How Are They Made?
Rum
There are a number of rum styles:
White Rum
There are two types of white rum – aged and unaged - both of which are designed to be mixed long to deliver a refreshing drink.
Aged white rum will often be filtered through charcoal after ageing to create a balanced flavour and this process also removes their colour. They are designed to be light, subtle and delicately flavoured. Good white rum should have a clean and neutral nose with a hint of sweetness on the palate and the flavours that can appear include soft nuts such as almonds, as well as honey, apricots and floral notes.
Unaged white rums are bottled straight from the still and therefore tend to be less smooth and have a much harsher flavour profile than aged white rum.
Gold Rum
Gold rums are designed to be sipped neat but can also be mixed long to produce complex rather than refreshing drinks. The longer that rums are aged, the more flavour and colour develops in the product and the more complex they become. However, this additional flavour and complexity comes at the expense of refreshment.
In some cases caramel may be added to deliver a consistent colour. The flavours that develop the longer a rum is aged include vanilla, oak, toasted nuts, dried fruits, smoke, leather, butterscotch and caramel.
Dark Rum
Synonymous with the British Navy until the 1970s, dark rums tend to have more pronounced and dominant flavours than both white and gold rums. Prominent flavours include molasses, liquorice, leather, and over-ripe tropical fruits. Many (especially Navy rums) are a blend of rums from different countries. Dark rums are stronger in flavour and colour because they are either pot-still rums and/or aged in extremely heavily charred barrels.
Rum Production
Unlike other spirit categories there is no common production process to make rum.
Fermentation
Rum must be made from sugarcane juice, sugar-syrup or molasses. The sugar source is added to yeast and water and allowed to ferment to produce alcohol.
Distillation
Rum can be produced using a spontaneous or controlled fermentation process. It can be distilled in either a pot still or a continuous column still, and in some cases can be a blend of both pot and continuous column distillates.
Ageing
Although not a widespread activity, some rums are aged.
Blending
Although common, not all rums are blends.
In Santiago de Cuba in 1862, Don Facundo Bacardi Massó created a new production process that revolutionised the way rum was made and BACARDI Superior Rum, the world’s first premium aged white rum, was born.
Fermentation
Don Facundo used only the highest quality molasses which he fermented with purified water and a proprietary strain of yeast known today as ‘La Levadura BACARDI’, which he found growing naturally in the sugarcane fields of Santiago de Cuba in the mid 1800s. He was the first person to culture a unique strain of yeast for rum production and the Bacardi Company continue to use this same strain of yeast today to deliver the unique flavour profile of BACARDI Superior Rum some 145 years later.
Distillation
The Bacardi Company introduced continuous column distillation to rum and were the first to produce both a heavy rum and a light rum which they later aged and blended together to make BACARDI Superior Rum. This allows a greater flavour balance to be achieved and ensures that the taste of BACARDI Superior Rum compliments rather than dominates or disappears with a mixer.
Ageing
All BACARDI Rum is aged in lightly charred American white oak barrels. The flavour development of a rum in a barrel is dependent on many elements including climate, type of wood, level of charring and size of barrel. As a result the Bacardi Company does not blend rum to a minimum age, but rather until the Maestros de Ron BACARDI deem it ready for blending.
Charcoal Filtration
Don Facundo introduced a new process to rum production in 1862 to remove off-flavours from his rum and deliver a smoother final product. Charcoal filtration also removed the colour gained during the ageing process and as a result, BACARDI Superior Rum became the world’s first premium aged white rum.
Blending
BACARDI Superior Rum is a blend of different combinations of aged light and heavy rums made by the Bacardi Company. There is no recipe to produce BACARDI Superior Rum and it is the skills of the Maestros de Ron BACARDI who using their eyes, nose and mouth blend every batch to match a historical sample, thus ensuring ongoing flavour consistency.
BACARDI and the Bat Device are registered trademarks of Bacardi and Company Limited.
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