Don Papa Baroko

Don Papa Baroko comes from the Bleeding Heart Rum Company on Negros Island in the Philippines, the sugar-growing heart of the country. It is a molasses rum made on a column still, the configuration that gives a light, clean spirit where flavour comes mainly from the cask and from what is added afterward rather than from the distillate itself.

The character is sweet and confected: vanilla, caramel and candied orange leading into a soft, spiced finish. This is a sweetened spirit and an honest description has to say so, reading more like a dessert pour or a base for cola and long drinks than a dry sipping rum. For drinkers who enjoy that vanilla and orange sweetness it can be a fun, undemanding bottle; those already drawn to drier, more savoury rums will likely find it cloying. Served over ice or in a sweet cocktail is where it sits most comfortably.