Blue Liquors Ltd. Blue Gold

Blue Gold comes from Mauritius under the Blue Mauritius brand, drawing on both molasses and sugar-cane juice for its base. Mauritian distillers cannot use the word agricole, and in any case this is not aiming for the dry, grassy cane style, it is an unabashedly soft, sweet, easygoing pour pitched at newcomers and dessert drinkers.

The nose runs to roasted hazelnut, honey, almond and caramelised sugar, and the palate follows with vanilla, caramel and ripe banana before a sweet, liqueur like finish edged with nuts. At 40% it is light and very approachable, and while the maturation details are not stated, the sweetness clearly does much of the flavour work rather than the cask alone. Treated honestly, it is a nutty, chocolatey, after-dinner style of rum, best enjoyed for what it is.