Rum Historical introduction
Sugarcane was domesticated in New Guinea as early as 8000 BC, reached the Asian continent (now India) around 1000 BC, was brought to Iran in the 6th century AD, and entered Sicily and Spain in the 7th century.
In 1493, Columbus brought sugar cane from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean on his second voyage.
In 1627, 80 English colonists and 10 slaves set foot on Barbados, bringing distillation technology with them and starting to produce sugar cane spirits.
In the 18th century, due to the triangular trade, rum became a world-famous spirit; Britain's emerging middle class had three choices for spirits: French brandy, Dutch gin and West Indies rum. Rum punch was the most popular drink of the time.
In the late 19th century, phylloxera broke out in Europe, which greatly affected the wine industry and gave French colonial rum an opportunity to develop.
In 1919, the United States promulgated Prohibition, and cheap and light Western-style rum occupied the American underground bar market.
The definition and origin of rum
Rum is a spirit that is fermented and then distilled from sugar cane juice, sugar cane syrup, or molasses. It can be bottled directly or aged in oak barrels to produce a darker, richer style.
Different from whiskey, the rum industry has relatively loose legal regulations due to its diversity of origins, history and culture, etc. Therefore, it has diversity in taste, color, production technology, and blending additives after aging, which means Understanding rum is more complicated and requires an understanding of the local historical and cultural background.
There are many countries producing rum (sugar cane spirit) around the world, not just in the Caribbean.
rum style
Many rum information divides rum into white rum, golden rum and dark rum according to color; but this is as meaningless as classifying beer styles into black, yellow and white. Color cannot express the aroma of a wine at all. with taste.
On the rum label, in addition to the familiar Rum, there will also be Rhum and Ron; from English, French and Spanish respectively; this indicates the possible style of this rum and also brings out a long-standing classification. : The "Rum Bloodline Theory" that divides British rum, French rum, and Western rum into three parts. These three largest sovereign states were the core forces in the colonial history of the Caribbean and South America. These three countries not only defined the spelling of rum, but also influenced the colonial rum brewing tradition because of the preferences, policies, and trade patterns of the sovereign countries. Therefore, "rum origin" often means the origin, raw materials, process selection, and aging method of this rum, which naturally brings "predictable" flavor performance.
Rum and the British Navy
The technology was backward at that time. In order to solve the problem of fresh water deterioration, beer and brandy were used as supplementary drinks on board the ship. The aroma of the wine was used to improve the taste and have a sterilizing effect. In 1740, Vice Admiral Edward Vernon of the British Royal Navy led his fleet to sea operations. He distributed rum as a standard supply and stipulated the time and amount of drinking. It became a fixed system in 1756.
A common suzerainty alone cannot define British rum. This is also one of the main flaws of the rum lineage theory: the colonial history obscures the names of the people who actually made rum, and it cannot accurately point to the flavor. Therefore, it is difficult to say what "English rum" is. Although the raw materials are molasses, the British rum craftsmanship in various colonies around the world is quite different.
Of course, you can still find some characteristics of British rum: complicated brewing process, long fermentation time, wild yeast (the French system also has it, but in order to accommodate the sugar cane juice, strict temperature control), bagasse reuse, pot distillation vessel; creating a unique, darker, richer, high-ester style rum.
Spain
Different from the British colonial model in the Americas, Spain was obsessed with the legend of El Dorado and did better than nothing in agricultural development in the Americas. The Invincible Fleet became a convoy fleet, but it did not develop mercantilism based on sea power. What is even more miserable is that there are artificial restrictions. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Spain classified native American alcohol as contraband for reasons such as protecting the local wine industry and promoting Christianity.
"Fortunately", in 1762, the British Royal Fleet captured Havana Bay from the Spanish. As soon as the navy anchored in the port, the local interest groups in the West Indies over there - merchants, bankers, sugar millers, slave traders, ship owners, refiners, etc., had already taken notice of the situation and attracted investment. They reclaimed wasteland, built water conservancy projects, sold slaves, brewed molasses, and started trade. They copied the successful templates of many surrounding sugar islands and carried out drastic reforms to Cuba's business model. In less than a year, they transformed the island into an intensive sugar production base.
