Arcane Vanille des Îles

Arcane bottles rum from Mauritius, and this Vanille des Iles is a flavoured expression built on a column-still molasses base rather than the cane-juice agricole style, then infused and sweetened around vanilla. It sits at a soft 40%, made for easy, indulgent sipping.

Despite the vanilla billing, ripe banana tends to lead on both nose and palate, backed by nougat, syrup and a marzipan-tinged finish. The texture is thick and the sweetness pronounced, so this reads honestly as a sweet, dessert-style rum rather than a dry sipper. Taken on those terms it is a smooth, candied after-dinner glass or a sweet cocktail base, a long way from the grassy, vegetal snap of an unaged cane-juice blanc, and best enjoyed by those who actively want their rum sweet.