Thomas Sontheimer T.Sonthi Plum Cake Edition (Ron Zuarin)

T.Sonthi Plum Cake Edition is a heavily flavoured rum from Thomas Sontheimer, built on a Caribbean Ron Zuarin base and bottled at 40%. It is honest about its ambitions in the name alone, this is a dessert in a bottle rather than a rum for neat, unhurried sipping.

The profile is dominated by sweetness from start to finish. The nose offers plum, honey and caramel, the palate turns syrupy and intensely sweet with more plum and honey, and the finish carries prunes, candied fruit and burnt sugar. There is no pretending this is a dry or subtle spirit, the sweetness and added flavour are front and centre throughout. Understood as a sweet, plum forward novelty, perhaps poured over dessert or used to sweeten a cocktail, it serves that narrow purpose, but it sits closer to a liqueur than to an aged sipping rum.