Cihuatan XO 16 yr Finished in Mayan Ceiba Rum 700ml

Cihuatán XO 16 Year comes from Licorera Cihuatán, El Salvador's only rum distillery, founded in 2004 as part of the Ingenio La Cabaña sugar group. Master blender Gabriela Ayala oversees production, and the brand waited a full decade after founding before releasing its first bottles in 2014, when its earliest rums had reached eight years of age. This expression, named Xamán after the Mayan god of the North Star, is the distillery's first release to carry the XO designation and the first XO rum ever exported from the country.

Sugarcane grown locally in El Salvador is milled on a century-old mill, converted to molasses, fermented, and distilled in column stills. The spirit then spends 15 years maturing in American oak ex-bourbon barrels before a final year of finishing in barrels made from Ceiba wood, a tree native to Central America that the ancient Maya regarded as sacred. Cihuatán is the only distillery in the world using this wood for finishing, and the rum is bottled at 40% ABV.

The result carries tropical fruit, baked apple and pear, and raisin on the nose alongside vanilla, cloves, and cinnamon. The palate turns drier and more wood-driven, with tobacco, dark chocolate, and old oak layered over a faint wisp of smoke through the finish.