Naga Pearl Of Jakarta Triple Wood

Naga Pearl of Jakarta is an Indonesian molasses rum in the arrack-influenced idiom, here given a triple-wood treatment and a short maturation in ex-bourbon oak. It is openly sweetened, so it belongs with the dessert-style rums rather than the dry aged sippers, an exotic and unusual bottle more than a serious one.

Column distillation keeps the base light, and the added sugar pushes it firmly toward confection, honey, brown sugar, cherry and vanilla with a soft, almost fruit-liqueur texture and a little spice on the close. At 42.7% it is gentle and easy to drink, the sweetness doing most of the work. For anyone who enjoys the honeyed, rounded end of the rum spectrum it offers that comfort with an arrack twist, but it makes no pretence of being dry or austere.