MXRUMS Panela — Orlando Vásquez

Rum distilled from panela — the unrefined whole cane sugar Orlando Vásquez's family has been pressing and boiling in Tlaltetela, Veracrúz for generations. Fresh cane juice is milled, slowly boiled, and poured into cone-shaped wooden molds where it hardens into panela. Cones are rehydrated, fermented with spring water, and distilled over firewood in a four-plate continuous copper still. Layered tasting profile: mamey, nutmeg, dulce de leche, fresh panela, lemon cream pie, banana chewing gum, mint chocolate chip, burnt milk. A different expression from the same Vásquez family behind Caldo — same technique family, different starting sugar. Drop your email and we'll let you know when it lands.