Equiano Original Dark Rum
Origin: Mauritius/Barbados / 43% / Price: 50€
Ian Burell, in cooperation with Richard Seale, launched the exciting new rum brand Equiano in 2019, a blend of molasses rums from Mauritius (Gray's Distillery) near Africa and Barbados (Foursquare). The former is aged for 10 years in ex-cognac casks and French oak barrels, the Barbados part for 8 years, married subsequently in bourbon casks.
So far there are two qualities, the one aged for 8-10 years and a light variant, from which I heard so far also only good things concerning Daiquiris & more, both without additives, chill filtration, etc.
For me, the rum is characterized by a very unique composition of notes, the focus here being the mixture of a quite unique fruitiness in the direction of dried pineapple chips and candied banana chips (but quite different to Jamaican rums for example), but also sultanas and dates, as well as a full body with toasted oak and burnt toffee.
The name of the project comes from Olaudah Equiano, I don't want to unfairly summarize his extremely fascinating history here and just highly recommend reading through the Wikipedia article about him and when you get a chance other sources as well, it's well worth it!
By the way, Equiano supports the oldest human rights organization in the world with their products, Anti-Slavery International.
Nose:
Burnt crème brûlée, toasted oak, glazed banana, pineapple chips, sweet grass, coconut flakes, subtle rice note, some oiled leather.
Taste:
Toasted virgin oak, banana chips, coconut flakes, almonds, sultanas, toffee slightly burnt, in the last third also the pineapple comes back, some ginger, camphor, linseed.
Finish:
Ginger and toffee, touch of eucalyptus, grasses, sugar cane, medium length, peach and pineapple chips, more sultanas.
The bottle was provided to me for the Equiano Narrative Cocktail Competition 2022.
