Bacardi Facundo Neo

Facundo Neo sits in Bacardi's upmarket Facundo range, an eight year Puerto Rican rum drawn from ex bourbon casks and bottled at 40%. Where light Spanish style rum is usually clean and soft, this one takes a markedly more unusual turn, trading easy sweetness for smoke and spice.

The nose is smoky and solvent led, with black pepper and a medicinal edge that surprises. The palate carries that pepper and medicinal note alongside brown sugar and lemon, finishing on toffee, more black pepper, frankincense and smoke. It is a polarising, characterful pour, drier and stranger than its Carta Blanca relatives, of interest to drinkers who want a Puerto Rican rum with an unexpected smoky, peppery streak rather than a smooth crowd pleaser.