Rey del Istmo 12 Year Old

Rey del Istmo has been the ten-year-old for a while. The 12 is the new step up, and it arrives in the new jungle livery: green cane leaves wrapped around the bottle, the same hand-drawn foliage that now runs across the whole range in different colours.

The rum comes from Varela Hermanos, Panama's oldest distillery, working at Hacienda San Isidro in Pesé since 1908. The cane is grown on the estate, the spirit is column-distilled there, and it ages in oak in the heat of the Herrera plain. Twelve years in that climate does more work than the same span would in a cool warehouse. The angels take their share quickly, and what is left in the cask gets richer for it.

It pours a bright golden amber. The house describes vanilla and wild honey, and that is exactly where it starts: soft vanilla custard, warm honeycomb, a little toasted oak underneath. The palate is round and gentle at 40%, sweet without being sticky, with a light spice on the finish that keeps it from going flat. It is lighter on its feet than the 18 and 25, which is the point. This is the everyday sipper of the range.

For under £40 it is an easy way in to properly aged Panamanian rum, and a good bottle to put alongside the 10 to see what two more years in the tropics adds.

How to Serve

Neat or over a single large cube in a tumbler. It also makes a very good Old Fashioned. Keep the sugar light, because the honey is already there.

Where to Drink It

Artesian at The Langham, for a rum-led menu that takes aged Panama seriously. Black Rock in Shoreditch, for something low-lit and unhurried. Bar Lotus, if you want it in a cocktail done properly.

Food Pairings

Jerk-spiced pork belly with charred pineapple. The honey and vanilla in the glass meet the sweetness in the glaze, and the spice on the finish picks up the heat.