Perola Razel‘s Banana Bread Rum

Razel's Banana Bread is a flavoured, sweetened rum from the Perola stable, a molasses base built up into something that reads far more like dessert in a glass than a traditional rum. It makes no pretence of restraint, leaning into the gimmick wholeheartedly and bottling at a low, liqueur friendly 38.1%.

The aroma is exactly as billed, ripe banana wrapped in cream toffee, cookie dough and caramel, with a pastry sweetness that genuinely conjures a warm loaf. The palate is very sweet, banana and cookie dough cut with a little cinnamon, and even a hint of salt and walnut on the finish. There is real fruit character and the banana avoids tasting wholly artificial, but this is sugar led through and through, best poured over ice cream or treated as a sweet nightcap rather than judged as a dry sipping rum.