Pineapple and Rum. Google those three words and in just 0.28 seconds, you're given over 3.3 million links that you can click to. Most of these links will take you to cocktail recipes made with pineapple and rum ( this one is incredibly easy and delicious looking!), while other links will take you to pineapple flavored rums from brands such as Malibu and Captain Morgan. Interestingly enough, mention of the rum that you see in the above photo, i.e. Plantation Pineapple Rum Stiggins' Fancy, doesn't show up until you hit page 5 of the search results. The name of this rum is a little odd, but if you break it down word by word, it all starts to make a bit of sense...
- Plantation - a rum brand owned by Maison Ferrand of France. They produce rum in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guatemala, Panama, Grenada, Guyana, and Nicaragua.
- Pineapple Rum - In a recent New York Times article, one of the men that helped to develop this libation, i.e. David Wondrich, had the following to say about pineapple rum...
It was a thing distillers used to do. It was done in the islands. They'd soak pineapple in the barrel; it gave the rum a sweetness and richness. It was not wildly popular, but you'd see it.
- Stiggins' Fancy - According to the aforementioned New York Times article, Stiggins refers to "Reverend Stiggins, an ecclesiastical hypocrite from "The Pickwick Papers" who preached temperance between nips of his beloved pineapple rum".
Did you get all that? Great! Let's move on...
Before we get to our review, below is a video from the makers of this concoction, Maison Ferrand:
And here are our impressions...
- Appearance: "And then there's copper...", or in this case, burnished copper. It's the only color we like when it comes to rum.
- ABV: 40%
- Aroma
- Limpd: Rubber gloves. Grilled pineapple. Cane sugar. Bananas.
- G-LO: Wow! Those are some funky smells wafting up into my olfactory. Imagine a spear of perfectly ripe pineapple. Coat it in brown sugar and sprinkle it with cinnamon. Let it sit for awhile. Now grill it slowly over some hot coals (be careful not to burn the sugar!). When it's all caramelized and delicious looking, take it off the fire and drizzle it with some dark rum. That's what it smells like.
- Taste
- Limpd: A bit off at first, then a lot of syrupy sugars, pineapple, and banana. At the end, I get some butter rum accompanied by some heat in a longish finish.
- G-LO: Ohhhh! This is like a cocktail in a glass. At the onset, there's a big hit of ripe banana followed by some dark brown sugar and that grilled pineapple goodness. Lots of vanilla and more pineapple in the middle with a dash of cinnamon. The finish isn't very long, but what's there is lightly sweet with a touch of spice and some pineapple in the aftertaste.
The Verdict
- Limpd: Not a run-of-the-mill rum for sure. While I didn't like it as much as G-LO, there is no denying that the introduction of pineapple and the use of light and dark rum makes for a really interesting beverage. Overall, Stiggin's Fancy Rum is very well crafted and definitely worth trying.
- G-LO: Once again, I've found yet another rum that I can get really hooked on. Love all the layered flavors in this. While I really enjoyed it as-is, I am super curious to see what it would be like in a cocktail. I'm thinking a Rum Sour with simple syrup, lime juice, muddled mint, and an egg white.
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Categories: Booze Review, Plantation Rum
Tagged as: booze, Boozeography, David Wondrich, Drinkwire, Liquor, Plantation Pineapple Rum Stiggins' Fancy, Plantation Rum, Review, Reviews, Rhum, Rum, Spirits
