit. My point? The daiquiri doesn't belong to warm weather. We just mistakenly assumed that it did.
Razz Room takes that idea and pushes it further, with the Dirty Daiquiri, one of the venue’s signatures, folding olive brine and mezcal into the classic build to create something salty, savoury, and pleasantly smoky – all without losing the brightness that makes the drink work in the first place.
Meanwhile, the house version layers pandan, banana leaf, and banana peel through rum for something nuttier, more aromatic, and slightly funkier. For punters looking for something with more depth and structure through Sydney’s darker winter months, you can’t beat Razz Room’s unique approach to season-defying cocktails.
That broader shift towards darker, smokier, and more savoury builds is part of the reason rum suddenly makes a lot more sense in winter than people give it credit for. Bars have spent years “winterising” traditionally lighter cocktails through spice, oak, salinity, and richer spirits — rum just happens to be particularly good at it.
If you’re making daiquiris at home this winter, Blackman recommends moving away from ultra-light styles and into darker Jamaican rums. Something like Appleton Estate, for example, brings more body, warmth, and tropical funk.
Which brings me neatly to the value proposition.
Rum remains one of the few spirit categories where you can still buy something genuinely impressive off the shelf without immediately heading into triple-digit territory. “The difference in quality [versus aged single malt whisky] is absurd,” Blackman says. “At the same price point, rum just majorly overdelivers.”
Whisky carries a default reverence. Mezcal is framed as artisanal. Tequila has had its luxury glow-up. Rum hasn't had that reset. When looking at comparable price points, it consistently delivers more complexity, more character, more range. Few spirit categories still offer that kind of value-to-quality ratio.
This gap is most obvious closer to home. “Red Mill in White Bay is a great example of not just a resurgence, but a revitalisation of rum,” Blackman says. “The quality of what they’re putting out is insane.”
The Sydney producer’s Sami-Odi cask release – aged in a barrel that previously held cult Barossa shiraz for almost six years – was recently named Nick Ryan’s 2025 Spirit of the Year in The Australian. If this were whisky, there’d be a waitlist long before release. Instead, you can still buy a bottle online.
In short, the Old Fashioned isn't going anywhere. It just doesn't need the whole season to itself. So, why not try something new this winter?
