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tasting room – something I’m eager to experience. But Brad and Marisa are rightly proud of their estate rum and want me to follow the process from the start, so first we head into the fields. FIELD TO GLASS Harvesting is underway – a laborious process carried out entirely with pangas. That tell-tale aroma of demerara sugar is in the air, emanating from recently burnt sections of the farm. “I wanted you to be here for the burn,” says Brad, “but we are expecting a storm so needed to do it before the bad weather arrived.” We walk past the newly burnt fields, heading instead to a lush corner where an eight- strong team is chopping down fresh, green cane, painstakingly removing the outer leaves by hand. “We used unburnt cane for our rums,” Brad explains. “We want to get that smoky character from the barrel rather than the burn and to retain as much of the fresh, funky character as we can in our rums.” Sugar Baron is about as artisanal as a distillery can be. Once the day’s cane has been harvested, it is juiced one stalk at a time in a table-top crusher. The juice is green both in appearance and flavour –a grassy, fresh character that is quite distinct from the subtle caramelised notes of the juice from cane that’s been burnt. From here the process follows that of Tapanga’s, albeit on a smaller scale. The juice is fermented, distilled and aged before being bottled or barrelled. Sugar Baron’s barrel room is also their tasting room and it is a delightful place to sit and sample rum. We work through the estate’s selection, sipping each rum neat and then pairing them first with biltong and later with rum fudge. With the tour and tasting complete I pack up my car with bottles of rum and boxes of fudge and make my way back to the main road. As I hit the first of many stop/gos, the sky darkens and the aroma of crème brûlée fills the car. A few large pieces of ash land on my windscreen and I suddenly see the blaze. Roaring flames reach 10 or 15 metres into the air as another section of sugar cane is prepped for the mill. I smile at the timing – it’s the last piece of the puzzle and I feel that my intro to rum production is complete. Now all I have to do is slowly polish off the samples I have stashed in my luggage – and that at least is something I feel I am capable of achieving without any outside assistance. TASTING TIME Sugar Baron Craft Distillery Book ahead for a distillery tour and tasting in the barrel room. From R395 per person including lunch. 082 688 7581, sugarbaron.co.za . The full range of rum and confectionery is available to order online. Tapanga Rum Visits to the distillery, which include a tasting, must be booked in advance. info@tapangarum.com This article was originally published in Getaway Magazine and is reprinted with permission. ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2022 | 39