Rum available Duty Free

My boss will be travelling to the States in a few days for business and i've asked him if he could bring some rum back for me. He's not going to have time to go to any liquor stores but said he could bring me back something from Duty Free when he goes through L.A. Airport. Can anyone tell me what brands he might find at Duty Free? I'd really like something that is not available to me here. A couple of brands that i'm interested in are;

Kraken
Smith & Cross
Saint James
Zaya

Does anyone know if these are to be found? If not, what else is there? Please don't reply if you are going to say Bacardi. :)

If you REALLY want to know what they have the duty free number at LAX is listed as +1-310-348-2621.

Thanks for the advice rev thumper. I gave them a call and after being put on hold for about 5 minutes all she said they had was Bacardi Gold, Malibu and Captain Morgan, all rums I can get here and also am not interested in. I might just give my boss a list of rums NOT to buy and to get anything else he can find.

Wow... that's possibly the worst selection of rum imaginable!

I visited the US in September, and New Jersey Duty Free carried Ron Zacapa Solera Gran Reserva 23 yr old at approx $40 for a litre bottle...

Best bet is to tell him to buy you any Rum barring Bacardi that has a $40+ price tag.

On 2010-12-02 19:03, rev_thumper wrote:
Wow... that's possibly the worst selection of rum imaginable!

But oh so typical. With the addition of Myers's, pretty much the same selection as a Costco.

I seem to recall buying a 40 oz. of Coruba there...but maybe I'm confusing it with the Vegas Duty Free.

BTW: Coruba is availble here, but it was a far better price.

Duty free is largely a rip off. Unless you live in an expensive liquor market (such as one of the control states such as Ohio, Oregon Or Pennsylvania, or a super high tax state) you can buy most of the same selections for about the same price, sometimes less, at home. In Norther Kentucky, which is where those of us who live in southwestern Ohio shop for liquor, I can buy Zacapa 23 year for $39.99.The big multi-national liquor companies (Brown-Forman, Beam, Diageo etc) pretty much own the duty free market and they use the outlets to move their larger brands. There is some pay-for-play involved in getting distribution in the Duty free market, so you won't see small/artisanal players there for the most part.

[ Edited by: CincyTikiCraig 2010-12-03 21:38 ]

Craig this may be true in U.S. duty free stores, but you're not going to convince me the stop shopping at these places when they supply me with a few bottles of Cuban rum every time I come home from Europe or South America!

Craig this may be true in U.S. duty free stores, but you're not going to convince me the stop shopping at these places when they supply me with a few bottles of Cuban rum every time I come home from Europe or South America!

Craig, what you are saying might be true but I'm not sure you realise that the variety of brands available to me here in Australia is extremely limited. I would say that there is roughly maybe up to 10 brands that can be found in pretty much any bottle shop and then there are a few specialist stores that carry what you/I would call topshelf spirits, things like El Dorado, Flor De Cana, Pussers etc. but then they are very expensive.

I understand that we have a different cost of living, but at the moment the Aussie $ is nearly 1-1 to your greenback yet if you came here you would be paying $85 for the Ron Zacapa, Appletons VX is I think $45, Coruba is about $35, even crappy Bacardi white is $30.

I'm just hoping that my boss can find me something that I just cant get here, regardless of how much it might cost it's still going be a lot cheaper than what i'd pay if I went to one of the specialist stores and bought something good. There is only one store I know of that stocks El Dorado and the 12yo is about $120.

Sorry guys, I should have qualified my comment by saying that I was only referring to duty free stores located here in the States. Other nations obviously have their own distribution systems and suppliers, however the stores here in the States are largely a waste of time for those of us who living in the States. The same selections can be found at regular retail stores at similar or often better prices.

[ Edited by: CincyTikiCraig 2010-12-04 23:23 ]

From my limited experience, the difference between US and European duty free stores is that in Europe you can get Havana Club. Other than that it's the same old Bacardi and Captain Morgan. In Israel you can also find the 1L bottles of Myers and every now and then Cruzan and 2 years ago they carried Zacapa (for the 23 I paid $57, oh my...).

I skip the duty free altogether, find good local stores, ask for Styrofoam packaging and pack the goodies in the suitcase. If you can locate a store near your boss' hotel or something, maybe he'll agree to do the same for you?
good luck.