Beginners Guide to Rum | Everything You Need to Know

Welcome to the Rum Revival. My name is Arminder and this is a beginner's guide to rum. Everything you need to know to start on your rum journey and I promise you it's going to be quite the journey. Here's what we're doing. I'm going to cover what rum is made from, where it's made, address two common misconceptions about it, offer some suggestions on how to categorize rum, and at the end highlight a number of rums that I recommend checking out. Ready? Let's go. So let's start off with the question just what is rum? And yeah that may sound kind of basic but it's worth asking. Like whiskey, vodka, gin, tequila, brandy, rum is a distilled spirit. Now where whiskey is made from grain and tequila and mezcal are made from the agave plant, rum is made from sugarcane. Now sugarcane is basically a tall hard grass that grows in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Now you can make rum from the fresh pressed juice of the sugarcane or from cane syrup which is cane juice that's heated until it becomes a syrup. Or you can make rum from molasses which is the byproduct of turning cane juice into table sugar. See the cane juice is heated and reduced down past the point of being a cane syrup until you get the formation of sugar crystals within a thick dark viscous syrup. Now you separate those crystals and that's your table sugar and the remaining thick syrup that's your molasses. Now there's more to it than that but at a high level that's all you really need to know. Now while you do have a few choices in what to use to make rum something like 90 to 95 percent of the world's rum is made from molasses. Now the next question is where is rum made? You might say the Caribbean and you're right it's probably the most well-known rum producing region in the world but it's also pretty much made all over the world. See here's the thing molasses is pretty shelf stable it can be packed up and shipped to anywhere around the world and as long as you have molasses and and distilling equipment you can make rum anywhere. So folks in like Greenland can make rum. Now I don't know if they do but if they did I'd love to try it. Now when it comes to making rum from cane juice that's a different story. Cane juice goes bad pretty quickly so you have to start fermenting it fairly soon after you've harvested the sugar cane. So because of that you tend to find rums made from cane juice in those same tropical and subtropical regions where sugar cane grows. So yes there are amazing molasses cane juice and cane syrup rums coming out of Caribbean but you'll find rums from all over Japan, South Africa, India, Hawaii you know just to name a few. Now moving on there are two common misconceptions about rum that I think are worth addressing. Now the first one is rum has no rules. I hear this all the time that rum is the wild west and you can do anything and make it any way you want and yes I'd argue that rum is the most diverse spirit out there in terms of where it's made how it's made and what it tastes like and because of that it might seem like rum has no rules but it totally does. At the highest level rum as a generic category of spirit is no different than whiskey as a generic category. Anyone anywhere around the world can make whiskey right just plain old generic whiskey. I guess the only real rule there is that you know it has to be made from grains and in that same fashion rum has to be made from sugar cane. So that's kind of like the only real rule at that level I guess but once you dive one level down from the broad category of whiskey you get things like scotch and bourbon and those have all sorts of rules and regulations. Bourbon for example has to be made from at least 51% corn and can only be aged in new charred oak casks so like if you don't follow all those specific rules for bourbon you can still make it but in the U.S. you just can't call it bourbon and guess what rum is no different. Once you zoom into the country level many countries have regulations that specify how that rum has to be made in order to be labeled and identified in a certain way. For example the French island of Martinique has very specific rules that need to be followed in order for a rum to be labeled a rum agricole from Martinique. These include the fact that the rum can only be made in 34 specific regions within Martinique and that only certain kind of cane varietals can be used and that can only be harvested certain times of the year and rum has to be distilled on a calm still and the distillate has to be between 65 to 75 percent ABV. Now folks can choose not to follow those rules in Martinique they just can't label their rum agricole as coming from Martinique and that is like the same case across a number of rum producing countries around the world. They've all got their own different regulations and rules some are more stricter than others and speaking of countries