Labourdonnais Fusion Coffee-Vanilla

Labourdonnais Fusion Coffee-Vanilla is a flavoured rum from Labourdonnais in Mauritius, built on a sugar-cane juice base and infused with coffee and vanilla. This is openly a flavoured product rather than a dry agricole-style spirit, and it should be judged as such, a coffee-and-vanilla creation rather than a showcase of cane character.

The nose leads with coffee, spice and a nutty note, and the palate doubles down on coffee and dark chocolate with the cane base faintly visible underneath. The added flavouring dominates, and reactions to it are mixed, with the coffee-and-vanilla combination not landing cleanly for everyone. At a soft 37.5% it is gentle and sweet-leaning. Drinkers after the grassy, vegetal snap of Mauritian cane juice will not find it here, but as a coffee-forward flavoured rum for dessert pairings or a sweet after-dinner pour, it sits in clearly defined novelty territory.