Pixan Rum de Mexico 8 Anos. Spirit that gives life is the translation from Mayan into English for Pixan (Pea-shan). As the title suggests this is a rum from Mexico.

To be more exact, Monterray in North East Mexico. It hails from the Destileria Espiritus del Norte (Northern Spirit Distillery). The rum is produced using molasses from the city of San Luis Potosi. Which is in central Mexico.

Pixan Rum de Mexico 8 Anos is produced in small batches of just 300 litres on a double column still. The Pixan website, which translates into a few different languages, is a little ambiguous at times. I don’t know if things are lost in translation or whether it is deliberately set out this way!

From sifting through the website. Which doesn’t take long, it seems that they distill the rum and then age it in ex-bourbon barrels. They then use two differing profiles (no further information is forthcoming) to age it for 8 years, before blending the distillates together to create Pixan Rum de Mexico 8 Anos.

As well as the website Pixan, also has a Facebook presence. It is all slickly presented and very much in keeping with more modern “Premium” rums. The website is a little out of date however. It doesn’t reflect that Pixan now have two more expressions in the their line up. In the shape of a 15 Anos rum and a 6 Solera Especial.

With no more information forthcoming on the website, I did a few google searches and was fortunate to uncover some more information. Not a great deal though to be fair.

Pixan Rum was first introduced in Europe, not in its native Mexico. The first country in which Pixan was distributed in was France and it has steadily moved into other European countries. I’ve not seen it for sale in the UK yet, however.

When I have seen Pixan Rum de Mexico 8 Anos for sale, it retails at around the €40 mark. It is bottled at 40% ABV. As mentioned already it is well branded and the presentation is what many people come to expect of a Premium Rum. It’s certainly one that will catch the eye of the pretty bottle brigade. The lack of information regarding the rum in the bottle, will be of little consequence to those clowns. A unique shaped bottle, chunky cork stopper and a nice cardboard sleeve complete the look.

As part of, possibly the blending process involved in producing this rum, it would appear that some additives of some description have magically made their way into each bottle. Must be the Mexican Air.

The hydrometer indicates that this has 35g/L of additives present in its composition.

This is disappointing because despite being a huge producer of Sugar and as a result molasses, Mexico is not well known for its rum, beyond a couple of brands such as Los Valientes and Mocambo. Neither of which have ever set the world alight. In more niche circles Mexico, is also known for Charanda, which is a “rum” which is produced in a very specific geographical region within Mexico. This in my experience has been the best “Mexican Rum” I have tried. Though I try to refrain from calling it rum. Much like Cachaca it should be respected for what the producers like to call it. Not what fits in with our thinking and opinions.

Anyway, I digress so lets get on with the tasting of Pixan Rum de Mexico 8 Anos.

The nose is fairly uneventful. There’s not a lot going on really at all. It has a mild toffee aroma and some very, very gentle spices but all that I am really getting is a very light sugary spirit. Deeper nosing reveals a little bit of ginger and maybe a trace or two of light chocolate but not a great deal.

It’s all very weak.

Sipping Pixan Rum de Mexico 8 Anos it has a fair bit more body to it than the nose was suggesting. It’s very bitter/sweet though. Saccharin heavy and with some pretty unpleasant bitter woody notes that taste a little “old”. It has a slightly herby/vegetal note to it as well, which is frankly just a little bit weird. Almost as if someone mixed a tiny bit of cachaca in with it.

It’s very short as well, there is no real development of flavour on the palate. You get an initial sip, a burst of flavour (sugar mostly). Then it very quickly all just dries up leaving pretty much nothing taste wise. The “burn” is all very much on the entry and very quickly disappears. Not that its anything more than a very mild tingle. I think my four year old could drink this straight.

Despite the additives it still tastes young and immature. It has a slight whisky-ish note despite all the additives but it very quickly gets taken over and removed by the bittersweet nature of the rest of the profile.

This is quite an unusual spirit in a lot of ways but at the same time not a particularly good one.

This has won awards and received favourable reviews elsewhere (you can probably guess from who), quite what those judges and reviewers are tasting and thinking is good rum, is frankly beyond me.

The Spirit that gives life? It’s just giving me a fucking headache to be honest.