Creating rum is, in theory, relatively simple. Sugar cane based product is fermented with yeast to produce alcohol, which is put through a still. Creating good rum however, is an altogether more challenging proposition. The devil, as they say, is most definitely in the detail. We take aberrant care to passionately craft a distillate that is rich and interesting, even before it is enhanced by our botanicals.

Our pursuit of perfect flavour begins with molasses; a thick, dark, delightfully messy product of the sugar refining process. Conveniently, we don’t have to go far to source ours, the historic sugar works at Chelsea on Auckland’s North Shore is a short trip from the distillery and it is here we choose their finest, food grade molasses. The warm, earthy, soft liquorice flavour is a far cry better than the bitter alternative used for cattle fodder, albeit a far cry more expensive. This provides us with the ideal base from which to conjure our spirit.

Fermentation is not just simply the creation of alcohol from sugar by yeast. The microscopic, single-cell beasties are also responsible for much of the flavour that materialises in the final spirit and as such, need to be treated with love, care, and attention to coax out those precious compounds. We spent years collaborating and experimenting before choosing the specific strain that satisfied, and produced the delectable profile we coveted.

“Our pursuit of perfect flavour begins with molasses”

After our prolonged process of fermentation, once the yeast has worked its wondrous magic, we shift the now alcoholic wash over to our hand beaten, copper-pot still for the next stage of the liquid’s transformation. In order to retain much of the flavour created thus far, we choose to distill the rum in a single, very slow pass. This requires a patient and skilled hand to eke out only the sweetest ethanol and most desirable flavours. The result is an intriguing distillate of great substance and depth.

The sane would stop there, content on having made an exemplary rum in traditional style. Alas, not us. For reasons best known only unto ourselves, we’ve decided to introduce an entirely new lexicon of aroma and tastes into our beloved spirit, through an entirely mad method.

The lucidity behind the lunacy is as follows; A second distillation whereby meticulously selected herbs, spices and roots marry into the liquid, through a complex technique of vapour infusion. Like a spectacle of spectre, the souls from the ingredients rise from their earthly bodies in a heavenly mist of vaporised flavour and aromatics. The delectable purities are then infused through our spirit - thus creating an almost completely new category; Botanical Rum.