Exploring Rum’s Vast Diversity and Range

It’s an accepted truth in the drinks world that no spirit demonstrates as much diversity in style and breadth of range as rum. But while rum and its sugarcane kin have long been celebrated in carefree cocktails evoking the tropics, rum’s true story is much deeper, and sometimes darker. We’re taking a closer look at rum. But we’re also looking at the people and cultures with which rum’s history is indelibly entwined.

The Rules of Rum

Rum is made in dozens of countries, each with its own set of regulations and requirements. In Puerto Rico, for instance, the spirit must age for at least a year in an oak barrel to earn the label “rum.” Even white rum has to rest before hitting the bottling line. Rhum agricole from Martinique, made from fresh sugarcane juice, abides by another set of rules, including the type of still (column only) and which species of sugarcane are allowed. Contrast that to other popular spirits. Bourbon, scotch, Canadian whisky, Irish whiskey, tequila, Cognac, and armagnac are by international agreement all made within a single country, and sometimes one area within a country. That means every drop bearing those labels is made under an identical set of rules.

Now compare rum to whiskey. Think of whiskey as the genus, and bourbon, rye, scotch, and so forth, as species. While all are made from grain, history and geography have conspired such that each evolved to have a distinct taste. And consumers have evolved to refer to each species as if it were something distinct. Few go to a bar today and say, “Whiskey, please.” They’ll order scotch or bourbon.

Rum hasn’t yet evolved similarly in the consumer’s mind. It’s not widely referred to on the species level—it’s all pretty much “rum”—but some differentiation is surfacing. There’s cachaça from Brazil, recognized as its own category by the federal government. And rum from the French islands—such as Guadeloupe and Martinique—are increasingly referred to as “agricole,” that is, agricultural rum made directly from sugarcane, not from molasses. “This is the nature of rum,” says Richard Seale, whose family owns and makes rums at Foursquare Rum Distillery in Barbados. “It is complex and diverse, and the diversity of methods has been driven by our social and economic history. We make no apology.” —Wayne Curtis

The Human Element

From its origins as a way of converting an industrial byproduct (molasses) into something of value, rum has always been viewed largely as a commodity. Missing from rum’s story for so many centuries, however, has been the human aspect behind rum—from the enslaved people who worked in the sugarcane fields, to today’s agricultural communities that rely on rum for their economic foundation.

There are signs, however, that this is starting to change. “Most of the conversations around wine and spirits are about the producers. For mezcal and agave, they might go a little more in depth into the culture, the impacts on the environment, and the economies of the local people who produce it. But I don’t see that happening a lot in conversations about rum, except when there’s a controversy,” says Shannon Mustipher, author of Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails.

Mustipher notes that the internet and social media have helped dissolve the distance between rum’s producers and consumers. She says the catalyst may have been a 2015 article about the health problems encountered by workers in Flor de Caña’s Nicaraguan sugarcane fields, which prompted boycotts and online protests. “It caused bartenders to think deeply about labor issues within the spirits space in general, and in turn within the industry itself,” she says.

While those protests may have prompted Nicaraguan producers to take remedial action, the issue wound up spreading into bars across the U.S. “You look at the back-of-house people, and immigrants, and people who are undocumented and working in bars, and see how we’re treating them. It crosses over into the same realm,” Mustipher says. “It started this talk about how do we expose and root out exploitation in the cocktail bar, not only within our space, but with the types of products we use.” —Paul Clarke

American Rum

Rum’s historic habitat is the West Indies, where transplanted sugarcane once flourished and provided raw material for rum. Less well known, rum distilling was also part of the North American colonial economy as well. Early ships hauled dried cod and lumber to the islands, then returned with low-value molasses, which was converted to higher-value rum. In the 1700s, the aroma of fermenting molasses and distilling rum would have greeted travelers along the eastern seaboard, home to dozens of rum distilleries. Then, suddenly, American rum went missing. Changes in production, taxation, and trade policies made molasses harder to come by. And with the nation’s expansion into fertile lands west of the Appalachians, America soon embraced native, grain-based whiskey.

After a break of two centuries, American rum is back. In 1995, New Orleans’ Celebration Distillation began producing rum from Louisiana sugarcane. It was the first craft distiller to make an American rum. Even though it has since closed, today, more than 200 domestic distillers are again producing rum.

Did American-made rum have a distinctive style 200 years ago, and does it today? Most certainly. It had not only different traditions than those found in the Caribbean, but different conditions, as well. As Maggie Campbell, formerly of Privateer Rum, points out, the cooler northern climates not only can affect the distillation (more “reflux” for those who were paying attention in distilling class), but also will impact aging. Campbell says that warmer climate rums tend to have a “softer flavor definition,” whereas those aged in cooler environs tend to be more cleanly defined and delicate.

That may not apply for rums made in different American climates—such as Roulaison Distilling in New Orleans or Elgin Distillery in Arizona. But by design, American aged rums tend to skew oakier and drier than their West Indian cousins. That’s in part to appeal to Americans who’ve grown accustomed to oak-forward bourbon and rye. Think of American rum as the missing link between West Indian rum and American bourbon—less sweet than the former and less tannic than the latter. —Wayne Curtis

A Sugarcane Spirits Glossary

Aguardente

A common name for distilled beverage alcohol. In Brazil, aguardente de cana is a sugarcane distillate that doesn’t meet the more rigid requirements to be labeled cachaça.

Blended Rum

A rum made by combining different base rums—particularly those made using different types of stills or techniques, or from regions using different rum-making traditions—to highlight the characteristics and create a desired balance.

Cachaça

A Brazilian relative of rum made from distilling fermented sugarcane juice, and produced under a strict set of requirements.

Cane Juice

While most rum is made from molasses, some styles and relatives (such as rhum agricole, clairin, and cachaça) are made from pressed sugarcane juice, which can result in spirits with grassy, herbaceous characteristics.

Charanda

A sugarcane spirit made in the Mexican state of Michoacán (the term charanda means “red-colored soil” in the indigenous Purépecha language) through the double-distillation of cane juice, molasses, or piloncillo, and protected by a Denomination of Origin (DO).

Clairin

A Haitian spirit made from native sugarcane varieties raised organically and harvested by hand, fermented with naturally occurring yeast, and typically distilled in pot or Créole column stills.

Congeners

An umbrella term for substances formed during fermentation that add flavor or aroma to a spirit, such as esters, aldehydes, and tannins. Some rums (such as fragrant, pot-stilled Jamaican rums) have congeners in abundance, giving the spirit a particularly assertive character.

Molasses

A byproduct of sugar production, molasses is the raw material for almost all of the world’s rum.

Rhum Agricole

Rhum agricole (simply translated as “agricultural rum”) is made from fresh cane juice following a strict set of standards, primarily in Martinique (which has its own AOC designation) and Guadeloupe.

Still Type

Rum can be made on any type of still. Potstills typically make rums that are rich and full of character; single- and double-column stills (including Coffey and Créole stills) make rum that’s lighter in body but still relatively full of character; and multicolumn stills typically make light, almost neutral rums. Some producers use multiple types of stills, then blend the rums together to create a desired character.