Don Papa Rum

Don Papa Rum is the seven year old core bottling from the Bleeding Heart Rum Company on Negros Island in the Philippines. It is a molasses rum distilled on a column still, a setup that yields a light, clean spirit, with the cask and post-distillation additions shaping most of what reaches the glass rather than the distillate.

The character is sweet and candied: vanilla, caramel and orange peel running into a soft finish. This is a sweetened spirit and tastes distinctly of it, drinking more like a boozy orange and vanilla liqueur than a dry, savoury rum, which is both why beginners take to it and why drier palates tend not to. It works best over ice or in a sweet cocktail rather than as a contemplative neat pour. For anyone moving toward characterful, unsweetened rum it will read as confected; for those who enjoy that liqueur-like sweetness it is an easy, approachable bottle that has drawn many people into rum for the first time.