certain countries don't identify the spirit that they make with sugar cane as rum. Instead they have very specific names for that spirit due to cultural, regional, linguistic, and or economic reasons. The classic example of this is cachaça. According to Brazil cachaça is cachaça and absolutely not rum but it's made from cane juice. Now I don't want to get any Brazilians mad at me so I'm definitely not calling it rum but it is made from cane juice so there is a connection. So how do we make sense of all that and be able to talk about both spirits in a way that recognizes their similarities while still respecting the regional and cultural identities? Well I think the best way of approaching this whole family of spirits around the world that's made from sugar cane is to just call the overall category cane spirits. That way it kind of encapsulates everything that's made for sugar cane from rum, cachaça, Haitian clarin, agoraviente de caña, groguet, arof, you know just to name a few. But real talk you might find me slipping every now and again and using rum to describe all of them. I try not to but sometimes it just happens. Alrighty let's move on to the second misconception of rum. Rum is sweet. It's not but I can understand why people may think that. First because well it's made from sugar cane so it must be sweet right? The reality is that all spirits are made from sugar. See to create alcohol for any kind of spirit during fermentation yeast consumes the sugar that's present. In rum's case that sugar is coming from sugar cane but for tequila and mezcal those sugars are coming from the roasted agave plant and in whiskeys it's coming from cooked grains. It's just a different source of sugar but it's still sugar. And here's the thing rum and all spirits when they come out of the distillation process they contain no sugars regardless of what the source material was to make it. Secondly you might think rum is sweet because you primarily consume it in a rum and coke or any number of tropical and tiki drinks that might have all sorts of juices and syrups in it. If you only ever have rum in those type of drinks you might think yeah rum is a sweet spirit. And lastly you might have had rums that have been sweetened. Some of the best-selling brands out there sweeten their rums. Captain Morgan is a great example of this. Great might be the wrong word to use here but you know what I mean. So if all you knew about rum was Captain Morgan then yeah I can understand why you might think rum is sweet. But the reality is that there's a whole wide world of rums that have incredibly diverse flavor profiles. There's rums that have notes of tropical fruits like pineapples and bananas. There are others that have herbaceous notes, vegetal, grassy, briny notes. There are others that are dry and have wood-derived baking spice notes. You know some have like menthol and diesel notes. There's even classic notes like caramel and brown sugar. We've got all of it. So given all that I promise you there is a rum out there for you. You just have to try a few. So with all that diversity and flavor why are we still using terms like white rum, gold rum, dark rum, and black rum to categorize or describe a rum? Last I checked color is not a flavor. Stay with me now. Color is not a flavor. Not only that but rums of the same color can and do taste very different from one another. For example this rum and this rum right here are both what many people would consider white rums or silver rums because they're clear. Now if all you're familiar with is something like Bacardi then you would think that these taste sort of similar to that. Light, crisp, maybe a hint of vanilla. But this is a rum Agricole from Martinique and it has these really strong notes of green grass and herbs. And then this is an unaged Jamaican rum and it has these really intense notes of like rotting tropical fruit. Clearly neither of these tastes like Bacardi. At least not any Bacardi that I've ever had. And those are just two examples. You can go across the lineup of gold, dark, and black rums and you realize that rums taste wildly different even if they have the same color. So if color is a meaningless way of categorizing and describing rum then what do we use instead? And what can we look at or reference to get a sense of what a rum might taste like? Well my recommendation for newcomers to rum is to consider three things. The source material used to make the rum, the type of steel that it was made on, and the country or region that it's from. And look up front there are always going to be exceptions to what these three things mean for what a rum tastes like. But as a beginner start here and the more rum you try the more you'll see and understand those exceptions. Let's start off with source material. The form of sugarcane that is fermented and then distilled to make the rum. Now depending on which one is used it will potentially affect the flavor of the