Review: Last Straw Distillery Blackstrap Rum

Posted by Arctic Wolf on May 18, 2022

The Last Straw Distillery is Ontario’s smallest production micro-distillery located at 40 Pippin Rd. in Vaughan, Ontario (a wee bit north of Toronto) just off Highway 400 and around the corner from Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre. According to Mike Hook, the team at Last Straw come to the craft of distilling from a variety of different backgrounds, and surprisingly none have had prior experience in the beverage or alcohol business. They are self-taught, and developed their recipes in house, through research, and trial and error, without the use of outside consultants.

Last Straw Distillery Blackstrap Rum is produced using blackstrap molasses. Blackstrap is harder to work with than sweet molasses as the sugar content is lower, and the sugars are harder for the yeast to access. The tradeoff is that blackstrap molasses gives a richer, more robust flavour when it is distilled.

The final rum was aged in oak for four years, and I have been told that the spirit contains no additives, flavours or colouring. The bottled rum is sold at 45 % alcohol by volume.

Here is a link to my full review: