While the country is among the world top 5 sugar producers, Thailand produced until recently cheap molassesrums for local consumption. A few years back, some French people settled in the country and started producing high-quality rums from pure sugar cane juice, such as Chalong Bay in Phuket and Issan in the north of the country on the border with Laos. It should be noted that Thai legislation prohibits to non-Thai companies to age their rum or to bottle it at a strength higher than 40% abv. Let's hope that these restrictions will change in the future.