Table of contents for Rum v3 in Rum

All the signs are that rum itself is on trend in the spirits world. Reports, such as one recently released by Campari Group UK, indicate that year-on-year sales are up across all rum’s sub-categories. But what does this really mean? Reports that draw on IWSR Drinks Market Analysis data can easily identify top-line data of volume sales. Trends invariably start small, though, and I’ve been keeping an eye on the social media rum pages and retailer offerings, and listening to feedback from the trade. One thing is for sure: with rum on the up and up, it’s an exciting time to be involved. A SENSE OF INDEPENDENCE Scrolling through the last years’ worth of new releases on a rather well-known online retailer, the first thing that is massively apparent is…

Managing the estate at one of the world’s most famous rum distilleries is not a task for the faint-hearted. Fortunately, when Mount Gay in Barbados was recruiting for this role, it found a candidate who was bold, enthusiastic and eminently qualified in Maggie Campbell. Hailing from the US, Campbell’s education and practical experience in spirits amply fit her for a role of this scope and prestige. She holds a diploma in craft distilling technologies from the Siebel Institute, a level four diploma from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET), and attended the Ethanol Technology Institute’s Alcohol School in Jamaica. Following an original passion for whisky, Campbell worked as an assistant distiller at Californian brandy maker Germain-Robin and, most recently, as president and head distiller of Privateer Rum. She served…

“It’s another planet,” is how Daniele Biondi, rum manager for spirits distributor La Maison & Velier, describes Haiti. The third largest country in the Caribbean, Haiti gets its name from the indigenous Arawak word ayti meaning ‘mountainous land’ – indeed, its terrain includes mountain ranges as well as rocky shores, cliffs and coral reefs. Flamingos prosper in secluded areas and caimans can be found in the rivers of the southern peninsula. Its people are descendants of African slaves and Haitian Creole and French are their most-spoken languages. It’s notoriously difficult to travel to and around; dirt roads, multiple hours in four-wheel drives and lack of amenities are all part of the fun. Farmers are known to cultivate plantains, bananas and corn, and most people – when it comes to drinks…

CUBAN SPICED RUM PUNCH Get summer party ready with this rum punch recipe, which is sweet and fruity with powerful tropical flavours. • 50 ml / 1.7 oz Havana Club Cuban Spiced• 40 ml / 1.3 oz pineapple juice• 20 ml / 0.7 oz guava juice• 20 ml / 0.7 oz orange juice• 15 ml / 0.5 oz lime juice• 10 ml / 0.3 oz strawberry syrup or grenadine To serve one: Add the ingredients to a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Serve in a short glass over ice. To serve a crowd: Multiply recipe for the number of people. Add the ingredients to a punch bowl with ice, and stir until chilled. CANTINERO COOLER A refreshingly modern cocktail that pairs the sweet and spicy flavours of vermouth…

Karen Hoskin is the CEO of Montanya Rum, which she co-founded with her husband 14 years ago in Colorado, US. In addition to steering the company into double-digit growth in every year, she is an advocate for many issues regarding social responsibility and environmental stewardship. More than the bottom line, Hoskin is proud of the advance Montanya has made as a certified B Corporation, a designation that recognises a company’s actions in many areas including sourcing of ingredients, energy efficiency practices, trash and waste, non-GMO claims, employee benefits, community donations, diversity hiring practices and carbon emissions mitigation. Rum sat down with Hoskin to talk about all things sugarcane. Andrew Faulkner (AF): Where do you source the cane for Montanya Rum? Karen Hoskin (KH): I’m working with American-grown sugarcane, which I…

In October 2021, Bacardi’s global master rum blender, the inimitable José “Joe” Gomez, announced he was stepping down after 41 years with the global spirits group. Gomez was instrumental in expanding the horizons of Bacardí rum, and grew to become one of the industry’s most well-regarded maestros roneros. The person replacing Gomez is his former protégé, Astrophel “Troy” Arquiza. Originally from the Philippines (which is the world’s largest consumer of gin, in case you wanted to know), Arquiza joined Bacardi’s Asia-Pacific arm as a trainee more than 20 years ago and has since worked his way to the heart of the business – first to Bacardi’s main distillery in Puerto Rico, and then into the tutelage of its legendary master blender. He describes “taking the baton” from his mentor as…

