Reviewer: Tashtego
Distillery: Alambique Serrano
Origin: Oaxaca, Mexico
Bottle Size: 700 ml
Bottle Count: 259
ABV: 53%
Distilled: March 2022
Base Material: Sugarcane juice
Still: Krassel column still
Aging specs: Aged for 3 years and 4 months in an American Oak ex-bourbon cask
Bottled: September 2025
Nose: Green pepper, citrus, honey
Palate: Sweet pepper, caramel, apple, melon, grass
Finish: Cane sugar
Let’s check out another release from the prolific Alambique Serrano distillery. This is an offering in their 3 Años serires, bottled for East Coast distributor Prestige LeDroit. Similar to the T8KE bottle I reviewed in September, this one is fairly straightforward: Krassel column still rum aged in ex-bourbon, bottled at 53%. Given those fairly ordinary aging specs, is this still an interesting bottle?
Right off the bat, this smells like green bell peppers. That’s the overwhelming aroma, and it’s carried through on the palate. So many Alambique Serrano bottles have one primary fruit that seems to come out of nowhere (watermelon on the Pico Canoa, lemon on the Binny’s 4 Años), and for this bottle it’s sweet pepper. There’s a lot of caramel and honey in the background to carry that pepper note, which is certainly welcome. I do get some melon and apple as well, and there’s a dusty grass or husk flavor from the sugar cane, too. It’s a clean cane juice finish.
I enjoy this bottle. The pepper makes it mildly spicy, and it’s such an unexpected spice for a rum. I remember Arminder from the Rum Revival YouTube channel raving about the Alambique Serrano El Boxeador, a store pick in the Bay Area that I couldn’t get my hands on. He described it as a caramel-covered green pepper - that was his rum of the year two years ago. I feel like this Prestigio release must be similar to that. Who knows where that flavor comes from, since this is just the usual cane distillate on the Krassels’ custom column still aged in ex-bourbon.
For Taste, I’d rate this somewhere between a 3 and a 4, but you’ve got to be interested in the pepper flavor, because it’s what makes this bottle special. I’ll land on a 3, though, and give it the same for Haste. This bottle appears to be available still, but in limited amounts. For around $60, it’s a fun sipper, just not one you need to go out of your way to acquire. But if a sweet pepper rum sounds like your thing, go grab one.
Taste/Haste Scale: 3 / 3
