Chalong Bay Distillery Infused Kaffir Lime 2016

Chalong Bay Infused Kaffir Lime is made on Phuket from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice, the agricole approach rather than molasses, distilled in a copper pot still and then infused with local kaffir lime. Bottled at 40% from a 2016 cane harvest, it pairs Thai botanicals with a grassy cane-juice base.

The lime is front and centre, an obviously citrusy nose lifted off a sweet, fresh cane background with a faint medicinal edge, and the palate stays sweet and lime-soaked over floral, fruity, agricole-style notes before a short finish that turns earthy and a touch bitter. The cane-juice character gives it that vegetal freshness and snap typical of the style, here flavoured rather than left pure, so it is openly an infused rum and reads as such. Some find the lime fresh and others find it leans simple, but as a building block it shines in a Ti Punch or a citrus-forward cocktail where its kaffir lift can lead.