Flor de Cana: the best rum/ron!

Today we went on a tour of the Flor de Cana rum factory, in Chichigalpa, just down the road from Leon.

We had wanted to organise the tour ourselves, as entry to the Tour costs $23, but if you book it through an agency in Leon, the tour costs $40. The only extra thing you get for your money is a driver to take you there and back to Leon, but we like a bit of chicken bussing, so that was no issue.

Ciaran contacted the factory last night but they replied in the morning saying they needed at least 24 hours notice before they could arrange the tour for us. Booo.
But we had already spoken to tour agencies in Leon who told us they could provide the tour today, so given that the factory had said no to us going ourselves, we were forced to suck up the extra $17 each to be driven there.

If you haven't already tried Flor de Cana rum, you must! We had started drinking their dark rum in El Salvador, mainly because it's cheap, but what a find! It is so delicious! Especially if you drink it with orange juice, although it does go down just a bit too easily!

So, even though the factory wasn't willing for us to go along on our own, when we got there we found that they had opened the tour just for us! The tour is split into 7 sections and it began with a short ride to the iconic Flor de Cana train in an electric buggy. There, the tour guide got his microphone out to officially start the tour with a presentation, which was slightly amusing, as he didn't really need a microphone, for just the two of us!

The tour was excellent. The factory only started running this official tour last September but it's evident how much thought and planning went into it. A massive sense of pride comes through and the tour goes a long way to sell you the Flor de Cana brand as the original high quality rum but also as a forward thinking, eco-friendly and philanthropic company.

We were shown a film on the history of the brand before going to my favourite 'stage', the four sense taste test. This was demonstrated to us in what used to be the family's private barrel store, now converted into a luxurious hosting venue, with no pictures allowed, due to its 'private' nature.

Another member of staff had been drafted in for this part and he looked very official and almost scientific in his white coat.
The four senses you use are sight, smell, taste and touch. We wondered how exactly touch would work, when the host told us to pour a very small amount of the 18 year old into the palm of our hand. Feeling dubious, we followed the instruction to rub it in between our hands, expecting them to end up sticky and covered in rum, but amazingly it just rubbed away into our skin, almost like water, leaving no trace of anything! We couldn't believe it! Apparently it's all in the distillation - every Flor de Cana rum is distilled five times, which removes all impurities and traces of sugar, hence the lack of stickiness. According to our hosts, it also means that you never get a hangover when drinking Flor de Cana. (From experience my head seems to agree but my stomach not so much!)

We were also given a tour of the barrel making and storage hangars before the tour ended at the biggest barrel in the world, containing the museum, tasting bar and SHOP! Here we learnt how much Nicaraguan land is owned by Flor de Cana (a huge amount) and also had a final tasting.

Given that they had also opened up and staffed the gift shop just for us I felt 'obliged' to buy something, so we went for a bottle of the 7 year old and I splashed out on some overpriced PJ bottoms!

Even though we had to pay a lot more than we liked, the tour was well worth it! And in fairness it ended up being our very own private tour. From now on there is only one rum for me! And for Ciaran, who didn't even like rum before we got to Central America!