Rum. The Hard Way.

1. Ingredients. or: How to create a rum with balls.

Start with an island that was once home to pirates and American revolutionaries. Then throw in three generations of Master Distillers. Now you’ve got something interesting. Now you’ve got real rum hand-crafted by people who know rum. Just ask Angelo. He’s the grandson of Don Leáñez, the guy who started distilling rum on a little island in a far-flung corner of the Caribbean. That same guy was knighted by a Dutch queen for all the good he did for the island. Yeah, we didn’t know the Dutch had a queen either.

Angelo, like his grandfather and father, loves real rum, which is why he’s in charge of making Kilo Kai. Now, all rum comes from sugar cane-the difference lies in the scents and flavors of the island and in the Leáñez family touch. Take a sip of Kilo and you’ll taste what we mean. Vanilla beans. Cinnamon sticks. Nutmeg. This, you’ll catch yourself saying, is what real rum tastes like. And we would nod our heads in agreement.

3. Aging. or: Why evaporation is your friend.

We age our rum for 3 years. While the rum matures, the barrels give it that characteristic golden brown color. This is also where some of the rum is lost. No, not to Angelo. To the angels. The maturing rum is in constant contact with the air due to the porous nature of the barrels. 4th grade science class tells us that this is a recipe for evaporation. It’s what’s known as the angels share. There’s no getting it back. Accept it and move on.