Buy Takamaka

Takamaka began in 2002 when Richard and Bernard d’Offay and their father Robert set up the Trois Frères Distillery at La Plaine St. André, a restored estate held on a 50-year lease. Because Mahé has little flat land, cane comes from a cooperative of island smallholders rather than the distillery’s own fields. The brand carried the name Takamaka Bay for two decades before dropping “Bay” in 2020 with a label redesign, which is why both names turn up in collections.

Production splits two ways. A triple column still runs on imported Mauritius molasses for continuous volume aimed at cocktails and newcomers, while a pot still handles fresh Seychelles cane juice in smaller quantities. Takamaka avoids the word agricole for its cane-juice rums, since EU rules reserve the term for the French Caribbean, Madeira and Réunion.

The range is tiered. The Seychelles Series includes the Rum Blanc and the darker Dark Spiced; the St André Series holds Grankaz, Zepis Kreol, Pti Lakaz and Extra Noir; the Le Clos releases are cask-strength small batches, often under 800 bottles. Several St André blends are married with Foursquare rum, and reviewers routinely spot the Barbados markers — coconut, pineapple, caramel, toasted oak.

Tasting notes track the tier. The white and unaged cane rums lean mineral, grassy and floral, with spring-water freshness and a short finish. Pti Lakaz brings port-cask fruit, cocoa and coffee; Kreol Cask leans chocolate and gentle sweetness; Extra Noir turns on charred wood and vanilla. Zepis Kreol and Dark Spiced are spiced rums — cinnamon and pepper forward, best in rum and cola or a highball. People sip the aged St André blends neat and keep the whites and spiced bottles for mixing.