Distillerie Faubert Casimir, Barradères

History

Faubert Casimir continues the work started by his father Duncan in 1979 and is considered the best distiller in the area. To get to his distillery you need to travel a path covered with Bagasse passing in a naturally organic banana tunnel. Faubert cultivates fifty hectares of Hawaii Blanche and Hawaii Rouge cane; these are un-hybridised soft canes. Hawaii Blanche resembles Otahiti canes, planted in 1800 in Martinique and visible in the Saint James Distillery Museum in Sainte Marie.

His plantation is intercropped with bananas, palms and especially limes (citron vert). The canes are harvested only when fully ripe, and thus the fields never remain completely devoid of vegetation. The bagasses are composted with other organic materials and used to fertilise new plantations.

The peculiarity of Casimir and other distillers in the area is that he adds some herbs or vegetable matter to pure cane juice during fermentation, to enhance the aromas. Casimire adds leaves of citronella, cinnamon and, in some batches, ginger.