A Foray Into Philippine's New Rum Wave At The Spirits Library: Destileria Limtuaco's Bonifacio, Rainforest's Kasa Kana & Tarlac's Luisita
We were at the The Spirits Library just the other weekend where we hosted by Lee Watson himself, founder of the Spirits Library, for an intriguing evening of rums from the Philippines. Often times when we think of Philippine rums, Tanduay and Don Papa are perhaps the names that come to mind. But that is only half the story; there is so much more diversity in Philippine rums that has yet to be explored, and it is evenings like these that demonstrate the potential of the Philippines as geographical origin of high quality sipping rums.
The first noteworthy rum is that of Bonifacio Rum, produced by the oldest distillery in the Philippines, Destileria Limtuaco. Despite its history, it had only launched the Bonifacio rum brand (named after its founder Bonifacio Limtauco) in 2025, producing rums using molasses and pot still. An interesting nugget is how Bonifacio would purchase its molasses from a fellow rum producer, the Tarlac Distillery Corporation or more commonly known as Luisita, although I am not aware if this practice continues till today. But one of the most interesting tasting notes I had from the Bonifacio White Rum was how closely its flavours resembled its raw ingredient, molasses, with those liquorice-like notes of sweet, savoury, and bitter, all intertwined into one.
The second distillery was none other than the Rainforest Distillery, also known as Kasa Kana, located further south in Bukidnon, Mindanao. Rainforest Distillery is one of the newest rum distilleries in the Philippines, founded in 2015 by its Master Distiller Marc Schulze, and stands apart from its contemporaries in its use of sugarcane juice, much like the French Rhum Agricoles, as opposed to molasses, and long fermentation times with the use of dunder and muck. Marc is also committed to utilising heirloom sugarcane varietals native to the Philippines that are no longer cultivated due to their low brix content, though what they lose in yield they make up for in its richness and its flavours.
Last but not least was Luisita, which for me really did put Philippine rums on the map. While the Tarlac Distillery itself has been operating now for decades, it only began to pivot its focus on the premium rum category right around the time of 2014 when it was being taken care of by siblings Paco Cojuango and Annika Cojuango. Since then, they have released a number of exceptional single cask rums, primarily of ex-sherry (both oloroso and pedro jimenez) or ex-bourbon, with a characteristic banana note in nearly most of its rums that epitomises Luisita rums at its finest.
A big thank you to both Lee and Marc for taking the time to put together such a wonderful tasting for The Rum Cartel!