From the perspective of an educated outsider, rum has a number of similarities to whisky. Both spirits are subject to carefully monitored fermentation and distillation processes to harness a desirable set of aromatic characteristics. Both utilise maturation in wood as a tool for flavour enhancement. Both are also experiencing a surge in so-called ‘craft’ distilling. It was these similarities that led revered master blender Billy Walker to begin experimenting with rum. A veteran of the Scotch whisky industry, Walker purchased the GlenAllachie Distillery with two business partners in 2017 after selling a prosperous trio of distilleries – GlenDronach, Benriach and Glenglassaugh – to US spirits company Brown-Forman. In the years since, the GlenAllachie Distillers Company has demonstrated expertise and innovation in its wood management, including securing the title of World’s…

The first time you taste agricole, you never forget it. Rhum agricole is distilled from pressed cane sugar instead of the broader rum category’s more typical fermented cane juice or molasses. Agricole is the r(h)um of French-speaking Caribbean countries, with roots in the island of Martinique. The word means ‘agricultural’ and agricole r(h)um is often grassy, vegetal, earthy, even funky – a unique flavour profile sought out by rum aficionados and in-the-know bartenders. Tasting cane juice fresh off a press in sugarcane fields, I taste the verdant profile it will become. Enter Hawaii, where some of the most exciting agricole in the world is being produced from locally grown sugarcane. The island of Oahu, home to Hawaii’s largest population, is where KōHana Distillers solely produces agricole rum from 100 per…

There are many questions I long to ask master blenders, but the most important thing I can say to them is: thank you for the happiness that tasting your rums has given me. I would also like to extend my gratitude to a key collaborator who rarely receives any public acknowledgement, let alone acclaim, and that is yeast. What would fermentation be without you? Literally nothing! And yet, yeast has no idea that it performs such a vital role. Yeast sees a fermentation vessel full of molasses or sugarcane juice as an all-you-can-eat buffet, and its only thought is to tuck into all those sugars. But the motivation isn’t sheer greed. Metabolising (digesting) sugars provides yeast with the energy to grow and, more importantly, to reproduce, thereby establishing the next…

Scotland’s Hebridean island of Islay is synonymous with whisky, and particularly with peated single malts. The history of whisky making on the island dates back centuries, to unlicensed farm-based operations, and there are currently nine legal operational whisky distilleries on the island, with another under construction. It therefore comes as something of a surprise to walk into an Islay distillery and find someone talking about molasses. That someone is Ben Inglis, who has bucked Islay’s whisky trend by establishing its first rum distillery. The facility is housed in the former Hastie’s lemonade factory on the outskirts of the village of Port Ellen. The building is dwarfed by Diageo’s vast Port Ellen Maltings, which stands on the opposite side of the main road leading to the great Islay trinity of Laphroaig,…

Dictador unveils new 2 Masters release Colombian distillery Dictador has announced a new release in its 2 Masters series, created in collaboration with leading producers in the drinks industry. Dictador 2 Masters Carlos I was created in partnership with the Osborne Group in Spain, combining the expertise of Dictador master blender Hernan Parra and Carlos I’s former sherry and brandy blender Ignacio Lozano. The release saw a 1980 Dictador rum handed to the Osborne Group to be aged in a Carlos I Brandy de Jerez cask, which formerly held Amontillado and oloroso sherry. Don Q brings new expressions to Europe Peurto Rico’s Destilería Serrallés is introducing two more expressions from its Don Q rum range to drinkers in Europe. Don Q Reserva 7, a blend of column-distilled rums aged for…

