Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum

It has a bad rep, a great history, and it’s back in a big way. Rob Morris reports on rum.Paul Hetreed is the owner of Asoka Bar. His Kloof Street outfit is the cocktail hotspot for young Mother City professionals. His rums are not only increasingly fast-movers, but some of the most expensive products in his shop. “Most of what’s on the rum shelf is smuggled in by friends and family.”

Smuggling and rum? I like where this is going and it’s not long before one-third of a wine glass of El Dorado 25-year-old is before me. The R250-a-tot Guyanese rum – or any rum of similar standing – should only be consumed neat and the basics of brandy or whisky appreciation apply.

These are known as “sipping rums”. Spiced rums on the other hand – Spiced Gold and the like – are much lesser products, made to spec and almost always unbalanced and cloyingly sweet. Their sole raison d’être is to partner cola pop. Hetreed’s sipping rums are the business. He can’t keep up with demand. “Sure the cocktails move, but anyone ordering rum straight-up is almost always a connoisseur and rum aficionados are all spirit gurus. Single-malt academics, on the other hand, tend to live comfortably in their bubbles.”

Just when I’m grappling with rum’s stigma, the sort of bad clichés we all know – pirates, Hemingway, the British navy, the Caribbean, and rum’s morning-after knack for lingering – a 20-something blonde moves in to dispel all preconceptions. “She’s just ordered the San Cristobal de la Habana Añejo Solera,” reveals the barman. This product of rum powerhouse Havana Club is a blend of 12- and 15-year-old rum commemorating the 480th anniversary of the founding of Havana.

“The new rum trend began in London about five years ago,” Hetreed tells me. “Vodka made gains on rum in the ’80s but rum is now the second-biggest growth category after vodka in the spirits market.”

In South Africa, most of Nelson’s Blood (so named According to Backhouse, 70% of his product is bought P because Admiral Horatio Nelson’s body was returned to Britain after Trafalgar in a rum cask) is consumed as a mixed beverage of some description. SA’s brandy and coke culture makes rum the first-choice substitute, which is good news for the folks at Red Heart. First brought into South Africa during the late ’30s, Red Heart is the market leader in the category, a position it has held for nearly 70 years. Operations and training manager for owners Pernod Ricard, Mark Backhouse says: “Dark rum consumers are predominantly male and mostly white and coloured in the LSM 6–8 bracket and aged 20 to 45. Sports fans, all of them.”

According to Backhouse, 70% of his product is bought at on-consumption venues. The statistic implies that rum is either identified with a sense of occasion or something best left to mixologist baristas. Liquid Chefs’ Kevin Snyman is one such guy. .
He agreed to meet me at Asoka after giving me a rundown on the five quintessential rum-based cocktails at his cocktail laboratory earlier that day. Liquid Chefs is a company specialising in upmarket portable cocktail bar experiences, boasting over 200m of bar in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban

“Rum-based cocktails have their origin either as medicinal drinks composed in the 1600s during colonial occupation of the Caribbean or as deceptive ‘fruit drinks’ during prohibition days.” The fruit components, and especially lime, prevented the dreaded scurvy on long sea voyages – and a drink on crushed ice, comprising fruit, didn’t appear obviously spiked in prohibition times.

White rums like Bacardi are not barrel aged, making them a more neutral spirit – ideal for entry-level mixing. “When mixing with dark rum you need to know your product on a molecular level,” relates Snyman. “And place of origin is important.” Although he doesn’t buy any terroir nonsense, he elaborates on regional variations of the spirit.

“Rum is divided along cultural lines. Your Spanish islands traditionally produce lighter rum with a purer spirit essence – think Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Great for mixing cocktails. English islands such as Saint Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica, Grenada, Bermuda, Barbados and the Demerara region of Guyana on the South American mainland deliver darker rums, rounder and more expressive of the underlying molasses flavour.

The French islands of Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe produce the spirit exclusively from sugar cane juice (no molasses) and the rum is light in character and generally more expensive than molasses-based products.”

Rum in the French idiom will see barrelling with virtually zero toasting. After the cane is cut, milled and crushed, the French method involves going directly to fermenting and distilling the cane juice. Rums from the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe preserve many of the vegetal characteristics often associated with cane spirit. Territories employing the English approach process the juice into molasses and crystallised sugar. Most rum is distilled from fermented molasses.
On a cautionary note, laws on alcohol proofs – in most cases the minimum proof requirements – differ widely from region to region. Be aware of this, in the case of sipping rums especially. High-alcohol sipping rums are known as overproof rums and are not for the faint of heart, with Spanish and English-style rums often approaching 160 proof. Bacardi’s famous 151 Proof is a popular overproof rum (proof is twice the percentage of alcohol by volume).

Consensus on grading rum, something akin to the French appellation d’origine controlée, has proved difficult in the past. The West Indies Rum & Spirits Producers’ Association has only just secured the buy-in from members on a marque for rum. Rums are an expression of the islands and symbols of fierce national pride and independence for states in the Gulf. Universal classification has been viewed with suspicion. Some 15 territories have eventually agreed to a three-tier marque: “Authentic Caribbean Rum”, “matured” rum and “deluxe” for the finest products matured for a minimum of five years. In contrast to whisky, finer rums are always blends.

Rum’s ultimate longevity has been its versatility. In cocktails it has earned the moniker the Sunny Spirit. Appreciated neat, premium sipping rums can offer as much satisfaction as similarly priced malts or Cognac.