Of all the major, common spirits, rum truly is the genre that most often seems to involve falling down a wild, wooly rabbit hole of mythology and quasi-history. There are simply so many corners to the global category of sugar cane spirits, and so many legendary products that individual rum geeks have spent their lives trying to hunt down, recreate or simply understand.
Réunion is a unique place, being technically a fully integrated part of France itself, but simultaneously acting as technically the southernmost part of the European Union and the only Eurozone south of the equator. But their history is also tied up in the production of sugarcane, and as a French territory, rum geeks know what that typically means: Rhum agricole, produced by the fermentation and distillation of freshly pressed sugar cane juice.