Rum

Rum is benefitting from the increased interest in fine spirits after the recent gin boom. This is bringing new players into the market, but it is starting with a much smaller base of drinkers. Some are curating excellent ranges source from the Caribbean such as Lost Years, while others are buying molasses and fermenting/distilling them and some even buying unrefined sugar and starting a new category. When it comes to after dinner drinks, the finest golden rums are more than a match for fine cognacs and malt whiskies. There is a tendency for these to come from the French West Indies, but nowadays there are plenty of ‘boutique’ producers around the rest of the Caribbean too. Many of these ’new wave’ rums have a much greater sense of place and are more individual in style than in days of yore, often coming from very small distilleries. Rum is closely associated with the Caribbean islands, but all rum needs is sugarcane which is grown in many tropical climates from Central America to Australia. The famous Demerara region is in Guyana in South America. Some production involves shipping molasses to be processed nearer their markets, and a recent trend has been the importation in bulk for local maturation in barrel. We have two large old wooden vats at Tanners which served just that purpose. Other styles are white and dark rums, as well as the newly-popular spiced rums.