MHOBA Franky‘s Pineapple 2019

Mhoba distills in South Africa from fresh-pressed sugarcane juice, an agricole-style rum outside the French-island appellations. This Franky's Pineapple is a single cask where pineapple is added before distillation rather than sweetened in afterward, so despite the name it is not a syrupy flavoured liqueur. Bottled at 43 percent, it leans funky and dry.

Pot still distilled in Mhoba's intensely estery style, it opens on solvent and ester-driven funk before the pineapple emerges, with grilled pineapple, young wood and smoke on the palate over a sugarcane base. The finish is pineapple, wood, cane and light. The pineapple reads as a natural, grilled note woven through the funk rather than added sweetness, closer to a young high-ester Jamaican in spirit. A bold, experimental pour for drinkers who enjoy wild cane character, neat or in adventurous cocktails.