Zacapa supports the Guatemalan community by employing over female weavers to craft our petate bands adorning every bottle of Zacapa No. Bottling and distribution occur in Mixco. From grain to glass, Zacapa Rum is integrated with the communities throughout the country and proud of our Guatemalan roots. Our Story. At this height, there is far less variation than at other elevations, to the benefit of the maturing rum.
Zacapa also use what is known as the sistema solera for maturation, an adaptation of the traditional process of aging Spanish sherry. Their barrels have previously held American whiskey or Spanish sherries, not least the wonderfully decadent Pedro Ximenez. Their most famous rum is undoubtedly the iconic Zacapa There was a time when apparently it was based on rums of 23 years or more, but now the age range is 6 to 23 years. For me, this rum is good enough not to need any sleight of hand.
Of course, Zacapa is far from the only distillery in the world where labelling might confuse consumers. The brilliant XO is a blend of rums aged between 6 and 25 years — no confusion there. The 23 has the immediately distinctive petate weaving around each bottle — a handwoven band from dried palm leaves — and Lorena has worked closely with the female weavers who supply the bands, to support them.
Petate weaving is a Mayan tradition that dates back to BC and was once reserved for royalty. This tradition, for Zacapa, began in The women weaving these bands buy the materials themselves, but the income they can earn is twice the local average. A hybrid machete. Most rum is distilled from molasses, with yeast feasting on those darker caramelized sugars. We compare it to spending your 30s in a quiet spa versus in an over-sugared kindergarten classroom that just banned naptime.
Rum as young as six years old ends up combined with much, much older rums, the goal being a flavor profile that consistently blends age and barrel expression.
Rum and Coke is a fine summer drink. Well, the explosion of cocktail culture for one thing. Guatemala may be best known for coffee, but its rich, volcanic soil along with the varied landscape and climate are perfect conditions for growing sugar cane, and creating and aging Ron Zacapa — considered by many as the best rum in the world. The hot, humid climate here, combined with the volcanic soils, provides perfect conditions for growing the very best sugar cane.
The acres of sugar cane are still harvested by hand, using a special hybrid machete to increase efficiency, which not only helps the business, but also means that the workers paid by weight of sugar cane harvested will earn more.
Once harvested, the sugar cane is taken back to the on-site mill to be processed. Most rums use molasses — a dark, thick by-product of sugar production — as their base, but Zacapa uses virgin sugar cane honey — a concentrated syrup from the first pressing of the sugar cane. This makes the rum sweeter and smoother, and it is at this point that the distinctive characteristics and flavour profile begin to develop.
The next stage of the process is fermentation in the lab at the distillery, for which the team use a unique strain of yeast — saccharomyces cerevisiae — extracted from pineapples, which ferments the virgin honey slowly, releasing aromatics along the way. It is once fermentation has taken place that the liquid can be distilled in the high-tech facilities next to the sugar mill, where the team have control over the whole process, down to the smallest details, to ensure the highest quality.
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