final rum. Rums made from cane juice have a tendency to taste grassy and savory, earthy, herbaceous, vegetal, sometimes briny, which clearly is different than most rums you've probably had. But that shouldn't be all that surprising given that sugarcane is a grass and cane juice is the least processed form of sugarcane. Now these unique flavors tend to be much more forward in unaged rums, while aged expressions will have the addition of barrel and wood derived flavors to balance and round out some of those green flavors. Molasses based rums can often be richer with like treacle and caramel notes. They can be tropical and fruit forward. They can be spicy and dry. Like with cane juice there's a really wide gamut of flavors but generally don't expect to get those green grassy vegetal notes that you'd find in a cane juice rum. Now most of the time when you're looking at a rum label if the rum is made from molasses the label is probably not going to say molasses on it because again like something like 90 plus percentage of the world's rums are made from molasses. So there's kind of like a built-in assumption that it's molasses. Now if it's made from cane juice it's much more likely to mention that on the label. Now source material used to make the rum is only going to get you so far but it is a good starting baseline to get a sense of what the experience might be for that rum. And then there's the type of still a rum is made on. Depending on how that still is used it will affect the flavor intensity, the texture, and body of the rum. Rums made on calm stills tend to be lighter in body and flavor. Taken to the extreme calm still rums can make neutral flavored vodka but pulled back a bit it can create light-bodied clean delicate rums that often are showcases for the flavors derived from aging and wood. Now pot stills tend to produce rums that are robust more textured with more pronounced flavor. Now making a rum on a pot still takes longer and you actually get less alcohol out of it so these tend to be a bit more expensive than calm still rums. And then of course there are blends that mix both column and pot still rums together. Kind of a best of both worlds situation. You take flavorful heavier pot still rums and blend them with lighter more cost-effective calm still rums to create a balanced approachable rum that's affordable. Now one type of still isn't better than another they're just different tools to create different kinds of rum. Now you might not always find the still type or the fact that it's a blend listed on the label though it's much more likely to be listed if it is a pot still rum. Now if it's not listed and you're curious you can always look it up online. Let's move on to the country or region a rum is from. There are certain traditions, production processes, and flavor profiles that are often associated with the rums coming from certain regions or countries. And I think having an understanding of that is useful in making informed decisions when buying rum. So I'm going to highlight five places that I think are worth knowing for beginners. For each region I'll share some of the rums that I think are good introductions. I'll feature one or two bottles around $20 that I think work well as affordable rums to mix with and then a bottle around $40 for more of a sipping experience. Note that you can and should mix with and sip whatever rum you want regardless of the price. Quick caveat even within a country or from the same distillery there are rums made there that fall outside of the profiles that I'm going to highlight. There are exceptions to all of this but for a beginner this is enough of a starting foundation to get you going. Let's start off with Now rums from Puerto Rico are usually made from molasses and distilled on a calm still and they're usually distilled to a pretty high ABV which creates light clean crisp rums. Now a lot of the personality and flavor of these rums come from the various aging and maturation techniques used. For a $20 mixer I'd recommend something like Don Q Cristal. Now it's a blend of rums that have been aged one to five years in ex bourbon casks and then it's filtered to you know get us this color or this lack of color I guess. It's pretty perfect for a light refreshing daiquiri mojito or even like a rum and soda. And check out Don Q Gold if you're looking for something with a touch more rum character to it. Now for a $40 sipper I would recommend Rondell Barlito 3 Star. A very small portion of this rum is steeped with dried fruits and spices for six months and then the entire rum is aged six to ten years in ex oloroso sherry casks. Now you get a spirit here that has these really lovely rich brown sugar and caramel notes some dried fruit notes like raisins and prunes and figs and this really nice red wine note on the finish. Next up is Barbados which is known for putting out some balanced and flavorful molasses based blends of pot and column