After the war, Spain exchanged Florida for Havana and Manila. However, those local elites who had fully tasted the sweetness of the British economic system were not happy. In 1778, Carlos III finally reluctantly allowed free trade in the colonies. In the next thirty years, Cuba introduced There were far more African slaves than there were in the previous century and a half. Its sugar and rum industries are also on the fast track.
Technology is the primary productive force, and the rapidly growing market is giving us the impetus to pursue technological progress. In 1791, Cuba's annual sugar production capacity was only 16,731 tons, which was only 20% to 30% of that of Jamaica and French Saint-Domingue during the same period. After absorbing the French experience and changing the processing equipment from shotgun to cannon, the export figure alone increased to 55,000 tons in 1820. In 1840, Cuba's output exceeded that of the British West Indies combined. By 1860, Cuba contributed nearly one-third of the world's sugar, becoming a veritable "sugar bowl of the world."
In 1808, engineer Jean-Baptiste Cellier-Blumenthal designed a continuous distiller, which was immediately installed in Cuban sugar plantations. In 1836, Charles Derosne and Jean-Francois Cail invented the Derosne filtration system, and Ron Lïgero Cubano was born. Through continuous distillation + filtration, the Cubans finally found their own rum technology route, and "production capacity" became the core keyword of Western-style rum.
To sum up, the core of Western-style rum is column distillation, industrialization, and production capacity at the lowest possible cost. Its style has also become easy to drink and unburdensome. Raw materials, fermentation, flavor enhancement, and aging are all centered around this goal. This has brought tremendous wealth to Western-style rum since the 20th century, but it also makes it seem outdated and unreal today. Although it still occupies an absolute share of the market, it has also locked itself on the edge of enthusiasts' vision.
France
The spokesperson for French rum is naturally Martinique. Martinique is known as "all roads lead to rum", but its production capacity only accounts for a pitiful 2% of the rum world, and the entire French rum only accounts for 5%. The reason was influenced by the early protection of the French brandy market, and because France did not have such a large sugar trading volume in the colonial trading system. Until the phylloxera disaster broke out in Europe, century-old vines were destroyed, and the French began to lose supply of wine.
Under this situation, the French turned their attention to the rum produced in their own colony. Since then, the development of French rum has been bright and promising, and it has ushered in its own spring.
Since the raw materials for the French sugar industry are mainly sugar beets rather than sugar cane, the sucrose industry in the French colonies was not developed, and there was not enough sucrose by-product molasses. Therefore, they directly use fresh sugar cane juice to brew rum, which also forms a differentiated competition with Western-style rum that follows the modern technology route, and they actively call their rum agricultural rum rhum agricole.
Martinique seems to have really been forgotten by the world. Beyond the ocean, for two hundred years, not only rum and sugar, but also humans all over the world were involved in an unprecedented war. On the island, for two hundred years, they worked tirelessly to produce their own agricultural rum. When everything calmed down, the French, who had gone through many vicissitudes of life, finally discovered that their "Lonely Loyalty of the West Indies" had tirelessly provided countless rums to the entire France.
In 1996, Martinique Rhum Agricole was awarded the honor of being the only wine AOC located in a French overseas territory; it clarified sugarcane varieties, controlled plot yields, prohibited fertilization, restricted irrigation, and had minimum sugar content and PH requirements for cane juice. , it must be crushed and cold-pressed immediately after harvesting, it is forbidden to add lime, the fermentation process is time-controlled and temperature-controlled, the alcohol concentration cannot be too high, Creole stills are fully used, and distillation is strictly prohibited.
It can be said that agricultural rum has the "terroir" flavor of wine. The fresh raw materials retain the refreshing fruit and marine flavors. Unlike the Creole stills of pot stills and multi-column stills, the raw wine produced is neither wild nor bland. Salty, fragrant and elegant have become the signature of French rum.
rum production
The production process of rum is similar to that of other spirits, including raw material processing, fermentation, distillation, and barrel aging.
Raw materials for rum
Sugarcane belongs to the genus Saccharum of the Gramineae family. It is a tall perennial herbaceous plant. Its stems are up to 5 cm thick and 3.5-4.5 meters high. It grows in subtropical and tropical climate zones, requires a lot of water, and is laborious to harvest.
Raw material handling
Sugarcane cultivation provides approximately 80% of the world's table sugar (sucrose), and rum is closely related to the sugarcane sugar industry.
After harvesting, the sugar cane is sent to the sugar factory, where it is mechanically crushed and rolled with rollers to extract high-sugar sugar cane juice. Sugarcane juice has a sugar content of 15-23% Bx, depending on factors such as the variety of sugarcane, maturity, climate and soil conditions.
Sugar cane juice is processed in sugar factories, which extract sugar from the juice through a clarification process of heating and adding slaked lime. The precipitated impurities form a slurry, and the sugarcane juice after the impurities are removed is poured into an evaporator to produce syrup.
By boiling sugar cane syrup, you can get a dark, thick slurry - molasses, whose concentration can reach 85% Bx. Sucrose is also partially converted (forming glucose and fructose) by enzymes or acids to prevent further crystallization. It has certain advantages over sugarcane juice because it has high osmotic pressure, is easy to preserve, and can be transported over long distances.
Molasses is a valuable sugar cane by-product. The sugar industry obtains about 4 tons of molasses from every 100 tons of fresh sugar cane. Molasses is rich in nutrients and is an effective raw material for the production of organic compounds, especially ethanol.
Molasses, a by-product of sugar production, can be divided into types A, B and C. Depending on the number of sucrose extractions, Type A molasses comes from the first sugar crystallization process (about 77% of the sugar is extracted) and has a dry matter (DM) content of 80-85%. Type B molasses is a by-product obtained from the second extraction of Type A molasses (12% of the total initial sugars are extracted) and does not usually crystallize spontaneously. Type B molasses can be further combined with crystallized sugar to separate out more sugar, and after centrifugation, Type C molasses is obtained, which can be considered as the final by-product obtained from sugar mills. Both type C molasses and type B molasses contain 75-85% DM, are dark brown in color, and have the special smell of caramel and Maillard reaction. They taste sweet, slightly sour, and some may carry some fine fiber particles from sugarcane bagasse.
Most producers believe that when making rum from molasses, the variety of sugarcane is not important. Appleton Estate's head blender says the variety of sugar cane they use gives the rum a fruity flavor and a touch of creaminess. Molasses is 1.5 times denser than water, which means yeast cannot sink into the sticky interior of the molasses to ferment. Therefore, before fermentation, the molasses needs to be diluted with water. The concentration of the dilution depends on the desired taste.
When it comes to making rum from sugarcane juice, the variety of sugarcane is crucial.
Fermentation
Most currently use commercial dry yeast, but a few use wild yeast, as well as develop their own strains to create special flavors. Molasses contains 81 aromatic compounds, and yeast fermentation brings flavor substances. They interact with each other over time to create more flavors. Therefore, the length of fermentation time is crucial. The longer the fermentation time, the more acidic the fermentation liquid will be, the more esters will be produced, and the richer the flavor will be.
Light rum requires rapid fermentation, usually between 24 and 48 hours.
Strong rums require longer fermentation times, which can be as short as 30 hours or as long as 21 days in the case of Hampton Estate. After the sugar is converted into alcohol, the fermentation liquid is left in the fermentation tank, where the lactic acid bacteria inside begin to work and produce esters.
distillation
Distillation
Beyond the legal requirement that rum cannot be highly distilled into a neutral spirit, there are few regulations or definitions for its production. Rum producers use pot and column stills of all shapes and sizes, hybrid stills, and even more traditional wooden stills.
Introducing several iconic distillers
Double Retort is a unique but also very common combination of distillation equipment in rum. Broken down, this distillation equipment consists of a pot still and one or two retorts. First, the fermented liquor is heated in the pot still on the left, with a long swan neck directing the alcohol vapor to the bottom of the Retort vessel. Next, in the Retort container, the wine for distillation has been filled, and the alcohol vapor enters the bottom of the container from the pipe, exchanging heat with the wine, causing the temperature of the liquid to continue to rise and generating new steam. After passing through the Retort container twice, the final steam will enter the condenser and be collected into head, heart and tail.
