Rum Journal: A Bucket-List Caribbean Rum

By: Caribbean Journal Staff - April 14, 2017

MARTINIQUE — It’s a rainy afternoon on the outskirts of Fort de France. We drive up a road through the waving green of cane fields and enter a dimly-lit distillery, vibrant with the clang of steam-powered machinery, raw and primal.

This is La Favorite, the venerable rum house just outside Martinique’s capital where some of the island’s most beloved rhum agricole is made.

There is no flash about the place, just good, honest rummaking,

But if you make your way to the far back corner of the warehouse you will find a tiny boutique filled with gold. Black gold.

Here at La Favorite’s tasting room and shop is one of the few places on earth where you can find a very special rum: Privilege de La Favorite.

While we’ve extolled the wonders of the single-vintage La Flibuste, an annual-release rum boasting 30 years of aging in oak barrels, the Privilege is the next level up.

Inside this dark green bottle designed to look even older than it is, sealed with wax, is a blend of rums of between 30 and 35 years of age, making for one of the world’s greatest rum blends.

There are just 2,500 bottles of this produced every year, and it is, in a word, out of this world.

More than three decades of waiting in oak barrels in the humid tropical heat of Martinique have given the rum a dark brown color to the point of nearly being black.

The aroma is sweet and robust, with notes of caramel, milk chocolate, molasses and licorice.

The flavor profile is marked by caramel, cocoa powder, sugarcane juice, coffee, vanilla and even a hint of chocolate syrup, at once earthy and sweet.

There is a perfection about this rum, the sense that you truly can taste what time has done to a decades-old rum.

Even better still, you can still taste the simple, pure La Favorite rum at its core, calling to you from the past, reminding what this rum was like at its origins.

It’s an effect that takes you simultaneously to two points in time, now and three decades before, fusing into one unforgettable experience.

This is a legendary rum, the kind of rum that one must make the trip to this place to obtain.

But those who journey here will be rewarded.

— Alexander Britell

Popular Posts caribbean resorts 2025

The Cool List: The Caribbean’s Coolest Places to Stay in 2025, From Adventure Resorts to Historic Inns 

It was one of the first major guides we at Caribbean Journal ever put together: The Cool List, whose first edition was back in 2013 and which remains an unrivaled curation of unique, character-filled, personality-driven, artful hotels around the Caribbean. […]


The 25 Best Best Beach Bars in the Caribbean for 2025, From Aruba to St Barth to Eleuthera  

antigua catherines cafe

You can find the perfect island. You can book the perfect hotel. But your vacation hasn’t really begun until you pull up to your chair with an ice-cold cocktail at the perfect Caribbean beach bar. For all of the wonders […]


The 25 Best All-Inclusive Resorts in the Caribbean for 2025, From Beach Hotels to Private Hideaways to Overwater Bungalows

all-inclusive resorts caribbean

Today’s travelers want experiences. They want great food. They want authenticity. They want thoughtful service. But if you’re been following the travel industry in the last half-decade, you know that what today’s travelers really want are all-inclusive resorts. The all-inclusive […]


Related Posts martinique

Winair Just Launched Its New St Maarten-Martinique Flights 

In what should be a big boost for the French Caribbean island of Martinique, regional carrier Winair has kicked off its first-ever service between St Maarten and Fort de France.  The new nonstop route opens up Martinique to the large […]


New Airline Flights Connecting Martinique, St Vincent and Saint Lucia 

air adelphi

An upstart regional carrier has created a new air link between three islands in the Eastern Caribbean: Martinique, St Vincent and Saint Lucia.  The airline, Air Adelphi, is now offering shared charter service that opens up new pathways to the […]


Rum Journal: From Martinique, an Exciting New Trio of Caribbean Rums

macouba

It just might be the most remarkable rum distillery in the whole Caribbean: the Rhum JM distillery in Macouba in Martinique, set inside the rainforest at the base of the island’s towering Mont Pelee volcano.  For nearly two centuries, Rhum […]