“Spirit of Haiti,” 100% sugar cane, wild yeasts, pot still, still proof, 55.2% ABV, 750 ml.
Clairin Sajous is produced at Distillerie Chelo, owned by Michel Sajous in the countryside of Saint-Michel-de-l’Attalaye, about four hours north of Port au Prince.
Michel Sajous is third generation producer, having built his own distillery in 2004 on the site of his family’s distillery before him.
Distillerie Chelo is a small, well-organised distillery which produces Clairin from Canne Cristalline, an old heritage variety of burgundy cane with incredible aromatic complexity. Michel’s harvest season typically runs between December and August, where they cut the cane fields by hand, using machete and ferments the juice spontaneously with the ambient yeast of his land.
The Spirit of Haiti was created in 2012 as a collaborative project, aiming to release co-bottlings from producers of Clairin Traditionnel – working together with Michel Sajous, Fritz Vaval, Faubert Casimir, Bethel Romelus and Stephan Kalil Saoud.
Based in Port-au-Prince, The Spirit of Haiti is proud to be the first export company to offer opportunity and support to small producers of Clairin Traditionnel. Through sustainable business relationships and practice, we foster the hopes of growing the category of locally celebrated Clairin Traditionnel on the global market.
The Spirit of Haiti aims to share the liquid exactly as one would find it in its home – all our offerings are bottled at the strength that it leaves the still, with no dilution or filtration. The liquid is collected in drums and transported to Port-au-Prince for bottling, labelling and export. All production, aging and bottling is done in Haiti.