Caroni is the Karuizawa of the rum world. Trinidad was once home to over fifty distilleries, now only Angostura remains. Established in 1918 Caroni was famed for supplying the British Navy with its full-bodied and full-throttle rums, made using its own Trinidadian sugar cane. However, it was sadly closed in 2002 and then demolished. The heavy rums that were saved are now top of the bucket list for collectors. Now only available in extremely limited quantities, each expression of Caroni is a piece of history. Of the few precious casks of liquid that do remain, the most popular are those that contain “HTR”, or Heavy Type/Trinidad Rum, a particularly pungent, powerful style of rum that was produced at Caroni, and often used in tiny amounts to add weight and heft to blended rums. Rarely seen in their raw form while the distillery was operational, they are only now being recognised as some of the most extraordinary rums ever produced.  The Tortuga No.1 is a bottling of just this type of rum. It was bottled by a luxury producer called East Asia Whisky Company, and it’s their first rum release. It was distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2020 at 22 years of age. The only problem was that cask #2286 yielded just 230 cask-strength bottles. Partnering with the Sea Turtle Conservancy (formerly known as the Caribbean Conservation Corporation), each bottle has a QR code where the bottle owner can track a school of turtles supported by their purchase via GPS. Already seen as a classic of its type, this Caroni is a must have for any lover of fine spirits.  From a taste perspective, imagine an afternoon tea in a stately home being doused with petrol and oil. The nose opens with the smell of the filling station, antique oak, furniture polish and dusty leather-bound books. On the palate, there’s more of the same, plus stewed fruit crumbles and pies, gingerbread, mint tea, Assam tea, marmalade cake, hot cross buns and buttery pastéis de nata, wrapping up with a finish of olive oil and walnut oil. It may sound weird, but that’s the fun of Caroni, every bottle is a unique adventure unlike any other. Few will ever get to experience it, so don’t miss out.

£128.57 per 100.00ml