Plantation Stiggins‘ Fancy Pineapple Rum

Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple is one of Maison Ferrand's genuine signature items, a recreation of a Victorian pineapple rum developed with cocktail historian David Wondrich. The base is a blend of pot and column Caribbean rum, infused with Queen Victoria pineapple, the fruit's flesh and rind handled separately before being married back together, a real-fruit method rather than a synthetic flavouring.

The result is bright and tropical: ripe pineapple to the fore, with sweet fruit, vanilla and caramel beneath and pineapple carrying the finish. It is a sweetened, flavoured rum and an honest listing should say so, built for fun rather than for quiet contemplation. Where it excels is in cocktails, a tiki workhorse and a summer mixer that brings genuine pineapple character to a daiquiri, a punch or a tall drink. It is not a complex sipper and does not pretend to be; as a flavourful, cult-favourite cocktail rum with real provenance behind it, it stands apart from the usual flavoured shelf.