 Samai Gold Rum (left) and Samai Kampot Pepper Rum (right) | |
| Industry | Distilled beverages |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 (2014) |
| Founders | Diego Wilkins, Daniel Pacheco and Antonio Lopez |
| Headquarters | , Cambodia |
Key people | Moang Darachampich (master distiller) |
| Products | Rum |
Production output | 500 bottles/month (2018)[1] |
Number of employees | 16 (2018)[1] |
| Website | samaidistillery |
Samai Rum Distillery (Khmer:សិប្បកម្មកែច្នៃស្រារ៉ោមសម័យ) is aCambodian premiumrum manufacturer inPhnom Penh founded in 2014. The first rum distillery in the country,[2] it was founded by Diego Wilkins, Daniel Pacheco and Antonio Lopez.[3]
Samai Distillery was selected as one of 10 startup distilleries forDiageo's distillery incubation programme. Since then, its rums have won numerous awards from across the world such asSan Francisco World Spirits Competition, the London International Spirits Challenge, the Singapore World Spirits Competition and the Miami International Rum Conference. Currently, the distillery exports around 30% of its production toSingapore,France andSpain, while the remaining 70% is sold domestically.[4]
In 2020, after the start of theCOVID-19 pandemic, Samai Distillery began producinghand sanitizer from the distillation fraction previously used for disinfecting equipment.[5]
Samai Distillery producesañejo rum[6] using traditional handmade 500-litre copperpot stills.[4] It sources itssugarcane from eastern regions of theKoh Kong Province to produce three kinds of rums – Samai Gold Rum flavoured withMondulkiri wild honey, Samai PX Limited Edition Rum aged in Sherry American oak barrels and Kampot Pepper Rum spiced withKampot pepper.[6]
