Rum may be the ultimate summer spirit, most often made in tropical climes and ready to mix into Daiquiris, Piña Coladas, Tiki drinks and a wide range of other delightful cooling cocktails meant for sipping beachside or poolside.

This summer, rum producers are getting particularly creative. Some, such as Appleton Estate and Mount Gay, are giving their packaging and/or the liquid inside the bottles a makeover. Others are experimenting with elaborate cask finishes to give rum a new spin; consider Grander’s unusual rye finish, intended to dazzle with spicy sizzle, or Foursquare’s Sagacity, which uses ex-Madeira casks to add layers of cocoa and dried fruit.

Sometimes, it’s all about the unusual. Holmes Cay sourced a Guyana rum distilled in a 300-year-old pot still, while Colorado craft distillery Montanya built a special-edition Valentia rum made end-to-end by a team of talented women, from distillation clear through to the bottling line.

But don’t lose sight of those summer cocktails. Diageo’s Captain Morgan certainly didn’t. In fact, it released a boundary-pushing, cocktail-ready spiced rum flavored with orange and vanilla that’s only here for the summer months. Lest anyone forget the connection between summer, sun and rum, follow the producer’s suggestion to blend the rum with ice and OJ into a boozy slushie—arguably the most summery cocktail of all.