Mohan Meakin Distillery Old Monk Amber

Old Monk Amber comes from Mohan Meakin, one of India's oldest distilleries, and it is a column still molasses rum that trades heavily on nostalgia. There is no age statement, and the spirit sits squarely in the sweet, liqueur leaning corner of the rum world rather than the dry aged tradition.

The character is dominated by sweetness and a strongly synthetic, confected edge, with vanilla, caramel, milk chocolate and warm Christmas spice on a notably light frame. The added sugar and flavouring give it that artificial chocolate and coffee signature that defines the brand, so it reads more like a flavoured spirit than a classic aged rum. Honesty matters here, this is not a serious neat sipper, and it shows best the way generations have actually drunk it, lengthened with cola as a simple, sweet and undemanding mixed drink.