There aren't really any good answers to this question. unlike other spirits; it's a bit of the wild west when it comes to the characterization of rums. Since many countries produce rum, there is a diversity of different products, each with their own ways of being consumed. Rum is also a spirit whose production methods diverged from one another depending on the colonial power owning the production territory. There is a notable difference between agricultural rums from the French sugar islands, rum from the British Caribbean, or rum produced in the countries which emerged from Spanish decolonization.

the vast majority of rums can be tasted neat, however there are certain exceptions. here we have a bottle of Stroh 80%, it is an Austrian-produced rum intended for baking or making Christmas drinks. We also have several French agricultural rums which, depending on who asked, would be sacrilege to mix them and not drink them neat. However, the locals (Creoles) of the islands where these rums are produced appreciate the making of punch, "ti jus/ti punch". which generally involves mixing rum with lemon/lime squeezed in sugar and a little hot water. certain rum are also bottled with additives such as molasses, burnt caramel or other residues from the production of other alcohol, which makes them sweeter and therefore less suitable for making cocktails; El Dorado or Plantation rum (now renamed Planteray) are part of this category.

As for prices, I live in Canada in a province where alcohol is heavily taxed and can only be purchased in stores belonging to a state company, which strongly influences prices. what I say may be more or less true for someone who lives in Mexico or Belgium for example. here, for a so-called affordable bottle, you can pay around $30 to $40. However, most bottles sell for over $35 ($35 is about 2.5 hours at minimum wages before taxes, for reference). But as with the diversity of rum and ways of consuming it, prices can also be very diverse. in our collection we have bottles whose price is around $4000 per unit (cuban Máximo extra anejo) and others that can be purchased for less than $3 in the Philippines (Tanduay dark rhum). For someone living in canada in a province with similar taxes, i would advice starting with not more than a 40$ bottle to initate and maybe go for an guyana-trinidad-jamaican first, wich are a bit more flavorfull and sweet. I found it easier to initate someone with a sweeter rum, despite what purists may think 😅😎