Las Cabras Distillery
On an early, overcast morning at the start of the rainy season we left Casco and passed over the Panama Canal on the Pan American Highway to travel to Las Cabras Distillery in Herrera Province. The four hour drive took us through small towns and rural villages in Panama Oeste and Herrera Provinces. Along the four lane highway that carries most traffic through Panama, you encounter many examples of the agricultural nature of this part of Panama. The most frequent being Toyota pickups with raised bed rails overloaded with fruit, chickens, or livestock. These are from small individual farms that may be less than an acre in size. Having even one fruit tree in a yard can provide important supplemental income for a family in this area. The pickups are loaded down with ripe fruit and taken to local markets and to Panama City. In contrast, as you travel down the coast, high rise complexes and gated communities designed for foreign retirees rise up along the beaches. Panama is an attractive destination for those who would like to retire to a slower pace of life where the cost of living is lower, but is developed enough that preferred services are available.
Located in the “Arco Seco” or “Dry Arc” of the Azuero Peninsula, the area around Las Cabras Distillery is only dry compared to the rest of Panama. Arco Seco receives approximately 60 inches of rain per year, while the rest of Panama typically experiences almost twice that amount. This region is considered the Panamanian cultural heartland and the center of farming and ranching in Panama. It is also known for the handcrafted artisanal products produced here. Handmade pottery being the most highly prized. Chitre, the city nearest to Las Cabras, is the capital of the province as well as the center of commerce and Carnival celebrations in the region.
Las Cabras was built in 1910 and as was customary at the time, was an integrated sugar mill and distillery. The sugar mill was decommissioned long ago once larger, more efficient mills were built in the area. Las Cabras still has approximately 60 square miles of sugar cane fields owned by the distillery ( the size of Manhattan) which provides the distillery with the molasses used to produce its rums. The sugar cane is harvested and sent to a partner sugar mill for processing. Once the sugar has been refined out, the molasses is returned to the distillery for rum production. The benefit of this process is that by owning and managing the production of its sugar cane Las Cabras does not have to import molasses from abroad, which is a common practice for many other rum distilleries. This allows Las Cabras to have traceability to all stages of rum production from planting to bottling.
Once the molasses has been returned to the distillery, it undergoes fermentation using a yeast strain derived from nearby pineapple fields. After fermentation is complete, the “wash” is fed into a continuous column still and exits as “aguardiente.” The aging process at Las Cabras calls for this aguardiente to age for three years before it is designated as rum. After this initial aging, select barrels are chosen to be aged further in former bourbon barrels. The aging process will continue for over 20 years, developing a rich palette of flavors for blending exemplary rums.