By The Dutch Batavia Arrack White

By The Dutch bottles this white Batavia Arrack, the historic Indonesian cane spirit fermented with local red rice and distilled from molasses, here finished in tequila casks and bottled unsweetened at 48%. It sits in the same broad cane-spirit family as agricole and cachaca but with its own arrack identity, and this white expression keeps all of that funk intact.

The nose is unmistakably arrack, funky and fresh with sugar-cane and a wild edge. The palate is full-bodied and vegetal with a mezcal-like smokiness, and the finish stays vegetal and fresh with a salty, faintly iodine note. With no added sugar it is dry, earthy and grassy, closer to a characterful mezcal than to a sweet sipper. It rewards the curious neat, but really comes alive in a sour, a tiki drink or a classic arrack punch, where its wild personality has room to shine.