Cash In on Caribbean Rums

Tastes of the Tropics Lead to Sweet Sales

By Edward Hamilton

Mention the word rum and thoughts of sun-drenched tropical beaches fringing Caribbean islands, warm trade winds blowing across fields of sweet sugar cane and refreshing rum and fruit drinks at sunset come to mind. Sugar cane, and more importantly the alcohol made from this sweet juice, can be traced back a few thousand years to Asia, but it was in the Caribbean that rum’s roots found fertile ground and this noble spirit gained a reputation that has spanned the globe.


Across the Caribbean, you’re never far from a rum shop or discussion of who makes the best rum. With so many sugar cane spirits to choose from, the question, “What’s the best rum?” is on the lips of rum drinkers and aficionados alike. Certainly this is a legitimate question, but as the number of sugar cane spirits consumed around the world grows, so does the extremes of their quality. So, what makes a good rum? Let’s start with looking at the different kinds of rum and what makes the best in each category so savory.


Distillery Dynamics


Today there are more than 500 rums distilled and bottled at more than 50 distilleries in the Caribbean basin and more than another thousand rums distilled in countries where sugar cane is grown around the equator. Angostura, Bacardi, Bambu, Captain Morgan’s, Cruzan — the list is endless. In spite of sharing a common raw ingredient, sugar cane, these rums all vary from clear, fresh distillate straight from the still, to smooth dark rums that have spent decades in charred oak barrels. You also don’t have to search very hard to find the myriad rums flavored with almost every fruit and spice grown in the tropics — as well as a few flavors that aren’t found anywhere near the equator.


In Puerto Rico, the taste for rum favors the lightest, highly distilled rums — some of which could be mistaken for vodka. A few hundred miles southeast of Puerto Rico, the rums of Barbados are considerably heavier in taste and character, while the rums from the French West Indies are quite different and define a class of rum in themselves. On the other side of the globe, India produces a considerable amount of rum characterized by their dry, smoky flavor from molasses. There are as many styles of rum as there are rum-producing countries — to appreciate these different spirits we need to learn more about how they are made.


Let’s begin by looking at three things that have a significant effect on a bottle of rum: the raw material, distillation purity and treatment such as aging, flavoring and blending after the sugar distillate has been condensed from the still. Of course, other factors such as fermentation have a significant effect on the quality of any distilled spirit. But unlike spirits distilled from grains that require the raw material to be cooked with enzymes to convert the glucose to a fermentable sugar, sucrose — the sugar in sugar cane juice or molasses — is a direct source of sucrose and can be fermented simply by adding yeast and water, greatly reducing the congener content of the fermented wine.


The Molasses Majority


Most rum sold today is distilled from fermented molasses, the thick, black syrup left after all of the crystalline sugar has been removed from the sugar cane juice. A few distillers make their rum from a wine of freshly-squeezed sugar cane juice. Rums distilled from a molasses wine typically are distilled to between 90 and 95 percent alcohol, or neutral spirits.

During the sugar extraction process, sulfur and other minerals are concentrated in the molasses and if not removed in the distillation process will give the alcohol a sharp, biting taste. On the other hand, most rums distilled from fresh sugar cane juice are distilled to less than 75 percent alcohol and capture the aroma and taste of the fresh sugar cane juice without the sharp, biting taste associated with sulfur compounds. Sugar cane juice not only contains much more sugar necessary for the fermentation process, but it also contains much less sulfur since nothing has been removed to concentrate the unwanted minerals.


So, if you’re thinking that sugar cane juice rums are better than those made from molasses, you’re only partly correct. In reality, there are several sugar cane juice rums that aren’t particularly appealing to me and some molasses-based spirits are among my favorite rums. In addition to the raw material, the type of still and the distillation proof also are important to a good rum. In the simplest terms, three types of stills are in common use today: multi-column, single-column and pot stills, though the latter isn’t nearly as common as the former. What kind of still makes the best rum? Well, that depends on what kind of wine we are distilling and what kind of rum we want to make.


The Pursuit of Purity


Until the development of the continuous column still in the mid-19th century, all distillation was accomplished in pot stills. Today, many Cognacs, whiskeys and other spirits are being made in this time-honored method. In the rum industry, the use of the pot still has been almost entirely replaced by multi-column stills with multiple product streams which can closely mirror the condensate from a pot still. A few distillers continue to use pot stills, but almost all of the pot still rum produced today is blended with rum from continuous stills since the high congener content from the pot still requires years of aging before it is considered acceptable to the modern market.


Since most rum is made from molasses, it must be distilled to a high purity to remove the congeners present in the molasses wine. The multiple-column still allows the distiller to condense a spirit which is almost neutral and at the same time condense other product streams which contain higher degrees of fusel oils and other congeners. These high congener rums aren’t very good by themselves, but when aged and blended with lighter rums, give the blends a very agreeable character.
In the French islands, almost all of the rhum agricole (distilled from fresh sugar cane juice) is distilled in single-column copper stills to about 72 percent alcohol by volume.

