OnTap Magazine

With the tour complete, I bid farewell and head southwest, the aroma of a freshly detailed rental car offering something of a let-down after my mid-morning olfactory awakening. But happily there is more rum in my immediate future. After two and a half hours I spot the sign for Sugar Baron Craft Distillery, situated on Seafield Farm, 35km south of Pietermaritzburg. IN FLIGHT INSPIRATION As I hit the farm tracks flanked by sugar cane I keep leaping out of my car to attempt to capture the surrounds on film but I’m working against the clock. Another of those huge trucks is trundling up the road behind me, whipping up the kind of dust that will not only ruin a photo but also the camera that took it. The truck is here to fill its trailer with freshly charred and chopped cane to deliver to the nearby sugar mill. I might be here for the rum, but the vast majority of Seafield’s cane is destined for the mill – and later for your cake or coffee. Brad O’Neill’s family has been farming here for three generations but it was only in 2018 that Brad and his wife Marisa began to dabble in rum – an idea that took hold on a plane ride from Durban to Cape Town. The inspiration came in the form of an infographic on the cover of an in-flight magazine telling readers “how to make Mauritian rum”. Brad thumbed straight to the article and by the time they landed in the Mother City the plan to open a rum distillery on the family farm had taken hold. Sugar Baron launched in November 2019 – terrible timing when you consider that they would be unable to legally sell their product for four of the next 12 months. They used their time well though, building a truly charming Sugar Baron's process is extremely hands-on Fresly pressed sugar cane juice at Sugar Baron Marisa and Brad O'Neill found inspiration in an in- flight magazine and have never looked back Sugar Baron Craft Distillery sits on the family farm Views at Seafield Farm, home of Sugar Baron Uncharred cane, ready to fulfill its destiny Harvest time at Seafield Farm 38 | Winter 2022 | ontapmag.co.za