Takamaka Dark Spiced Rum 70cl (Packaging artwork may vary)

Product Information

While there are a couple of local bottlers, Takamaka is the only distillery on the island. The brand produces a mix of pot and column still rums, molasses- and sugarcane-based bottlings, and also boasts a unique ageing programme, numerous barrel cellars with variable climates – plus, the distillery works with 25 farmers to source its raw materials. Takamaka is produced at La Plaine St Andre on the East Coast of Mahe, Seychelles. The D’Offay brothers, Richard and Bernard set up the distillery almost 20 years ago and continue to operate what remains the only distillery in the country. Go visit the home of the famous Takamaka Rum through a tour and have your taste buds excited with flavours! Sokáig a Baka volt a Seychelle-szigeteki iváskultúra leghíresebb itala, azonban olyan erős volt, hogy pár kortya könnyen véget vethetett egy hangulatos bulinak. A készítéséhez -a korai mexikói tequila előállításához hasonlóan- erjesztett cukornádlevet használtak, és ezt a helyi közösségek még ma is előszeretettel fogyasztják. A Seychelle szigeteken korábban óriási népszerűségnek örvendett a helyi gyümölcsökből, zöldségekből és pálmaolajból finomítás nélkül készített ital, a fahéjból, vaníliából és fűszerekből álló Baka. A régi időkben a Baka volt a valuta ezeken a szigeteken, az embereket azonban sokszor annyira megviselték az intenzívebb ízek, az ital fogyasztói másnap nem tudtak aktív munkát végezni. Takamaka 2018 comes from 2 different casks with the below blending ratio. Producing 575L of this unique blend from a single batch of Seychelles Cane rum at 60.75% ABV.

The home of the famous Takamaka Rum company is located on La Plaine St. Andre in Seychelles. It was built in 1792 by Jean Franois Jorre, an estate that used to be a part of a plantation that included a copra kiln and a cinnamon and patchouli distillery. Today, the distillery is where the Takamaka team members find new ingredients and flavours to make their unique and authentic rum. White Overproof 69 Rum – Much higher than the standard 40% ABV, Takamaka 69 has an ABV of 69% and is best used in mixed drinks. 70CL/69% Habitation Velier exclusively bottle and promote pot distilled artisanal rums consistently offering unique expressions from both boutique and established distilleries. Richard and Bernard have developed their skill over the years via their own sense of curiosity and discovery, as well as the restrictions that come with Seychelles’ isolation. It has influenced how they mix and age their rum, shaped their community role, and shaped who they are today as individuals and as rum makers. Tasting notes for the 43% ABV expression include cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and quatre épices, with a hint of sweetness – ideal for long or short serves, or chilled over ice.Maybe Australia, Southeast Asia, as well,” notes Bernard. “Singapore is really cool, and Hong Kong.” The stills used had been installed 12 years ago and at the early stage of the businesses, Takamaka invested as much as they could afford – focusing on quality rather quantity. So by 2021 not only did they need larger stills - but these direct gas fired stills had naturally, over more than a decade, become rather thin. Therefore the decision to invest in new pots still had been made. The result - this unaged rum from their original cane stills will never be seen again.

A vállalat központja egy régi trópusi fűszerültetvényen, a La Plaine St. Andrén található, története az 1700-as évekre nyúlik vissza. A Takamaka rum elnevezése a Seychelle-szigeten lévő egyik öbölre utal, emellett így nevezik az egyik helyi fafajtát is, mely megjelent a Takamaka rum első kiadásának címkéin. Bernard and his father, Robert, acquired a book on home distillation in 2000 and set out on a mission to make “excellent” rum. Grandpappy René Michel d’Offay, Robert’s father, had sparked his grandchildren’s interest in rum manufacturing by producing the local Creole specialty, Rum Arrangé. Bernard’s father-in-law actually oversees the brand’s growing practices, in which sustainability plays a role thanks to a no-pesticides program, a policy of using bagasse (the waste from sugar cane) for animal feed, and providing large tanks for rainwater collection. Committing to ethical practice isn’t much a problem for Takamka, scaling up volume on the other hand is. Despite Takamaka almost single-handedly creating an industry for it, we’re still talking tiny numbers. Historically the distillery has never been able to produce more than 4,500 litres of finished cane rum in a year.

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Takamaka 2018 has all come from a unique batch produced in 2018 and aged for three years in Radoux French oak barrels in the tropical climate of the Seychelles. The rum is rich and flavourful, full bodied with notes of grapefruit, vine peach, hyacinth and beeswax on the palate. The nose is refined and complex at the same time, with highlights of freshly cut hay, nutmeg and guava. The unaged Takamaka White which is bottled at 56% has both finesse and power, delicate on the nose with notes of candied citrus fruits, tobacco and fresh ginger, with a long and creamy finish. It is rich and generous on the palate, with flavours of kirsh, star anise, lilac, bergamot and dried fruits. A short walk away is the state-of-the-art molasses distillery, filled with gleaming new tanks and stills. It’s more than 20x the output of the agricole distillery and will soon run 24/7. As there’s no molasses locally, grade A molasses from the rich soils of the Indian Ocean is shipped in. This is fermented in three 5,000-litre tanks with distillers yeast for about three days, then sent to an 8,000-litre beer tank along with the heads and tails from the previous batch to promote more esters. When I was at Takamaka’s home in June I saw first-hand how much renovation is taking place to create more Seychellois rum, with new stills and a boiler installed in the agricole distillery. This included a 1,000-litre wash still with a traditional copper condenser that has eight bubble plates that allow for an advanced rum separation, as well as a new 450-litre hybrid spirit still.

We see a lot of tourists and visitors coming to see the distillery on a daily basis, compared with three or four years ago – now we’re seeing 10 times more than what we had. It’s almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy; the more people that know about Takamaka, that see it available in a local shop, it all starts to snowball, like a flywheel effect. We seem to be on that trajectory now and it’s great,” Bernard adds. Zepis Kreol takes its lead from oak and local Seychelles spices. The blend of pot and column still rums, made from molasses, are pre-soaked with ex-Merlot French oak wood fines, then macerated with locally grown natural spices before being pressed. The liquid is then blended with eight-year-old Bajan Foursquare rum, before spending 60 days in very old ex-Bourbon casks.Nem a Takamaka volt az első rum a Seychelle-szigeteken: a brit haditengerészetnek köszönhetően a fűszeresen és édesen örvénylő prémium ital már a 16. században felbukkant ezen a vidéken. A 18. század végén és a 19. század elején virágzott itt a cukornádtermesztés, mert ekkoriban a Seychelle-en termő cukornád szolgált a ritkán idelátogató hajók ellátmányának kiegészítéseként. Később még nagyobb lendületet kapott az iparág: megélénkült a cukor iránti érdeklődés, a cukornád felhasználása fejlődésnek indult, és kialakult a Takamaka előtti legismertebb rumféleség, a Baka néven ismert erjesztett cukornádlé.