This combination of high sugar content, raw material and low distillation purity allows the distiller to preserve much of the flavor of the sugar cane. And unlike most of the multiple column stills in use on the other islands, these single-column stills are made entirely of copper. In years past, all distillation equipment was made of the soft, malleable metal, but today stainless steel has replaced copper at most large rum distilleries due to the increased cost of maintaining a copper still. But copper does more than just contain the steam and fermented wash while the alcohol is being concentrated.

During the distillation process, copper acts as a catalyst to promote the precipitation of copper and sulfur compounds which are removed with the spent wash.


Strength of Spirit


Condensed from the vapor collected from the distillation column or pot still, all alcohol beverages are born as a clear liquid with a viscosity less than that of water. At this point in rum production, distillers take several different approaches depending on the market for their products. A few distillers that make rum from molasses bottle the high-proof spirit directly from the still, and that’s the way their customers like it.

According to many St. Vincentians, where the white rum is some of the strongest in the Caribbean, “If it don’t take your breath and burn goin’down, it just ain’t no good rum.” On the island of Jamaica, slightly diluted over-proof white rum is the local favorite, though most tourists prefer to take home one of the many aged rums also sold on the island. Among over-proof rum drinkers, not everyone is looking for the smoothest taste in their spirit. And while this opinion isn’t shared by most rum drinkers in America, every Caribbean country has at least one over-proof white rum that is bottled nearly straight from the still.


Most white, or clear, rums made from a molasses wine are aged to remove the sharp bite acquired during the fermentation process. One exception is Prichard’s White Rum, which according to Phil Pritchard, “has never seen the inside of a barrel.” But unlike most clear rums, Pritchard’s is distilled five times in a copper pot still. Distilling five times is quite effective in removing the esters and sulfur compounds that contribute to the sharp taste of some other clear rums. Other distillers treat the fresh distillate with chemicals that reduce the sharp bite of raw molasses by changing the chemical composition of the bottled product.


In 1948, Puerto Rico adopted a law which required all rums to be aged at least a year before being bottled in an effort to raise the quality of the island’s rum. Many molasses-based clear rums are aged from six months to as much as four years. After aging, a process which gives the spirit a smoother taste and also imparts a golden color, the rum is carbon-filtered to remove the color acquired during the time spent in an oak barrel.

Cruzan, from the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, ages all of its rums at least two years before they are bottled. Flor de Caña ages its best white rum four years in used barrels for a taste rich in coconut and tropical fruit flavors. As the popularity of this segment of the rum industry grows, I look forward to seeing more of these aged white rums in the market.


But not all white rums are aged. The French rhum agricole blanc isn’t aged at all, but French distillers allow their fresh rhum to rest a few months before bottling, a process similar to letting a fine wine breathe before it is enjoyed. The combination of a fresh sugar cane juice wine and a low distillation proof yields a very full flavor rum than the drier and lighter molasses-based rums which have been highly distilled.


At Least One for Every Occasion


Centuries ago, a Dutch ship captain observed that after a voyage from the Caribbean, the spirits on his ship were smoother and darker and had acquired a better taste during the voyage. As we move into the 21st century the research continues in an effort to identify those factors that contribute to the improvement in the taste of aged spirits. Almost every rum distiller in the Caribbean uses used whisky and bourbon barrels from the United States, Canada or Europe to age its spirits. But like so many things in this fascinating industry, just because you age your rum doesn’t necessarily make it better.

Aging rum is a chemical process, and like most chemical processes, the oxidation and the formation of esters in the presence of alcohol and wood is accelerated by temperature. In the tropics, where the temperature is rarely less than 70 degrees Fahrenheit and more commonly between 80 and 94 degrees, distilled spirits mature more rapidly. And although some people have a taste for the heavy, smoky oak flavors of spirits that have aged more than 15 years in the tropics, it generally is agreed that at more than about eight years the spirit may be past its peak of maturity.


But that’s not to say that there aren’t rums that have aged 20 or more years that aren’t on my list of favorites rums. A few years ago, I enjoyed a bottle of 30-year-old Cadenhead rum which had been distilled in Jamaica and then aged in the UK for 30 years. That cask-strength bottle of rum was memorable, but Zacapa’s Ron Centenario also is a delight after aging 23 years high in the mountains of central Guatemala. These rums may be the perfect way to end the day, but for an aperitif, I prefer a much lighter rum.


So what’s the best rum? Well, are you looking for something to drink as an aperitif, something to accompany a hearty meal, or perhaps to enjoy after dinner with a cup of coffee or a cigar? Rum is the most varied distilled spirit, there’s at least one rum for every occasion, but not one rum for every occasion. NCB