Versailles still: The body of the pot is made of green-heart camphor wood. The copper neck at the top bends sharply downwards and is connected to a distillation retort, followed by a small rectification column (helping to increase reflux), and then connected to the condensation vessel. system. The Versailles stills produce a rich, meaty wine.
Port Morant still: It is a double pot structure. Both pots are filled with fermentation liquid. After that, the first still is fully heated, so the alcohol vapor pours into the bottom of the second still, and the fermentation liquid in it is Heated to boiling, the steam generated then enters the distillation retort and rectifier tube. The wine produced by the Port Morant still has flavors of black banana and ripe fruit, with a slightly creamy texture. Since there isn't a lot of copper in the device, the resulting spirit is very strong. Both require long aging and the addition of ingredients during blending.
No matter what kind of still is used, the liquor after distillation is called Marks/Marques (original liquor), which can be understood as the New Make in whiskey.
Marks can be divided into two categories: Light Marks and Heavy Marks.
Light Marks: The flavor is lighter, mostly produced through short-term fermentation and column stills, and the alcohol content is often high.
Heavy Marks: Strong flavor, often obtained by long-term fermentation (fermentation brings rich and diverse flavors) and low-alcohol distillation.
Jamaican rum is characterized by high ester, and its raw wine is graded according to its ester content:
"Ordinary clean" grade: short fermentation time, ester content between 80 and 150.
"Plumo" grade: Fermented for about two days, ester content is 150-200, with fruity and raisin flavor.
"Wideburn" grade: requires longer fermentation, during which sugarcane bagasse may be added. It is oily, has a pungent fruity flavor, and has an ester content of more than 200.
"Continental flavor" grade: has the taste of acetone, is mainly used for seasoning, and has an ester content of 700~1600.
ripe
Unlike whiskey, rum has a minimum aging requirement, and distillers can choose to bottle it directly after distillation without aging according to their own preferences. It is worth mentioning that rum is the first alcoholic beverage in the world to be aged in oak barrels.
British and Western-style rum generally use bourbon barrels, which will bring the taste of vanilla, coconut, chocolate and sweetness; French agricultural rum has the tradition of using cognac barrels, which has a tight, spicy and vanilla flavor. Sherry barrels are also used to add flavors of cloves, rosin, dried fruits and tannins.
As the rum matures, the barrel breathes, taking in oxygen (which helps change the aroma) and exhaling the alcohol. The hotter the climate, the faster respiration occurs. Not only will the oxidation process be accelerated, but the volume of the wine will also be reduced, and the interaction between the rum and the barrel will also be accelerated.
Generally speaking, the annual Angel's Share of aging in the tropics will reach 8%, while in Scotland it is only 3%. Then the location and the different aging methods of the two aging will cause the rum to mature. The taste afterward is very different. Three years of tropical-aged rum may be equivalent to ten years of aging in Scotland or continental Europe, while ten years of tropical-aged rum may be equivalent to 30 years or even 35 years of aging in Scotland or continental Europe. years and above.
Mixing and finishing
Rum is almost always blended. Many rum brands' products are blended rums from different distilleries and/or different countries. Blenders can take advantage of different types of spirits and the unique characteristics of different distilleries. Broadly speaking, the final style of a blended rum depends on how old the rum used is and whether the main ingredient is light or strong.
Once the blend is complete, the distiller can use three other processes to style the rum, where permitted by law.
First, some rums have a bit of color from being briefly aged in old oak barrels, and the color can be eliminated through activated carbon filtration. Although the color is gone, these wines retain the smooth taste of their brief age, and the oak flavors are usually not overly prominent.
Next, use caramel toning. This method maintains color consistency and is used in the production of all oak barrel-aged spirits.
Finally, many rums, especially oak barrel-aged styles, are sweetened before being sold. But unlike the other two processes, this process is subject to certain restrictions. For example, Jamaican rum is prohibited from adding sugar. The added sugar blends perfectly into the overall character of the rum. But if you add too much sugar, too much sweetness may affect the balance of the rum.
