Kinship Spirits Co. Elephantom African Dark Rum (The Mystical One)

Elephantom, the Mystical One, is a South African bottled dark rum from Kinship Spirits, and its most distinctive feature is the tequila cask used in maturation, which leaves an unmistakable agave fingerprint. Bottled at 43%, it sits in a genuinely unusual corner of the rum world.

The nose mixes caramel, vanilla and a clear mezcal note with a spirity lift, while the palate brings brown sugar, smoke and caramel ahead of a finish of brown sugar, leather and a vegetal, woody edge. The exact origin of the rum itself is kept vague, and tasters are candid that it leans toward sugar and alcohol with a character better suited to mixing than to contemplative sipping. Approached honestly as an offbeat, smoky, agave-tinged curiosity, it is worth a try, and it earns its keep in cocktails where that mezcal-like twist can do something interesting.