still rums. They have a great balance between the flavors from oak aging you know those notes of caramel vanilla and baking spices and that's balanced with this really nice rich fruitiness from the molasses. For $20 mixers and frankly even as like $20 sippers check out Durley's XO or Old Brigand. Now both are from Foursquare Rum Distillery and I especially like these and more spirit forward cocktails. The XO is finished in oloroso sherry casks so it adds like a really nice dark fruit touch to like your rum old fashions and manhattans. Now for a $40 sipper though it actually might be cheaper than that check out Durley's 12 Year. It has these really lovely notes of chewy caramel vanilla baking spices and notes of fruitiness kind of in the form of like coconut and banana pudding. It's flavorful and yet elegant at the same time. Let's move on to Jamaica. The focus there is on molasses based rums that are either all pot still or pot and column blends. They're usually fruit forward and pungent often with like a spice note to them. Now some of the more funkier examples can have really strong notes of overripe and rotting tropical fruit. They're delicious. Now for a $20 mixer check out Appleton Estate Signature. Now this is a pot and column blend that has notes of pear and banana orange peel and a little bit of like cinnamon and brown sugar. This adds a unique fruit forward spin to any cocktail that usually just calls for more of like a neutral light rum. Now if you're curious what an affordable all pot still rum tastes like then for around like $30 check out Rum Bar Gold. This has strong notes of pineapple sweet banana and licorice and this makes for pretty good Mai Tai. Now for a $40 sipper I'd recommend Appleton Estate 8 Year. Now this is a pot and column blend that has these really vibrant notes of banana fruitcake marmalade black tea a little bit of dry spices like cloves and allspice and ginger. There are plenty of more funkier tropical fruit forward sipping Jamaican rums but this is a really great introductory step into that world. Next up is Guyana in South America. Now rums from there are typically molasses based pot calm blends which are rich heavy sometimes oily with like a savory smoky wood leather earthy profile. Now for a $20 mixer check out either Pusser's or Hamilton 86. Both provide a big bang of savory sweet smoky notes to any cocktail you use them in. I use them all the time in like Painkillers and Jungle Birds. Now for a $40 sipper check out Eldorado 12 Year. This is a blend of 12 year old pot and column still rums some of which are made on stills made out of wood. Now on the palate you're going to get these notes of sweet savory plum some chocolate some cola and like the lightest touch of smoke wood and leather. Now there is a perceived sweet and savoriness to this that I think makes it a really good after dinner rum. And lastly we have the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Now it's known for producing rum agricoles that are made entirely from cane juice and distilled on column stills. Even though it's distilled on a column still they are packed full of flavor. Now they're characterized as having grassy vegetal and herbaceous notes. Now for a $20 mixer check out either Camont Blanc 40% or Rum JM Blanc 40%. Now both make really unique daiquiris and mojitos with an accent of fresh grass and herbs. And of course try them in a tea punch a little sugar and a little lime. I also like to use them in pina coladas to kind of cut through all that sweetness. Now for a $40 sipper I would recommend Rum JM Terroir Volcanique. This is a column distilled cane juice rum aged a minimum of three years in heavily charred American oak casks. This has like some smoky and woody notes from that heavy charring. There's like this earthy nutmeg note some creme brulee stone fruit and like some subtle green grassy notes as well. Now those are my rum recommendations for beginners but there's plenty of other great rums from those and other countries both in the Caribbean and the rest of the world. And there you go that's my beginner's guide to rum. I hope you found it helpful. Now there is so much more to learn and understand about rum things like fermentation and like where it's been aged but honestly all that can wait. The most important thing you can do is just try a bunch of different rums and figure out what you like. And given everything I just covered I promise you there's a rum out there for you. And if you want to learn more about rum check out and subscribe to my channel. It's all I do. I talk about rum. I drink rum. I share the latest new releases and in general I try to demystify the rum world. Now I'd love to know if you have a favorite rum or favorite rum producing country. Let me know in the comments below. Now if you haven't had a whole lot of rum that's all good just let me know what you usually drink. Thanks so much for watching. Catch you next time. Cheers.