Rum To Help Ease The Tax Pain

Novo Fogo cachaça begins with freshly cut, certified-organic, estate-grown sugarcane that is crushed within 24 hours of harvest and immediately fermented for no more than 18 hours. The Tanager (Portuguese for "little bird") is an expression that is aged in two different types of barrels. First, it is aged one year in Four Roses bourbon barrels that have been disassembled, sanded out and lightly re-toasted. Then that distillate is finished for 2 to 3 months in arariba (Brazilian zebra-wood), which imparts its red color.

This Barrel-Aged Cachaça is made from certified organic sugarcane that is crushed within 24 hours of harvest at the Novo Fogo estate in Morretes, Paraná. It is fermented over 18 hours, distilled once in copper pot stills and aged for 2 - 3 years in Four Roses bourbon barrels that have been taken apart, sanded and lightly re-toasted. Fun fact: The distillery is built into a hill so that gravity naturally lets the cachaça travel from fermentation to distillation to barreling to bottling.

Novo Fogo Chameleon is an ode to one of the most beloved creatures of the Brazilian rainforest, for which Novo Fogo's zero-waste facility is deeply committed. Their cachaça is aged for one year in Four Roses bourbon barrels that have been disassembled, sanded out and lightly re-toasted. The cachaça is bottled without filtration.

Named for a character in Charles Dickens’ “The Pickwick Papers,” the Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy Rum began as a one-off collaboration between Alexandre Gabriel and cocktail historian David Wondrich. The demand was strong enough that Plantation made it a proper release. Pineapple rinds are infused with their Plantation 3 Stars Rum for one week, then pot distilled. The fruit is separately steeped in Plantation Original Dark Rum for three months. The two liquids are blended and the resulting Pineapple Rum is rested in casks for three months before bottling.

Plantation Barbados 5 Year Rum is a blend of pot still and column still Bajan rums that are aged in bourbon casks for 3-4 years in the Caribbean. The blend is then finished in French oak casks at Maison Ferrand’s Château de Bonbonnet in the heart of the Grande Champagne district for 1-2 years more. Note: Formerly called Plantation Grande Reserve 5 Year.

Zaya Gran Reserva was previously made in Guatemala but is now produced in Trinidad & Tobago. This product formerly had an age statement of 12 years, but now the bottle simply has the number "12" displayed on its bottles. That number is to indicate that Zaya Gran Reserva is made from a blend of 12 rums which aged in medium-charred used whiskey barrels.

Domaine de l’Acajou on Martinique was purchased in the late 1880s by Homère Clément, who sought to produce rhum agricole after learning distillation techniques from brandy estates in France. Clément VSOP Rhum Agricole is distilled from fresh sugarcane juice in a single-column copper pot-still. It's aged a minimum of 4 years in a combination of new French Limousin oak and re-charred ex-bourbon casks.

Ron Abuelo is produced at Panama's Varela Hermanos S.A. distillery in Pesé. 12 Años is selected from rums aged in ex-bourbon and white oak barrels, which benefit from the effects of the tropical heat. It should be noted that the distillery was the first in Panama to stop the practice of burning sugarcane fields before harvest and are committed to other green/eco-friendly initiatives.

This is the Venezuelan distillery’s flagship rum, called “exclusiva” as a tribute to their 18th century founder Don Juancho Nieto Meléndez, who was always in search of exclusive flavors for his rums. It’s a blend of 12 year old copper pot-still rums made from both molasses and sugarcane honey, aged in ex-bourbon barrels.

The Netherlands has a long history of distillation, dating back to the 1600s. In addition to the big names like Bols, craft distilleries such as Zuidam crank out an extraordinarily large number of spirits while retaining a reputation for quality. Master Distiller Patrick van Zuidam is considered one of world’s top distillers. The Flying Dutchman No. 3 is aged for at least three years in a combination of new American oak, first-fill Oloroso sherry, and first-fill Pedro Ximénez sherry barrels. Note: This is not currently available in the U.S.