Bayou White Rum

Bayou White is the clear, unaged rum from Louisiana's Bayou distillery, distilled in a pot still from molasses and bottled at 40%. It is pitched as an affordable, fairly neutral blender, yet it keeps a little more personality than that brief suggests.

The nose offers sugarcane and cherry alongside a grassy edge and banana, and the palate stays soft and surprisingly mild with banana, sugarcane, vanilla and ginger, the finish turning light with a gingerbread note. Tasters pick up banana ice cream softening into vanilla, with grassiness emerging after some air, and note a touch of genuine funk for the price. It reads as an easygoing, gently sweet-tasting white with enough cane character to stay interesting. As a clean, value-minded mixing rum it does its work well, lending banana and vanilla softness to daiquiris and longer drinks without dominating.