Clément Créole Shrubb

Clément is a three hundred year old Martinique estate, and the Créole Shrubb is its take on a Caribbean tradition, an orange liqueur made by macerating bitter orange peel and warm spices in aged rhum agricole. It is not a dry sipping rum and never pretends to be, so the honest read is a dessert and cocktail bottle rather than a neat pour.

The base is fresh cane juice spirit distilled on a creole column, which gives the sweetness a green, grassy lift that ordinary triple sec lacks. The nose is all candied and fresh orange with sugar and a schnapps lift, the palate runs orange and bitter peel over a syrupy body, and the finish stays citrus sweet with a twist of lemon zest. It earns its keep lifting a Mai Tai, a Margarita or a dessert serve, where the agricole soul shows through the orange.