Rum Ex Nihilo: How we created the Esther Rum product in one year

As founders of a branding agency (Nihilo ) and former co-founders of a Tequila brand ( Casa Malka Tequila), we spend a lot of time talking about brand building as it relates to design. As founders of Esther Rum, design and storytelling is at the core of what we do. But it's so much more than that. It's literal company building from the ground up. It's demonstrating that our values of obsessive craftsmanship go beyond the look and feel - they extend into the product itself, and every facet of this living breathing entity we call Esther Rum.

This is Esther Rum.

This is a pure rum.

This is an authentic rum.

This is a rum free from all additives and flavorings.

This is the rum that will rebrand rum.

This is the story of how the rum inside the bottle came to be.

Here, I'm going to tell you about our 9-month formulation process. In partnership with JAI Development, an incredible beverage formulation house out of Brooklyn, we sourced rums from around the world with the following parameters: 

• We set out to create a rum that breaks the stereotypes - defying expectations that rum is sweet, spiced, overly strong, or only good for cheap drinks. 

• We set out to create a rum that would toe the line between validity for rum drinkers and approachability for non rum drinkers. 

• We knew we wanted an additive-free product, that would be smooth and reminiscent of a lighter reposado tequila. We imagined someone who doesn’t traditionally drink rum tasting Esther and saying “wow I didn’t realize rum could taste like this.” We imagined creating a custom blend that would hit all the notes we were looking for. 

• We imagined Esther as incredibly versatile with a light, refreshing palate: it could replace tequila in a margarita, vodka in an espresso martini, and hold its own in classic rum cocktails like the daiquiri and mojito. 

• We imagined something elevated and refined. 

The Path

We knew we wanted to work directly with distillery partners, rather than through a broker or middleman that supplies pre-formulated bulk rums. We wanted real relationships with partners that were trustworthy, authentic, and that valued sustainability and fair labor practices. 

One of our anthems at Esther (and our agency Nihilo) is that “the path reveals itself.” We do our best to put ourselves on the right trajectory, but part of the process is releasing control and allowing things to unfold.

Around the time that we were sourcing rums from many places, an old friend of my husband's from boarding school randomly reached out after many years – turns out, his family owns Casa Domecq Colombia, a heritage distillery in Colombia that is currently producing rum alongside wine and other spirits. Due to complicated domestic laws, Colombia only started exporting rum globally in recent years. The timing aligned magically, and we added Casa Domecq to our broad range of rums under consideration for our blend. 

The Process

For several months, we would receive little test vials in the mail from Jai Development, testing them ourselves and narrowing down the flavor profile and origin we were looking for.

It was honestly a bit daunting - we are not rum experts. But in the end, I think that’s what helped us be successful here: we were not looking to make a rum to compete with X and Y rum, we were looking to create something with universal appeal, with a flavor profile that regular people like us would both be surprised by and want to return to.

Like in all of our work, for our agency Nihilo and beyond, our best creative outputs come from a place of knowing nothing, building intuitively, asking for help, and learning with humility as we go. 

At a certain point, we knew what we liked and what we wanted to create, but we also recognized the value of bringing in people with deep, hands-on experience. Specifically, bartenders, the artists who make spirits like Esther come alive for consumers. So we assembled an advisory board focused on finalizing our rum. It included Chris Amirault, a celebrated beverage director and mixologist, and Michael Neff, an industry legend who has been opening influential bars across the country for over 30 years.

Here’s a picture from one of our in-person tasting sessions in Brooklyn. Needless to say, many “little sips” add up quickly 😂. 

After the festivities in the photo above, we landed on our blend: 40% Casa Domecq, the Colombian friend’s rum, an un-aged pot still rum with a beautiful, grassy rum agricole undertone, and 60% Venezuelan 4-year aged column still rum. We were excited by how it tasted and felt it was hitting all the right notes. 

At the same time, we loved the idea of partnering with a single distillery and were especially impressed with Casa Domecq. We spoke with them and decided to explore whether they could recreate the blend using only their own rums, allowing them to become our sole partner.

A few weeks later, Domecq sent us four new blends of 100% Colombian rum. One stood out immediately - it had the same character as the original but with a smoother finish, which was key for us. We want people to notice how drinkable Esther is. It also had a beautiful golden color.

We had a rum expert try Esther, and this is how he described it:

Fresh sugarcane grass, subtle oak, and light caramel. Medium-bodied, smooth with a slight sweetness, caramel, toasted oak, and mild grassy agricole notes. Subtle spice leaning toward anise and vanilla. Smooth.

And here we are.

Just about a year after we first decided “we want to make a rum,” we not only have a rum, but we’ve done a massive deep dive into the category. Shout out to writer Ian Burrell , who created this incredible resource that we devoured:

We’ve obsessed and learned.

We’ve fallen in love with the stories, with the processes, with the diversity, and most importantly, with Esther itself.

We love this rum. We’re proud to share it. We’re proud of its origins. It's uniquely us but also courageously universal. 

Meet Esther

The other night we sat with some early partners/investors to let them try Esther for the first time.

This is what we heard: “I wasn’t expecting to like a rum this much.” 

“It really reminds me of a reposado tequila”

“This is incredibly drinkable”

“You have to tell the story of this product.”

They were right. So here we are. And we will keep telling it. This is a story with no beginning and no end, and it grows and grows and grows. 

ESTHER is launching fall of 2025 exclusively in Ohio and online via drinkesther.com. Follow our journey and watch us elevate rum. @drinkesther