Lafcadio Botanical Rum

About Lafcadio Botanical Rum 

Distilled in the heart of New Orleans. Steeped in the culinary culture of the Big Easy. This is a rum that goes big on local flavors including molasses, bay leaf, and peppercorn. 

Botanical rum is a fairly new idea, and here you have an exceptional spirit that really speaks to all it can be.  Rich and flavorful, Lafcadio  is made with botanicals that complement and actually accentuate its hallmark rum characteristics.

Truly small-batch, there are fewer than 5,000 bottles of this rum in existence.

Tasting Notes

Not hyperbole: this is unlike any other rum out there. First the nose hits with orange, grass, and molasses. Next come the botanicals – with a strong bay leaf and peppercorn note upfront, followed by more citrus (orange peel) and a hint of cardamom. The palate carries much more of a pronounced “standard rum characteristic” involving molasses and more sweetness than expected from the nose and finishes with just a touch of pepper and bay leaf that lingers after savoring. 

Suggested Serves

How do you know a rum is good? Well, does it Daiquiri? Yes, ma’am, this Lafcadio Botanical Rum Daiquiri sure does. The suggested ratio of Lafcadio to freshly-squeezed lime juice to simple syrup is 6:2:1.

For something seasonal, try it in a Coquito or a Watermelon Sugar – just see the Lafcadio recipe specs in the accompanying images!

Lafcadio Botanical Rum Accolades

Double Gold – New York World Wine & Spirits Competition, 2021

Finally, a botanical rum that actually still tastes like rum. Combine that with the influence of bay leaf and the other botanicals and you have something that really does give you a sense of the place where it was made. – Will Hoekenga, American Rum Report

Lafcadio Botanical Rum Production Notes

Made using Louisiana molasses fermented with a yeast originally cultured from a Champagne production in France. This produces a heavy character rum with notes of sugar, molasses, and esterified fruit.

Following a single pass through a hybrid system, the rum distillate is put back into the pot stills, and botanicals—bay leaf, cardamom, orange peel, cherry bark and white peppercorn—are added and steeped for one hour before the still is turned back on. This allows for the botanicals to impart their flavor without over-extracting their compounds. After that, the rum distillate is passed through a simple pot still system, leaving a spirit with overwhelming character from the base ingredient as well as accentuating aromas from the botanicals infused into it. 

Lafcadio Botanical Rum Founder Facts

This is the second spirit to come from the nomadic distilling company Liba Spirits, which was founded by Colton Weinstein and Devon Trevathan in 2020. Both Colton and Devon have backgrounds, professional expertise, and deep knowledge in the distilled spirits industry. Colton was head distiller at Corsair Artisan Distillery in Nashville, TN for a number of years and Devon is an industry veteran of both Corsair and Maggie’s Farm Rum. She is also a contributing writer to Artisan Spirit magazine. 

Liba and its founders are nomadic: they make spirits all over the world.  They have chosen to define their company by the agriculture and techniques that go into each distillation, and will continue to do so in destinations the world over. 

Lafcadio Botanical Rum Terroir

Distilled in New Orleans, Louisiana. Its flavor profile was developed specifically with the city in mind. Through the use of local ingredients the spirit pays tribute to the character of the city itself.

Drawing from the culinary culture of the Big Easy, infused botanicals include NOLA recipe staples bay leaf and peppercorn. The molasses from which this rum was made was very carefully sourced (a surprising challeng!) from a sugar mill just a few hours outside the city, ensuring a best-quality molasses for the purposes of distillation.

Botanical rum is an emerging subcategory, and as such it can still be seen as a novelty. One key difference between this style of spirit and gin, which also uses botanicals, is that there should be discernible flavor from the rum base as well as any infusions. Here careful crafting draws out the botanical flavors, bringing them over during the distillation to specifically accentuate the existing molasses character of the rum. 

750ml & 86 Proof