{"product_id":"mhoba-rum-sihhenge-pineapple-rum-750ml","title":"MHOBA Rum, Sihhenge Pineapple Rum 750ml","description":"\u003cp\u003ePineapple Rum, 40% ABV\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eMpumalunga, South Africa\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePineapple-infused rum produced by MHOBA Rum Distillery in Malalane, South Africa\u003cbr\u003eBlend of Select White (SW) and Select White Double Distillate (SWDD) marques. Produced from 100% sugarcane juice pressed from estate-grown sugarcane. Open fermented 6–7 days using ambient yeast. Distilled in custom high-reflux pot stills made of stainless steel and copper. Infused with fresh Queen Natal pineapple for 2 weeks. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eNon-chill filtered.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA nose of rich pineapple upside-down cake, vanilla, honey, and underlying hints of savory bbq spice transitions to a layered palate of pineapple—candied, canned, grilled, caramelized—with green, grassy notes of fresh sugarcane, nutmeg, and brown sugar. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSihhenge (see•HANG•geh]—the word for pineapple in the local siSwati dialect—is a collaboration between MHOBA Rum Distillery and independent bottler Holmes Cay. While it took a bit of arm-twisting to convince Robert—a staunch opponent of additives in spirits—to add anything to his rum besides water for proofing, he decided that if he was going to produce a pineapple rum, he was going to do it the right way. In opposition to the many artificially flavored and sweetened expressions available, Sihhenge is produced as simply as possible using Queen Natal pineapples, a low-acid variety sourced from the neighboring province of KwaZulu-Natal. Just good rum and fresh pineapple!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFounded in 2015 by Robert Greaves, MHOBA—meaning sugarcane in the local siSwati, or Swazi, dialect—is a craft distiller of field-to-bottle cane juice rum made from estate-grown sugarcane. In just a few short years, the distillery has garnered a reputation as the most acclaimed rum distillery in South Africa and one of the most exciting rum producers, period.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMHOBA Rum Distillery is located in Malalane, Mpumalanga, between the Makhonjwa Mountains—a mountain range known for having some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth—and South Africa’s first and largest national park, Kruger National Park. Mpumalanga is one of South Africa’s primary sugarcane-growing provinces, and the Greaves family has been farming sugarcane at the foot of the Makhonwja Mountains since the 1980s. Sugarcane drives the economy of the region; the municipality where the Greaveses’ sugarcane is cultivated, Nkomazi, is known for its exceptional sugarcane, and the town of Malalane is home to one of South Africa’s largest sugarcane mills.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert relocated from Johannesburg to Malalane to help with his family’s farm and mining businesses during the 2008 global financial crisis. He began exploring the idea of establishing a craft rum distillery that would use molasses produced from the family’s estate-grown sugarcane. Unfortunately, when he reached out to the local mill to procure some of his molasses, he learned that the processing was done on such a massive scale that it was impossible to identify or separate molasses from individual sources. So instead, he chose to use his sugarcane to create a cane juice rum in the style of cachaça or rhum agricole. Robert dove deeply into the world of rum and experimented with small, home-distilled batches of his own. He then combined elements of producing these cane juice spirits with techniques used to create high-ester Jamaican rums, resulting in something remarkable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert, a mechanical engineer, designed and built nearly all the equipment at the MHOBA distillery, including the cane mills, pot stills, and the furnace used to heat the stills. Besides ensuring that every piece of machinery operates exactly to his personal specifications, this bespoke approach allows him to quickly make repairs and modifications. One such modification saw the stills’ reflux columns shortened after finding the additional column length and copper contact was stripping too much flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 400-hectare Greaves estate grows four varieties of sugarcane using organic practices and harvests by hand from one field at a time, rotating fields regularly. Because of a unique microclimate, the distillery can harvest throughout most of the year and is thus able to distill year-round without needing to pause between harvest seasons. Once cut and detrashed, the sugarcane is crushed using a hammer mill, and the crushed cane is loaded into a custom hydraulic mill that presses out the juice with roughly sixty tons of force. This batch-based process is slower than that of standard roller mills but is significantly more effective at fully extracting the juice.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Skurnik Wines","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51001997885692,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2097\/6375\/files\/rn-image_picker_lib_temp_037ce614-140f-4958-a915-42d59597dcbd.jpg?v=1787350081","url":"https:\/\/www.winetroy.com\/products\/mhoba-rum-sihhenge-pineapple-rum-750ml","provider":"Troy Wine Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}