Arcane Rum

Liquor Wine Cave lists the Arcane range from Mauritius, including Cane Crush, Delicatissime, Extraroma, Flamboyance and the Arrange bottlings in banana, pineapple and vanilla.

Arcane is made the agricole way, from freshly pressed sugarcane juice rather than from molasses, and that is the whole difference in the glass. Molasses rum is distilled from what is left once the sugar has been crystallised out, and it leans towards toffee and dried fruit. Cane juice rum is distilled from the juice itself and keeps a green, grassy, faintly saline edge that most people notice on the first sip.

The range is short and easy to read. Cane Crush is the white, unaged, and the one that shows raw cane character. Delicatissime is the young gold. Extraroma is aged by the solera method in French and American oak, which is where its vanilla and soft spice come from. Flamboyance spends at least twelve months in Mauritian cherry wood, which is unusual and worth tasting beside a conventionally aged rum. The Arrange bottlings are infused rums, steeped with banana, pineapple or vanilla, and are a different proposition again.

This page also carries the Generous Gin bottlings and Turquoise Bay.

If you are arriving from Martinique agricole, the comparison is the interesting part. The white rum and dark rum pages sort the wider rum range by style.

History

The Dutch brought sugarcane to Mauritius in 1639, and for most of the island's history the cane went to sugar first and spirit second. What was distilled was arrack, and later rum, made from molasses, the syrup left behind once the sugar has been crystallised out.

Cane juice rum is a recent arrival on the island, and not by choice. Distilling alcohol from sugarcane juice was prohibited in Mauritius for many years, because juice sent to a still is juice not sent to the sugar mill. The ban was lifted in 2006. Every agricole style rum Mauritius now makes dates from after that, which is why the island's cane juice rums are a young category even though the cane has been there for close to four centuries.

Arcane belongs to that generation. The house works in the agricole style, fermenting and distilling pressed cane juice rather than buying in molasses, and it has built its range around what different woods do to a light cane spirit: French and American oak in the solera for Extraroma, Mauritian cherry wood for Flamboyance.

Mauritius sits well outside the Caribbean map most rum drinkers carry in their head, which is exactly why it is worth the detour. Set it against French Caribbean agricole and the difference in cane and climate shows up straight away.

How to drink it

Arcane rum is served the way agricole rum generally is, cold, in a small glass, with very little standing between you and the cane. Cane Crush is the mixing bottle. It makes a proper Ti Punch, which is lime, a little cane syrup and white rum, stirred in the glass and served without ice or over one large cube. It is also a sharper, greener Daiquiri base than a molasses rum.

Delicatissime and Extraroma are the sipping end. Room temperature, tulip glass, nothing added. Extraroma carries enough oak to sit after dinner the way an aged Caribbean rum does.

Flamboyance is the one to pour for someone who thinks they know rum. Set it beside a bourbon cask aged rum of similar age and the cherry wood is unmistakable.

The Arrange bottlings are already sweetened and flavoured, so treat them as liqueurs rather than as rum. Over ice, in a highball with soda, or as a small pour after a meal. They also stand in for a fruit liqueur in a simple mixed drink.

At the table, cane juice rum handles grilled pineapple, coconut, mango and anything with lime. It does far better with dessert than with a main course.

More from this origin and style:

Beach House · Barbancourt · Dark Rum