Especia, Tanduay’s New Spiced Rum, Wins Double Gold in San Diego Spirits Festival

clear wine glass with lemon juice

SAN DIEGO /PRNewswire/ — Especia Rum, the latest product from the Philippines’ Tanduay Distillers, Inc., has won a Double Gold at the San Diego Spirits Festival. The rum was only recently introduced and is made available in the United States early this year.

A blend of rums aged up to seven years in bourbon barrels, Especia Spiced Rum tastes of cinnamon, honey, and ginger, mingled with hints of tropical fruits.

“We feel truly honored that our spiced rum has already won an award as it enters the US market. We thank the San Diego Spirits Festival for this recognition. This only shows the kind of craftsmanship that goes in our Tropical Spiced Rum,” said Kyle Tan, Executive Vice President of Tanduay and head of its international distribution.

The San Diego Spirits Festival is “the major cocktail culinary extravaganza celebrated every summer on San Diego Bay”. Apart from Especia, Tanduay Double Rum also won a gold medal for its design.

A Spiced Rum from the Tropics

A blend of rums aged up to seven years in bourbon barrels, Especia Spiced Rum tastes of cinnamon, honey, and ginger, mingled with hints of tropical fruits. Its finish is a warm persistence of caramel, cinnamon, and baking spices, and has sweet and elegant aromas. It has 80 proof or has 40% alcohol/volume. It has a bright, golden amber color, and a mellow and smooth body.

Especia comes in a bottle with black and white textured background design, featuring an illustration of the snake coiled around a bamboo stalk with flowers and leaves inherent to the tropical island of its origin.

A stylized letter “T” representing Tanduay and “1854” which represents the year the rum company was founded are also prominently displayed on the bottle.

From a Heritage Brand with a Storied History

Especia continues Tanduay’s tradition of winning, which started way back in the 1800s when its first distillery was established.

Tanduay was founded during the latter years of the Spanish colonial period. It is one of only a few Filipino brands that have reached their centennial year.

The company has always been meticulous in its rum-making process — from choosing only quality sugarcane in the sugar lands of Bacolod that has been known for its sugarcane production since the 1800s. Tanduay uses only heirloom sugarcane, which are harvested after 10 to 12 months.

Rum-Making in a Tropical Climate

Temperature and the container where the rum is aged are factors that affect its ageing process, and Tanduay has the advantage of having its own distilleries in premier locations in the main islands of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Rum aged in tropical climate results in faster ageing; it matures two times faster than those aged in much cooler climates.

Barrel-aging, meanwhile, gives rum an additional flavor and aroma, as oxygen enters the barrel and is absorbed by the oak. Tanduay rums are matured in bourbon oak barrels, which have been alligator charred prior to filling with whisky. The company has an arsenal of more than 200,000 oak barrels with a combined capacity of 40 million gauge liters.

SOURCE Tanduay

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Rod Washington:  Rod is a blogger, writer, filmmaker, photographer, daydreamer who likes to cook. Rod produces and directs the web series, CUPIC: Diary of an Investigator. He also produces news and documentary video projects. Check out his podcast StoriesThisMoment at https://m3e.d71.myftpupload.com/stm-tncn-podcasts/