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| Afrohead and One Drop Rums |
You can call it cask-finishing or barrel
finishing or secondary aging or whatever you like. But it’s no secret that using the barrels
that once held other spirits to give different personalities to rum is an
increasingly prominent trend in the rum world.
It’s one that remains best executed in Martinique, where distilleries
like Rhum Depaz and Rhum HSE continue to set the global standard for their
cask-finished rums.
And
while we’ve seen all kinds of finishes, from port to sherry to Highland whisky,
there’s one spirit that has not thus far given its personality to any rum:
tequila. But master blender Toby Tyler,
the man behind the celebrated Afrohead — and, more recently, the Jamaica by way
of Harbour Island Bahamas rum called One Drop, has pushed the
envelope again with a new expression finished in Tequila barrels.
It’s called, fittingly, “Cactus &
Cane.” It’s a limited edition One
Drop that takes seven-year-old Jamaican rum and sends it for nearly
eight months in ex-tequila barrels. It’s
a seriously robust rum, with the proof pushed to 102 and the result is, well,
something totally new in the rum world. So
what’s it like? The rum has a pale
golden color, with an aroma dominated by honey, anise and white pepper.
