THE SPIRITS OF ALOHA
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As if we needed another reason to love Hawaii, the Maui Rum company has come up with two new world-class rums. They’re hand-crafted by a gentleman named Braddah Kimo, who built his own distillery on the slope of Mount Haleakala. Output is limited — not only so Kimo can hit the beach when the surf’s up, but so he can personally monitor every small batch of rum before it’s bottled.
The result, in the case of Maui Gold rum, is an artisanal spirit that can hold its own against any of the great aged sipping rums of the Caribbean. Many of those rums excel in a generic way, hitting the same notes of honey and oak. But Maui Gold is a unique, polyphonic symphony of tastes: lychee, mango, brown sugar, orange, and cashew all converge harmonically in a delicate balance, with a cognac-like consistency that had the Bum re-filling his snifter until his elbow hurt.
There’s been nothing out of Hawaii like Kimo’s white rum, Maui Platinum, since the late lamented Leilani Rum of the 1970s. Upon decanting, Maui Platinum has a harsh, grappa-like nose, but let it sit a spell and you’ll find it to be a rich elixir redolent of pure cane sugar, smooth enough to drink straight. It easily surpasses the other two noteworthy white rums on the current market, Havana Club Silver and Flor De Caña Extra Dry.