By Ed Hamilton (Ministry of Rum)

Article from Issue Six

In 1947, Victor Bergeron wrote that rum was the most undervalued and under-appreciated spirit behind his bar. In the years that followed Vic opened the eponymous Trader Vic bars and restaurants and gained international recognition as one of the fathers of the Tiki bar. More than sixty years later, rum is still gaining respect, albeit slowly..

Rum carries the baggage of a storied past that includes unsavory pirates, smugglers and more than a few politicians. But despite its renegade reputation, rum-producing regulations are more rigid than most imbibers recognize. Unlike vodka, which can be made from any combination of fermentable raw materials, rum can only be made from the sweet member of the grass family, saccharum officinarum, more commonly known as sugar cane. And sugar cane is the most available natural source of fermentable sugar. In order to ferment grains, they must be cooked with enzymes in order to convert the starches and carbohydrates to fermentable sugar. But whether made from molasses – the byproduct of cane sugar production, or sugar cane juice, the high volume of available sucrose sets sugar cane apart from other fermentable raw materials.

Sugar cane grows in tropical regions around the world. Originally from Papau New Guinea, the sweet grass was carried to Asia, where the fermented sugar cane juice drink, brum, was consumed. From Southeast Asia, traders took sugar cane west to India, on to North Africa and the Middle East. In 1493, on his second voyage to the West Indies, Christopher Columbus stopped in the Canary Islands where he took sugar cane shoots on board to be planted in the Caribbean as part of a failed attempt to establish a Spanish base in Hispaniola.

The first commercial sugar cane spirits in the New World were produced in Brazil in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. But it was the popularity of sugar in seventeenth-century Europe which led to rum becoming the spirit of the Caribbean, a moniker it has proudly worn for more than 350 years.

In the early days of sugar’s rise to stardom in the Caribbean, England, Spain and other European countries forbade the importation of sugar cane spirits in order to protect their established domestic gin, brandy and whisky industries. In the Carribean, plantation managers sold rum to the navy ships stationed there to protect their valuable sugar industry and the mother country’s financial interest in the New World. The tradition of rum and the sea was consecrated in 1687 when the British Parliament made rum part of a sailor’s daily ration in the Royal Navy.

Today rum is made around the world and has evolved to be the only distilled spirit to be consumed as clear, dark or colored spirit though only a small part of the clear rum consumed today is actually bottled straight from the still.  Just as the people’s language, food and dress reflect their country of origin, so does their drink. And for millions of people around the world, sugar cane spirits are the drink of choice.

Walk into a West Indian rum shop and you’ll be served a glass of clear liquid, which is probably fresh, overproof rum. Rum Agricole in the French Caribbean Islands as well as Brazilian Cachaça are made from fresh sugar cane juice and distilled to capture the essence of the fresh sugar cane.  In Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands the white spirit in your glass will only be about 80 proof and has been aged at least a year, then carbon-filtered to remove the color acquired during aging.

Most other distillers make rum from fermented molasses and, after distilling their spirit to remove the residual sulfur found in molasses, age the fresh distillate in used, oak whisky barrels. By blending the aged product, a plethora of rums are produced that range from those best suited to cocktails to supreme sipping spirits that rival fine cognacs or whiskies.

To the inexperienced eye, it is easy to be seduced by rums with age statements of fifteenn, twenty-one or twenty-three years. But, like in life itself, quality and maturity are much more important than age. Some rums were made to be consumed after resting only a few months, others are best enjoyed after being aged five, eight, ten or more years. My first drink of the day is a young, clear rum with a little sugar cane syrup and a small bit of lime to compliment the rum. After dinner I gravitate toward an older, aged rum to sip before bed.

San Francisco is blessed with a plethora of bartenders whose passion for spirits is unsurpassed anywhere. To learn more about my favorite spirit get to know the people behind your favorite bar. When you’re ready to explore the world of rum, if I can’t join you in person just tell the bartender, “Make me what you’d serve Ed.”