Batavia Arrack Van Oosten Rum

Batavia Arrack is one of the oldest distilled spirits in the world and the original base of punch — the 17th-century Dutch East India Company shipped it from Java to Europe, where it powered the punch bowls of London and Stockholm long before rum was common. Van Oosten is the bottling that brought it back to the United States, imported by Haus Alpenz, the specialists behind Smith & Cross and the Scarlet Ibis. It's made in Indonesia from sugarcane molasses fermented with a starter of fermented red Javanese rice — the ingredient that gives arrack its distinctive character — then pot distilled and rested briefly in large teak vats before bottling at 100 proof (50% ABV). Technically it's a rum, but it drinks like nothing else in the category. Expect a pungent, funky nose of overripe fruit, wet straw, smoke, and something between Jamaican hogo and sake, opening into a dry, oily palate of grassy cane, dried fruit, pepper, and a faintly nutty, savory edge, finishing long and dry. The Lone Caner described the style as a Jamaican-Bajan hybrid with just enough difference to be fascinating on its own merits. It's a bartender's ingredient first: essential in a Swedish Punsch, a Jakarta Mai Tai, a Spice Road, or a Batavia Arrack Flip, and it transforms a Negroni or daiquiri in small doses. A piece of drinking history, and the funkiest bottle on the shelf.

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