Rum

Banana steals the flavoured rum spotlight

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Move over pineapple – when it comes to flavouring rums, banana is now the ‘à la mode’ choice. The tropical fruit, which had made an appearance previously in releases such as Hoxton Spirits’ Banana Rum and Banana Bomb spiced rum from Rockstar Spirits, came into its own last year with as establishe­d and fringe brands added banana-flavoured expression­s to their ranges.

Spiced rum brand RedLeg released its Banana Rum in September, the second flavoured expression in its range after its Pineapple Rum. To make the spirit, RedLeg’s original Spiced Rum (infused with vanilla and ginger) was infused with 100 per cent natural banana.

Ian Macleod Distillers revived a historical banana rum recipe through its Langs Rum brand last autumn. Distilled in pot and column stills, the rum is a blend of unaged and ex-Bourbon

American white oak cask-aged Jamaican rums infused with natural fruit flavour.

Colombian rum distiller La Hechicera turned to bananas for the second release in its Serie Experiment­al range of special-edition spirits. ‘The Banana Experiment’ contains a blend of rums aged for up to 21 years in American white oak barrels, which have been infused with organic banana flesh. It was released globally on a limited run of 15,000 bottles.

Meanwhile, UK-based Discarded Spirits Company looked beyond banana flesh to its skin – generally a waste product – to create its Discarded Banana Peel Infused Rum. The company sources banana peel from a flavour house that uses the fruit but discards the skins. The peel is then dried out and fermented before being steeped in alcohol. A final maturation takes place in ex-whisky casks.

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