Drink of the Week: Kasama Rum

On the occasions that I have been fortunate enough to find myself on a trip to a tropical locale, it feels like the vacation isn’t quite official until I have some sort of fruity cocktail in hand. So even though I’m currently sitting at my desk during a particularly hot summer in the Pacific Northwest, I found the next best thing in a bottle of Kasama Rum. New to the U.S. market, the seven-year aged rum comes from the Philippines by way of Poland, owing its unusual journey to the lineage of its founder: Alexandra Dorda. The daughter of Tad Dorda, who co-founded Belvedere and Chopin vodkas, Alexandra Dorda was also inspired by her mother’s Filipino heritage and the island’s history of rum production.

Kasama Rum is distilled in the Philippines from the fresh juice of locally harvested sugar cane and then aged seven years in American oak barrels. The spirit is then transported to the family’s distillery in Poland for blending and bottling before being shipped to the states. Upon opening, the rum is a wallop of the tropics, boasting an aroma redolent with ripe pineapple and backed up with notes of brown sugar and vanilla. Despite the sweet nose, the flavors are well balanced with some spicy notes and herbal undertones. It could easily be sipped solo, but I mixed up summery cocktail, because this is my vacation. $29.99, kasamarum.com