Buy Takamaka

Takamaka comes from the Seychelles, distilled at the Trois Frères Distillery on Mahé. The distillery runs two tracks: a small pot still working fresh local sugarcane juice, and a triple column still, added during the pandemic, that uses molasses shipped in from Mauritius. The column line keeps production steady and supplies the affordable and cocktail bottles, while the pot-still stocks sit in the middle and upper tiers.

The range covers the plain white Rum Blanc, the Extra Noir charred cask rum, the Dark Spiced, the Foursquare-blended PTI Lakaz (now in a Batch 2), the chocolatey Kreol Cask reserve, and the pricier Le Clos series finished in port, Pineau, ex-whisky and Palo Cortado casks. There are also independent releases, including a mineral, high-strength cane-juice rum bottled under Velier.

On flavor, the cane-juice bottles read fresh and vegetal, with grass, chalk, springwater minerality, tropical fruit and a herbal, faintly medicinal streak that some compare to mezcal. The molasses side runs sweeter, with vanilla, caramel, cinnamon and roasted wood. PTI Lakaz and Kreol Cask add cocoa, coffee, dried fruit and Barbados-style spice from the Foursquare component.

Most drinkers treat the white and the spiced as mixers: rum and cola with a slice of lime, ti-punch, daiquiri or a fruit-forward tiki. The PTI Lakaz, Kreol Cask and Le Clos bottles reward slow sipping, though several reviewers say they need time in the glass and a little water to open up. Common criticisms are hot alcohol, a thin body and short finishes on the cheaper releases.