(If you have an ice cream maker at home, it’s magic when added to a plain vanilla concoction).Ban Kao Tropical Boutique Residence & Spa 4 star from 33 US$ Why take a bottle of Magic Alambic home for your own consumption? For starters, one sniff and you’re right back on Samui. Use The Koh Samui Guide to plan your perfect island itinerary, with transport tips, Samui highlights and tons of safety advice (plus what to do before, during and after your rum-bender). When ripe, jackfruits can weigh up to 80 lbs and grow to three feet long! In the back, a grove of jackfruit trees shows off an astonishing bounty. Tropical Thai fruit is a marvellous world, especially when you see it growing before your eyes. When fully stocked, Koh Samui rum comes in 4 flavours: pineapple, orange, coconut and a fourth we can’t remember … possibly just rum-flavoured? Magic Alambic’s other surprisesīefore you leave, take a wander around the beautiful gardens. In 2014, the distillery was producing approximately 8,000 bottles a year, but on a recent visit, we spotted new tanks and distilling equipment: signs of bigger things to come. The distillation process takes 4 months to dilute to 40 degrees (40 proof). Magic Alambic’s original owner (in business long before our first visit in 2003) learned rum-making in her native Martinique. Magic Alambic changed ownership in 2014 – same great rum, younger French faces serving/selling it to you. It’s a secret recipe of brown sugar and lime juice, amongst other things. Tasty tip: Whether you’d like to taste some Koh Samui rum on site, or just buy a few bottles for later, you must try it with the house-made mixer syrup. Thank your plant-waterer: Koh Samui rum makes a fantastic present! You can buy a boxed set if you’d like to dress it up. At what time of day did we discover that? Not telling. Get cheeky: Love indulging in ‘vacation rules’? Any of Alambic’s flavours makes a nice addition to a coconut or pineapple shake. Reward your driver: First, it’s only polite to reward your designated driver with a bottle of his/her own to enjoy later.Īt sunset: Magic Alambic rum is magic indeed at sunset – mix it up with the sugar syrup and some tonic. How to enjoy Koh Samui rum?Īs real Samui rum enthusiasts (there’s always a bottle on our shelves and we worry constantly it will run out before our next visit), these are our recommendations for your best Magic Alambic experience: Try your taster instead as a mixed drink – there’s a bar fridge with a variety of mixers (tonic, 7-Up, Coke, etc). If you weren’t in the British Navy before 1970, you might prefer to mix your rum with soda, tonic or 7-Up. But wait!Īvoid this beginner’s mistake: Before you begin your taste-test, consider if neat rum is something you could feasibly enjoy. If you stop for rum-tasting, shots are 60 baht (approx US $1.75/£1.30). Taste-testing Koh Samui rumĪrrive at Alambic down a gravel driveway and announce yourselves in the open-air tasting room, built from coconut-thatch. We really recommend renting a car and adding an afternoon Alambic stop on your island tour. How to get to Magic Alambic? Unless you’re staying way down on Samui’s south coast in nearby Bang Kao or Laem Sor, the distillery and on-site tasting room aren’t in a location you’d otherwise encounter. Like anything worth having, you must commit to your rum excursion. New-ish ownership is breathing brilliant new life into this lovely spot – and the on-site French restaurant (La Route du Rum) is utterly fantastic. Koh Samui’s rum distillery is rustic and 100% home-grown – a tiny, charming, rather French, alcoholic farmer’s market around long before ‘local’ became a buzzword. While Thai whisky and Singha are the local tipples, tourists can trot straight to Magic Alambic for cocktails and concoctions with pure island taste. Magic Alambic Rum Distillery is an island treasure, home to Koh Samui’s best (and only) home-grown rum.
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