The Story of how it came to be:

This collaboration started with Bernard reaching out to Luca Gargano early in 2020. A variety of cane rum samples were shared including a rested unaged expression; now almost two years later the team at Takamaka are incredibly excited to see their brand on a Habitation Velier bottle. The unaged release is the first and ultimately the only unaged cane rum from these specific stills that will ever be released. As a growing distillery they had channeled all the cane rum into casks. While as part of their program, all unaged cane was rested prior to heading to cask, but a backlog in filling had left this specific batch, the chance to rest in stainless steel tanks for over 8 months. While the distillery has not really been considering an unaged release – this rum stood out.

The stills used had been installed 12 years ago and at the early stage of the businesses, Takamaka invested as much as they could afford – focusing on quality rather quantity. So by 2021 not only did they need larger stills – but these direct gas fired stills had naturally, over more than a decade, become rather thin. Therefore the decision to invest in new pots still had been made. The result – this unaged rum from their original cane stills will never be seen again.

From the cask samples sent – Luca had chosen the specific casks – however a slight mishap when racking out meant a reduction in the number of bottles that were able to be released…. There were a few sad faces around the distillery for a few weeks as the lost rum was from Cask #31, which was one of only two new French Oak Radoux 350L casks we had.

Then global shipping went haywire….. we finally found a ship, only for it to get stuck in a traffic jam at the Suez Canal. So these two releases are limited not just by quantity but also by circumstance.

Making Rum in the Seychelles:

The Seychelles has never had a sugar industry, the Takamaka team had recently reached out to Antoine Marie Moustache who is the former Permanent Sectary to the Department of Agriculture. She kindly was able to share from the “Annual report on Agriculture and Crown lands” authored by P.R. Dupont the first recorded reference to sugar in the Seychelles was in 1919. The report went on to elaborate that “no sugar was manufactured in the colony and the culture of sugar cane was restricted to about 20 acres because of a tax on acreage.”

While there has always been a small amount of cane gown, it was almost exclusively used to make „Baka“, a cane juice beer of sorts. The team have spent over a decade supporting a collective of local farmers enabling them to add to their income by planting sugar cane. The team support sustainable farming practices by anchoring the growers to a no-pesticides program, returning the bagasse for use as animal feed and providing large tanks for rainwater collection. Takamaka also act as non-official consultants suggesting cane variants and harvesting schedules for free.

Today they have access to five genetically different types of cane which vary in colour from green to striped green and yellow, red to the purple “kann di vin” or wine cane, which is the rarest and sweetest one in the Seychelles. The team actively support cultivation of this specific variant including growing it within their own Clos at La Plaine St Andre. The cane that is grown in the Seychelles has distinct terroir notes from the island’s unique granitic soil which is mixed with beach sand.

Seychelles Cane rum therefore remains an artisanal product with Takamaka historically never having been able to produce more than 4,500 litres of finished cane rum in a year. However – the decade of support is starting to pay off as more farmers have started to plant both on Mahe but now also on La Digue and the team have set their sights to achieve 7,000 litres of Seychelles Cane Rum per year by 2024.

To distill the rum for the Habitation Velier collaboration, Takamaka used two identical, all copper Hoga built Portuguese 500 liters pot stills, in a double distillation process. The first pot still has no plates in its column, facilitating that initial stage from mash to wash , the first stage to strip the water, yeast and sediment out of the mash before moving to the second pot still, for its final distillation. Those pots stills were recently retired as they reached the end of their working lives. Their new stills are a 1,000L Wash still with traditional copper and condenser, and a new 450 L hybrid spirit still, a copper pot still with 8 bubble plates in the condenser that will allow for an advanced rum separation.

The distilleries cask aging program has centered on a collaboration with Radoux. Utilizing new French oak between Medium and Medium+ toast and across a variety of sizes. The team have continually both through analysis and tasting being working to understand how cane rum develops within the tropical climate of the Seychelles