La Favorite is a family-owned distillery founded in 1842 near Fort-de-France, Martinique. Amidst their impressive lineup are two concurrent series of single plot, monovarietal, unaged rums distinguished by their colorful wax. A plot of Canne Roseau is designated for La Digue (the green one), while a another plot of Canne Rouge is grown for the Rivière Bel’Air bottlings (the red one, not pictured). Both rums are column distilled from the fresh-pressed cane juice of their respective plot, rested in inert containers for a few months, and bottled just over 50%.
La Favorite La Digue Récolte 2019 (52%)
The nose is earthy and grungy. There’s wet clay, limestone, fresh rainfall, pencil eraser, unscented hand soap, lotion with shea butter, raw carrot, coconut, and mixed peppercorns.
On the palate, the carrots come to the fore, followed by crisp pear, cabbage, coconut, cocoa butter, limestone, baker’s yeast, and mixed peppercorns. It has a delightfully creamy mouthfeel and mild sweetness.
I honestly don’t know why, but I had relatively low expectations for La Favorite. Thankfully, my expectations were completely wrong, as this is a very unique and delicious rum. Of the two, La Digue is more vegetal, earthy, and creamy, but as you’ll see below, they’re more similar than they are different. (7/10)
La Favorite Rivière Bel‘Air Récolte 2021 (53%)
This comes across as being a little more lively and lush. I get fresh grass, underripe mango, coconut, raw flour, pepper, horseradish, pencil eraser, fresh rainfall, and limestone.
The palate offers underripe mango, pineapple rind, orange and lime, coconut cream, horseradish, cocoa butter, pencil eraser, and some peppery leafy green like swiss chard or arugula. It’s pleasantly sweet, even more than La Digue.
Another winner! This is slightly more fruity and peppery than La Digue, and it’s different enough to make me glad I have both. I don’t think you can go wrong with either of these (or any year, I’m guessing). Now if only Ed Hamilton could be bothered to bring any of this stuff to this States… (7/10)