My husband and I recently toured the beautiful Bayou Rum Distillery in Lacassine, Louisiana outside of Lake Charles. The first thing we noticed when we arrived is that when you get out of the car you immediately smell the sugar. It’s intoxicating. Bayou Rum is nestled in the middle of sugarcane country and they take full advantage of this fact. Made with Louisiana sugarcane, Bayou Rum makes delicious craft rum at their property from start to finish–from fermentation to bottling.

The distillery is a beautiful facility. The fermentation tanks actually look like pieces of art. We were lucky enough to be lead on an amazing tour by Jeff, the master distiller. Jeff showed us the process from start to finish including how they start with the sugarcane which becomes molasses.

The process also included how the molasses is distilled and is separated into three different kinds of spirt–the head, tails, and the heart. The heart is what the rum is made of. As the rum leaves the distiller it is about 190 proof. My husband was fortunate (or unfortunate in some opinions) to try this with Jeff. He was told to breathe out before tasting. (FYI–the fumes felt like it burned my nose just from smelling it.–I passed.)

One thing that I thought was really awesome about the Bayou Rum making process is that they use all of the ingredients. Most of it is for making the Rum, but some are sent to farms and some to refineries to become fuel.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was seeing all of the rum barrels and how they are testing different rums in different types of barrels to achieve different flavors. They had wine barrels, cognac barrels, and port barrels just to name a few. We had the pleasure of tasting a delicious rum from a cognac barrel during our tasting.

Jeff hosted us in the new event center for a private tasting which was a unique and incredible experience (they host weddings and corporate events in this center and it is beautiful). We tasted the Cognac Rum from the test barrels, the Bayou Reserve Rum, the Bayou Single Barrel Rum, and the Bayou XO Mardi Gras Rum. We also tasted the Louisiana Spirits Gator Bite Coffee Rum Liqueur, which was so good. (I definitely purchased one of all of these and can’t wait to use them in a few cocktails.)

If you want to learn more about Bayou Rum or tour their facility make sure to check them out on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

They are located at 20909 S. Frontage Road in Lacassine, LA. Make sure that you don’t miss this one!

(My husband and I were treated to a tour of Bayou Rum distillery at no cost to us, however, all opinions are my own. To read LouLou Sucre’s full disclosure policy click here.)