Agricole rum is not supposed to be possible in Canada. It needs cane, and cane needs heat we do not have. Victoria News came out to the farm to see how we got around that — and the answer was a crop, a microclimate, and a family with hand sickles.
99-year-old North Saanich farm’s Agricole Rum a ‘first in Canada’
What “agricole” actually means
The word comes from Martinique, where agricole describes a rum distilled from fresh-pressed cane juice rather than from molasses. It is a different category of spirit entirely — grassy, bright, closer to the field it came from. Almost all of the world’s rum is molasses-based, because molasses travels and cane juice does not.
Sugarcane needs far more heat, for far longer, than even the south coast of British Columbia can offer. Sorghum cane — an African crop with a similar juice profile — can make it here. That was the bet.
“We took a very traditional concept of agricole and gave a Canadian spin on it and used sorghum.”
Best Coast Distillers co-founder Corey Wood, quoted in Victoria News
120 days, and then a hand sickle
The farm’s microclimate on the Saanich Peninsula delivers just over 120 days of good growing weather before an October harvest — which is roughly the minimum the crop needs, with no margin for a bad summer.
“You’re nursing this crop all spring, summer and into the fall,” Wood told the paper. That harvest is likely the reason other Canadian farms and distilleries have not followed: it is cut by hand, with sickles, the same way it would have been done on this property when co-founder Cory Hastings’ family started farming it in 1927.
It is a family job in the literal sense. The kids are out there knocking cane down, stripping leaves, clipping ends and feeding the crusher.
“Even coming from the prairies and the farming lifestyle, it’s the first time I’ve felt that connection back to the farming community.”
Corey Wood, quoted in Victoria News
That first release was 170 bottles with hand-written labels — a genuinely small batch, priced accordingly, because that is what four acres and a hand harvest produce.
How to drink it
Wood’s recommendation to the paper was the traditional Ti’ Punch, and it is still the right answer: “a couple plugs of the rum, some cane sugar, and a few drops of lime. Mix it up, and that’s it.” Strong, and very good.
What has happened since
At the 2026 Canadian Artisan Spirit Competition our Agricole Rum took a Silver Medal and the distillery was recognised for Excellence in Terroir and Product Innovation — which is about as direct a validation of the estate-grown argument as a judging panel can give. Our Cold Brew Coffee Whisky, made with Level Ground Coffee Roasters, also took Silver. The bourbon-style whisky mentioned at the end of that 2025 article arrived too, as the 1927 Centennial Edition, made with B.C. corn and barley malted at Field Five Farm.
Try it
Agricole releases are small and they do sell out. The Spiced Agricole Rum starts from the same estate-grown spirit and is barrel-aged.
Reporting by Christine van Reeuwyk for Victoria News / Black Press Media, March 2025. Quotes and reporting are the newspaper’s; please read the original article for the full piece.