T.D.L

Angostura bitters began in 1824 as a medical tincture by the German doctor Johann Siegert in Venezuela, moving to Trinidad in 1875. For decades the company simply bought rum to make bitters, until it bought so much that building its own distillery made sense. That distillery, Trinidad Distillers, opened around 1949 and is now the island's only rum maker.

Because the distillery was built to feed bitters, there was never a reason for heavy pot-still rum. TDL went column from day one, making it the rare English-speaking island with a continental, Spanish-heritage style. Its German-built Gebr. Herrmann columns make a heavy rum off the stripping column alone and a near-neutral light rum off all five columns, then marry them. Molasses is imported, since Trinidad's last sugar factory closed in 2007.

The aged Angostura range runs from the 1919 (built on the old Fernandes vintage rum) up through the 7 Year and the extra-aged 1824. Yet the brand-name Angostura rum is only a sliver of output: most is local stuff like Forres Park, White Oak and Royal Oak that stays in Trinidad, plus large volumes of bulk rum for blenders worldwide.

Angostura aromatic bitters is a rum infusion, made in a single room of huge tanks. The botanicals, things like orange peel, gentian, cassia and cinnamon, arrive in colour-coded bags that even staff cannot identify, are milled beyond recognition, and steep in rum for hours. Trinidad customs does not inspect the shipments, the recipe is guarded like Coca-Cola, and the result is bottled at 44.7 percent. Around 3.5 million bottles leave each year.

On RumX the Angostura range is the accessible core, easy to find and reliable. The higher scores go to aged single-distillery Trinidad rum bottled by independents like Swell de Spirits and Spirit Gallery, which reach around 9/10. It is a gentler, cleaner profile than the island's other legend, the closed Caroni, but from the same Trinidad column tradition.