Santiago de Carta Blanca

Santiago de Cuba Carta Blanca is a young Cuban white ron, a molasses spirit distilled on a column still and given three years in ex-bourbon casks before being brought back toward a clean, light profile in the island's ron ligero tradition. It is bottled at 38% and built primarily as a cocktail base.

Despite its lightness it shows more than pure neutrality: the nose offers pecan, lychee and coffee, with a fresh palate of roasted nuts, caramel and grape and a finish carrying citrus, a little salinity, tobacco and a juniper-like lift. Those touches give it a pleasant, faintly nutty character for an unaged-leaning white, though it stays clean and easy rather than deep. It is at its best where a white rum belongs, in a daiquiri or a Cuba Libre, where its crispness and light nuttiness add a little interest. Taken neat it is agreeable but slight, very much a mixer first.