Mhoba Select Reserve Glass Cask 60 South African Rum 700ml
Select series rums are a selection of our most exceptional post distillations of pure sugarcane juice rum. This rum has been aged for more than 2 years in large glass demijohns with virgin American white oak staves, which we cut & char on wood fire coals at the MHOBA Rum Distillery.
60%
- Nose : Smokey American oak and a brown sugar aromas. Sweet, almost bourbon-like notes. Caramelized sugar. Vanilla. Ripe fruit acetone and warm fried butter.
- Palate : Mild heat on entry for a 60% spirit. Warm butterscotch pudding, Muscovado sugar, smoked pecan pie. Again the mid palate slowly grows to a coffee-like influence with chocolate, tobacco, coco and melted butter. The long finish continues with these flavours which evolve into drier notes of old charred oak cask, toffee, cola and hints of wild African honey. More balanced, subtle and refined than the American Oak Aged Rum, yet still a heavy American oak presence elegantly integrated into a natural rum sweetness.
THE BRAND
MHOBA Rum is a small batch, 100% pot stilled rum produced entirely from fresh sugarcane juice on a sugar farm just outside the small town of Malalane in an area called Nkomazi in Mpumlanga, South Africa.
The name MHOBA is derived from the local SiSwati word for sugarcane (umhoba) as the rum is produced using only sugarcane juice from cane which has been planted, grown and juiced on the farm surrounding the distillery. The sugarcane is cut by hand and the juice is extracted using a self designed and self built cane press which is unique. The cane juice is fermented in 1000 litre batches by adding a local baking yeast in addition to the wild yeast which is naturally present on the outside of the cane. Fermentation periods vary from 1 to 3 weeks according to the seasons, weather conditions and the style of rum needed to be produced. Distillation is performed using 2 identical 500 litre first distillation or stripping pot stills and the lighter flavoured rums are then re-distilled in a second distillation or spirit pot still. This three still configuration gives great flexibility in terms of producing heavy robust flavoured and funky single distillate rums as well as double or even triple distillates which are extremely smooth, refined and more subtle rums.
The owner and founder of MHOBA Rum, Robert Greaves, is a graduate mechanical engineer who has lived and worked on a sugarcane farm for the past 12 years. While holidaying on the nearby island of Mauritius in 2013 he discovered the practise of using sugarcane juice to ferment and distil rum. On returning home to his sugarcane farm in South Africa he immediately began designing and building small stills and cane presses to extract juice from sugarcane as a hobby. After much experimentation and growing positive feedback from friends and family on his rum, he decided to obtain a license to produce rum commercially. The licenses from the the South African Liquor Board and tax authorities were finally obtained in mid 2015 and MHOBA Rum has been growing steadily ever since.
MHOBA Rum is the Spirit of Nkomazi, crafted to represent, celebrate and share with the rum drinking world, Nkomazi's cane sugar and the local people who derive their livelihood and way of life from farming it.