Our Spirit of the Month: Rum

The story of Rum is linked with the story of exploration into the "new world", the story of the Americas, and unfortunately, the story of slavery.

You can't make Rum without sugarcane, the cultivation and refining of which was perfected by the Persians and Arabs in the 7th Century. By the 12th Century, the Arabs controlled all the sugar in the Mediterranean region and throughout Europe. Wanting independence from Middle East sugar, Portugal found regions around Cape Verde and the Canary Islands that had the perfect climate for sugarcane and enslaved Africans to make sugar in the sugar mills and plantations. This violent colonization caused them to become the world's biggest sugar exporter by the 16th Century.

Wherever people are, booze will happen, and it's thought that the slaves fermented the molasses (a sugar byproduct) and that was the drink of the poor and enslaved. Eventually, someone distilled it and Rum was born.

Sugarcane eventually found another region to be grown in the "New World" and the rise of sugar, molasses, and rum in the Caribbean brought along with it colonization, slavery, piracy, taxes, and some of the richest sugar barons in the world.

The United States was a big consumer of rum, so much so that distillers started buying cheaper molasses and distilling it at home instead of buying it abroad. Everyone knows about the Tea Party and taxation without representation, but the Sugar Act was one of the reasons for the Revolution as well. Eventually the US became a whiskey country, and rum fell out of favor, partially due to the ability to grow corn and wheat at home and to keep our money here.

Rum remains political, even to this day. In the 1960s, Bacardi moved to Puerto Rico after Castro confiscated their distilleries in Cuba. This move had the opposite effect Castro intended, as they became bigger than they ever might have if they had stayed, and now is one of the top selling spirits in the world. In 2008, the US gave Diageo a subsidy to build a Captain Morgan distillery on the US Virgin Islands.

Types of Rum

White Rum

White rum is clear, usually has milder flavor and lighter body than gold or dark rums. These light types of rum are most often used to create cocktails that do not have a need for bold rum flavor.

In the U.S., most white rums are sold at 80 proof, or 40% alcohol by volume. They are often aged one or more years, then filtered to remove color. White rums may be cheaper to make and less expensive to purchase that more mature rums.

Gold Rum

As rum mellows in barrels over time, it takes on amber or golden hues. These golden types of rum usually present a more flavorful profile than the white or clear rums. Gold rums are used to make cocktails in which a stronger flavor is desired.

Gold rums are often aged several years or more and some coloring may be added to provide consistency. Subtle flavors of vanilla, almond, citrus, caramel or coconut may be present from the type of barrels used in the aging process.

Gold rums are often enjoyed on the rocks or neat, in addition to being used in cocktail recipes. They are popular in recipes for baking and making desserts as well.

Dark Rum

The term Dark Rum is essentially meaningless.

Many aged rums are referred to as dark, only to distinguish them from light. The label of dark rum is often assigned to a range of rums that are not clear, from light golden amber to black, as well as rums that are well aged.

Dark types of rum are often aged in oak barrels for extended periods.

Black Rum

The darkest, richest, heavy bodied rums are often referred to as black rums, offering bold tropical essence to libation and recipes. Black types of rum are popular ingredients used to balance the flavors of drinks against gold, white and spiced rums.

Most rum is made from molasses, a thick, dark sweet liquid left over in the process of manufacturing crystallized sugar. The black rums retain much of this rich molasses and caramel flavoring and are sometimes colored with burnt caramel to achieve consistently dark hues.

Premium Aged Rum

Many fine rums are aged in oak barrels for years to achieve a superior flavor profile. The interaction of spirit and wood has a positive effect on the smoothness, the richness and the subtle flavors of the rum.

Aged rums often represent the finest examples of mature rums from a distillery, often blended to achieve complexity and distinctive flavor profiles. The cost of storage and the loss of some rum from the barrels through evaporation adds to the cost of producing aged rums.

These older, more mature rums, often labeled as anejo in Spanish territories, are often enjoyed neat or on the rocks like a fine cognac or single malt scotch. In addition, many cocktail recipes call for the inclusion of these flavorful and rich types of rum.

Vintage Rums

While most rums sold in the U.S. are blended from multiple sources before bottling, some unique rums are bottled from specific vintage years of production.

Vintage rums are most often seen from the French islands, where the growing and processing season is short. In some cases, private label rum brands purchase a large bulk of rum from a single production year, age the product and bottle it when maturity is peaking.

Boutique rum brands are bringing more vintage rums to the market every year. These types of rum tend to be limited editions that are valuable to collectors and serious rum enthusiasts.

Spiced Rum

The myriad types of flavors and spices infused into rums offer a wide range of interesting and multifarious variations of spirits, both full proof and limited potency liqueurs and creams. Spiced and flavored types of rum offer unique flavors to cocktails, rum cakes, holiday libations and many other uses, bringing decidedly tropical flavors to the palate.

Overproof Rum

Most rums available for sale in the U.S. are 80 to 100 proof(40% to 50% alcohol by volume). Types of rum which contain higher concentrations of alcohol are often labeled as overproof. The US has a limit of 155 proof for rums, so often you will see 151 as a proof.