Guatamala’s Signature Rum Brand Will Make You Fall for Sugarcane Spirits

Back when my palate seldom strayed from budget beer and paint-thinner vodka, a taste of Zacapa XO ignited my passion for fine spirits—the initial push of my career in booze writing. On a college backpacking trip, I stumbled into a bar in Antigua, Guatemala, and my eye caught a gleaming flagon of dark liquor on the highest shelf. The bottle, a thick glass emblazoned with Zacapa in gold cursive, crowned the bar like a champion athlete’s most prized trophy. A single pour cost more than a whole night’s worth of Gallo beer, but I had to try it. Cultural enrichment, I told myself.

When the bartender opened the bottle, an aromatic rush—soaked raisins, fig jam, gardenia flowers—enraptured my senses like a lover’s perfume. Then, that unforgettable first sip: brown sugar ambrosia scintillating with banana, lychee, and vanilla notes. There was none of the wincing heat I expected from unmixed liquor, but a velvety smoothness I would not know again until I tried fine Cognac. The revelation lit up my adolescent cerebral cortex like a religious epiphany—Holy shit! Booze can taste like this! Since that night, many a gorgeous rum has captured my fancy, but I will forever cherish the memory of Zacapa.

The flavors of Zacapa’s three offerings—Zacapa No. 23, Edition Negra, and Zacapa XO—diverge sharply, but all three are worth trying in their own right.

Lorena Vazquez, Zacapa’s head distiller, is a former chemical engineer and something like the Michael Phelps of the spirits world, racking up gold medals in every prestigious ranking and competition. Under Vasquez’s auspices, Zacapa became the first honoree in the International Rum Festival’s Hall of Fame. Rum geeks debate a litany of idiosyncrasies to explain Zacapa’s coveted flavor: the dark volcanic soil of Guatemala’s highlands; delicate, heirloom sugarcane varieties favored by Vasquez; high-altitude aging in mountain mists. But, as with all beautiful art, the full magic defies satisfactory analysis.

While most rums are distilled from molasses, a cheaper byproduct from refining sugar, Zacapa’s base is sugarcane syrup, a lighter and fresher sugarcane byproduct. Sugarcane syrup is harder to work with—it spoils more quickly than molasses—but it yields a smoother texture and deeper expression of terroir in the final rum.

Another hallmark of Zacapa’s distillation process is the solera system, a blending of new and old spirits that has long been used in Spanish sherry production. In the solera system, rum barrels are stacked in three rows, with the oldest vintage on the bottom. When rum is siphoned from bottom-row barrels, younger rum slowly trickles down through small openings in the upper barrels. The result is a gradual, organic blending.