What’s your guilty pleasure? Binge-watching sitcoms? Dancing to ABBA songs? German chocolate cake? Perhaps sweet rums? For a few years now, the internet has been echoing the evidence for what rum aficionados have known for a long time: some rum producers put a lot of sugar into their spirits. Perhaps no one would have noticed if a bunch of craft distillers hadn’t come along early in the century and started making rum by what they were taught and what they could find out, and imitating what other small distillers – like themselves – did. “Americans have chased after bourbon. They offer a drier, oakier flavour,” said Wayne Curtis, designated drinker, and author of And a Bottle of Rum: The History of the New World in Ten Cocktails. Start-up craft American…

“Have you spoken to Raphael [Grisoni of Mount Gay Distillery] yet? He’s probably a little more diplomatic than me,” says CEO and master distiller of R.L. Seale and Foursquare Distillery, Richard Seale, moments before manifesting his views on the Barbados rum geographical indication (GI) debate. In a world where even Yorkshire forced rhubarb has its own GI, it may come as a shock to rum lovers that rum’s birthplace island is still lacking one. The prospect of developing a GI to protect the interests of Barbados rum has long been on the table, but a unanimously agreed final draft is yet to see the light. The island’s four producers – Rémy Cointreau-owned Mount Gay, Seale’s Foursquare, and St Nicholas Abbey on one front, and the island’s largest firm, Maison Ferrand-owned…

The rumour that rum is on the cusp of a meteoric rise in popularity – one that could echo or even equal the modern gin boom – has been circulating among craft spirits aficionados for years. So far, this has yet to materialise. It could be, perhaps, that rum has not yet found its modern poster child: a fresh face that will stand out amongst the legacy brands to capture hearts and minds while showing the category’s potential to the world. However, Dawn Davies, head buyer at The Whisky Exchange and a highly respected spirits commentator, believes such a contender is emerging: The Duppy Share. Davies has posited that the British rum brand “is doing to rum what Hendrick’s has done for gin” – and if she has said it,…

Two Barbados businesses are celebrating the opening of a new sugarcane research facility which could help to revolutionise rum production on the island. The West Indies Rum Distillery (WIRD) and the West Indies Central Sugar Cane Breeding Station (WICSCBS) collaborated to open the Harper Sugar Cane Mill, named after 19th-century Barbadian sugarcane expert Iran Harper. The mill will press and collect fresh sugarcane juice, with the capacity to process seven tons of cane per hour. The extracted juice will then be used by the WICSCBS for research purposes and by the WIRD (the owner of Plantation and Stade’s Rum) for distillation. At the opening of the new facility in April 2022, WIRD managing director Andrew Hassell said, “In 2020, the West Indies Sugar Cane Breeding Station’s team was in great…

P&O Cruises’ latest cruise ship Arvia is set to boast the world’s first floating rum distillery when it sets sail on its maiden voyage to the Canary Islands later this year. A specially adapted still onboard the ship at Anderson’s Bar will produce The Tidal Rum: a blend of Caribbean rums infused with a rare coastal botanical, pepper dulse, which has been created by Jersey-based Short Boys Distillery in what is a world-first for the growing cruise industry. “The rum’s maiden production will take place onboard Arvia in the first rum distillery at sea in Anderson’s Bar. It will then be ready for guests to enjoy neat or in an array of expertly crafted cocktails onboard,” confirms The Tidal Rum co-founder Harry Coulthard, who grew up on the east coast…

Understanding rum is not straightforward for the uninitiated. There are plenty of reviewers offering their feedback on tasting profiles, or their ratings. What does a 3/5 score mean to you if you do not understand the rum? The thing with technical reviews is that a high score generally means that the bottling is very well realised in what it is trying to be – but is that a guarantee you are going to like it? That very much depends on your preferences and where you are on your rum journey. Broad-brush colonial-model categorisations are often quoted and can be a good starting point, but are a little loose; the Gargano Classification (pictured right) gives more detail. SPANISH / LATIN STYLE Rums loosely grouped as Spanish or Latin in style tend…