Rather than going all “rum is produced from ‘Genus saccharum officinarun’”, we’re going to break down the process for you the way our Wise Monkeys passed on to us.
No BS, just pure rum.
It’s a simple idea: Where there’s sugarcane, there shall be sugarcane-based spirits.
It’s an unsaid rule that made its way since centuries, and the process roughly goes like this:
- The base for rum (either sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice) is fermented and distilled to give a clear liquid.
- It then typically undergoes ageing in wooden casks or steel tanks. (the vessel in which it is kept being key in defining the profile of the rum. Casks give an earthy dark rum while steel keeps the liquor colorless. Simple science.)
This was the TLDR version.
Now for those who are looking for a longer version of the story, lets take a walk back in history.
It is said that after sugar cane was introduced in the Caribbeans, it was consumed widely by the slaves (sugarcane and rum has quite the dark history). Even with high rates of consumption, the molasses created after extracting sugar was abundant and people were left clueless on what to do with it.
That’s when some genius came up with the idea of brewing liquor out of the leftover molasses. Surely enough the idea caught on, and we now enjoy the brilliance of rum.
In modern age, people have luxuriously experimented with rum blends, techniques, and whatnots to offer an experience that sets it aside from the rest.
Now rums go on to be produced by,
- Directly fermenting sugar cane juice
or - Fermenting the concentrated syrup from sugar cane juice
or - Fermenting the molasses that remain after processing the juice
Within molasses as well, they differ in the way they are created. In the book ‘Rum: A Global History’, Richard Floss explains that the British categorised the first distilling as ‘light molasses’, the second as ‘dark treacle or dark molasses’, and the third distilling as ‘blackstrap molasses’.
Along with this, the climate and soil from which the sugarcane were harvested would also impact rum’s flavour profile. This is why rum produced out of molasses from Barbados would taste way different from a rum produced out of Dominican molasses. So, knowing where your rum comes from would give you an idea on what to expect.
Moving onto the fermentation, there are two methods that can be adopted. Distillers can go for natural fermentation, which would sound like the “water to wine” dream coming true.
In this, the product will sit in open vats that will let the natural yeasts in the air do their thing and turn sugar into alcohol.
Another widely used fermentation technique is to introduce strains of yeast and control the fermentation process.
After fermentation, you have a low-alcohol product which will give you the desired liquid through distillation. This is the process under which alcohols are separated from the fermented mixture.
The rum processing does not simply end here though. After distillation the manufacturer can choose to age the rum in barrels for as long as few weeks to 50 years and more.
Each and every element adds on beautifully to a flavour profile like no other. Which is why it is said that every bottle of rum is different from the other. It can be as lawless as Clint Eastwood’s characters.