Master blender describes what goes into making top quality rum, including a new $95,000 bottle

The crystalline turquoise waters shimmer and dance invitingly in the sun on a hot, humid April day in Jamaica. We are at a spring-fed pond with clear waters burbling from limestone caverns in the heart of the Nassau Valley, 75 kilometres south of Montego Bay.

Surrounded by rolling, forest-covered hills, this pond feeds the Black River. It is also the water source used by Appleton Estate to make its world-famous rums. The water, piped to the distillery about seven kilometres away, is mixed with sugar cane molasses and a proprietary yeast for fermentation.

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