Nusa Caña Rum heads to UK from Bali

by Melita Kiely

Indonesian Nusa Caña Rum has launched in the UK with an aim to remind consumers about “one of rum’s forgotten stories”.

The brand was created by industry experts Marc Rodrigues, Joe Milner, Andy Gaunt and bartender Sam Jeveons. Nusa Caña is made from molasses from local sugarcane grown on the Indonesian island of Java, and yeast grown on Javanese red rice. It is distilled twice in steel Chinese pot stills before being matured in teak casks to give the rum a “drier” finish. The brand is headquartered on the Indonesian island of Bali, known for its surf. Nusa Caña hopes to use Balinese surfing associations to engage with micro-surfing communities across the UK, in order to break into the market. Rodrigues, Nusa Caña co-founder and formerly of Beam Brands, Constellation Brands and Diageo, said: “Indonesia’s part in the story of cane spirits, and therefore rum, is both compelling and valid. We’ve forgotten that sugarcane originates in Southeast Asia and was taken from here to the Caribbean and elsewhere. “We’ve forgotten that early explorers visiting what is now Indonesia discovered the locals drinking a distilled sugarcane spirit as far back as the 15th century, before the word rum was even coined. “To bring it back in a serious way, I assembled friends and industry experts from Australia, Asia and the UK to launch Nusa Caña, a tropical island rum with the vision to take the story of Indonesian rum and the Bali lifestyle we love to the rest of the world.” Bottled at 37.5% abv, Nusa Caña Rum is available in the UK through sales, marketing and distribution agency Craftwork. It is already available at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen in Cornwall, The Rum Kitchen in London, The Whisky Exchange, Master of Malt and 31 Dover.