Mabi Kenet

Mabi bottles rhum arrange in Guadeloupe, macerating ingredients in rum, and this Kenet is an unusual one, carrying a savoury, herbal character alongside the expected sweetness. Built on a cane-juice base distilled on a column still, it is a flavoured, sweetened spirit and a distinctly offbeat example of the style.

The nose is the surprise, coriander, vegetal and herbal notes with a tomato edge, before the palate turns syrupy and sweet with cherry and red fruit, closing on sugar and red fruit. It makes for a polarising, hard-to-place profile rather than a straightforward fruit arrange. At 34% it is soft and openly sweet. This is a curiosity for adventurous drinkers, an arrange that ventures into savoury, herbal territory before landing on sweet red fruit, honest about its sweetness and unusual enough to divide opinion. One to try chilled, with an open mind.