The Curatist, Panama Edition

ABV: 45%

Country: Panama & United Kingdom

Age: Blend

Cask: Blend, Finished in cognac casks

Still: Blend

Price: £120

Distillery: Unknown

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The Curatist (Panama Edition) was kindly sent to me to review and it gave me a chance to spend some time with a bottle I hadn’t previously come across. The Curatist is a UK-based rum project that takes a slightly different approach, blending sourced aged rums from established rum-producing countries with its own English-distilled spirit before finishing the blend in cognac casks. It’s reminiscent of what Copeland are doing in sourcing rums to blend with their own distillate and then finishing them, rather than the ‘normal’ independent bottler approach of presenting a single-origin or single-distillery bottling.

For the Panama Edition, the blend centres around Panamanian rum, with components reportedly aged up to 25 years old, combined with The Curatist’s house rum and brought together through a period of cognac cask finishing. It’s presented clearly as a blend rather than a single-age statement release, which makes it an interesting example of how newer brands are interpreting premium rum today. The packaging is also worth calling out… the ceramic bottle and overall presentation are genuinely impressive, and it’s something you could easily keep on display long after the bottle itself is empty.

Nose

First off… this is weird! I feel like I’m stood at a pic ‘n’ mix stand choosing what sweets I want to take into the cinema – strawberry straws, cola cubes, marshmallow fluff and artificial strawberry are meeting green banana, chemically stripped/treated wood and buckets of vanilla extract. This isn’t your typical Panama rum… and in fact it’s not your typical rum at all!

Palate

Very sweet strawberries & cream at the very first taste, sitting at the very tip of my tongue. Almond/marzipan and vanilla follow quickly after and continue to develop right up until the finish. Some candied ginger sweets add spice, depth and complexity. There’s an interesting grassy freshness to this that cuts through the sweeter notes nicely. The mouthfeel also evolves through the sipping experience – initially rather thin and building towards a more chewy/thick profile on the finish. Very little in the way of woody notes despite the aged components and cask finish, but the cognac cask finish influence is still visible.

5/10 – As a neat sipper this is a little too weird and sweet for me (closer to a 4) but in a daiquiri this is exciting and different. I find the price is the biggest barrier to this scoring higher.