Ed Hamilton

Actually Demerara rum is made from molasses, mostly from local cane but sometimes from imported molasses.

If you can get to the Barrilito blending operation just west of San Juan it is worth the effort. Search this forum for Barrilito tours and you'll get all the information. The other islands don't have distilleries. Barrilito isn't a distillery but you'll see more and get more of a feel for the small producer than from the Bacardi tour which is easily accessed from Old San Juan.

Ron Zacapa is aged using the Solera method. Matusalem claims to use a Solera method as well. These are the only ones that come to mind right now but there are others but not many.

Those Neisson rhums were aged about 12 years, and that's why they are so expensive. Great sipping rum with a little water. The distillery has been upgraded since then and production is growing and I expect in the future the rhum won't be aged as long as those older vintages. Surprisingly the St Etienne is only aged about three years but it starts out as a very different rhum compared to Neisson.

Welcome to the forum. Yes I do live in the Caribbean on a 45 foot sailboat which serves as transportation, accomodations and research vessel. It's a tough life but someone has to do it. You can see more by visiting my website Ministry of Rum .com

Don't despair, since it takes a trained eye to notice the different labels of Appleton since they all come in the same bottle it isn't uncommon to find mismarked bottle of Appleton. The good news is that if you look around you might find a bottle of 21 year old marked as VX as is often the case in KMart in St Thomas. Happy hunting.

Barbancourt is made from sugar cane juice crushed at the distillery, no molasses. The Rumfest screwed up by putting it in the molasses class. BUT it is NOT RHUM AGRICOLE. Barbancourt is distilled in a column still then redistilled in a pot still. In order to be considered rhum agricole it must be distilled to only about 72% alcohol and then aged in barrels of less than 650liters, quite a large barrel, but considerably smaller than the vats used to age Barbancourt. So the short answer is that Barbancourt is made from sugar cane juice but is not rhum agricole. There are a few other rhums also made from sugar cane juice which aren't rhum agricole, like Rivers in Grenada.

Glad to hear that it is possible to get Barrilito from Puerto Rico, at least if you have a cooperative relative.

There are certainly differences in the sugar cane grown in the various islands. The sugar cane itself is one of over 50 different species depending on the soil, rain, drainage, etc where the cane will be grown. The soil also makes a difference, volcanic islands like Martinique have more sulfur in the soil which influences the cane. And even in Martinique, for example, there are considerable differences in the soil depending on the region. Near Mount Pelee in the north where the last major eruption was in 1902 the soil is still very fertile but contains a lot of sulfur and other minerals. Since Cuban rum is made from molasses and then distilled to a high proof, more than 90% alcohol, the effect of the soil is minimized. What is important is the amount of residual sugar that is left in the molasses after the crystal sugar has been removed. Since Cuba's sugar industry is quite old I suspect that the machinery is not the most modern and the sugar content in the molasses is quite high. The other islands that import molasses like to buy from the oldest sugar mills where the sugar content is highest.

Thanks for the recipe, I don't have any gold dust either but I've seen the effect and it is hard to beat.

As soon as I know more I'll post it here.

Mount Gay's 300th anniversary is coming up next year and will be celebrated in the spring in NY, so it stands to reason that there will be at least a limited supply of newly bottled old rum to celebrate the event.

Haven't heard of it yet but will be checking this one out. After Mount Gay reformulated their Extra Old in the US, I hoped that they would come out with another premium rum.

Congratulations Dom!! Third place is quite an accomplishment. Will you share your prize winning cocktail with us?

It is a well known fact that the sugar industry if failing in almost every island. Land is too expensive, labor getting more expensive and to be efficient the machinery needs to be replaced. In most countries sugar production is subsidized by the US or the EU. In Guyana, for example, there has historically been a flood of cheap labor from other countries in the region, something that is more difficult when you are dealing with an island. Every English island with the exception of St Kitts imports molasses to make rum. The French islands make sugar, subsidized by France, and rhum from the subsidized sugar cane that is grown for that purpose. Castro's comments, if related to the sugar industry, are another sign of the times. But it does follow him putting down his cigar and getting older and trying to undo the excesses of one's youth. But I can hardly be in favor of higher prices for Cuban rum.

To me the VX is the best value from Appleton although it isn't as nice as the older rums. But if you are going to sip something in a bar that doesn't have a great choice, I often Appleton VX.

Fortunately, sugar cane syrup is only just that, sugar cane syrup that has been cooked enough so the sugar content is high enough that it won't ferment in the bottle. Actually the shelf life, unopened, is about three years.

I will be bringing some sugar cane syrup from Martinique and offering it on my website after the first of the year. There are 50cl and 100cl bottles here, one liter and half-liter as well as 70cl bottles of some brands. Will post more when I get more information. Initial estimates are that it will cost about $5 a bottle but that could change. Shipping weight is a problem but once you try real cane syrup you won't want to go back to brown sugar.

SA often means South America as well as South Africa. The only thing I can add is that there is a Long Pond distillery Jamaica but I can't say if they are still producing rum.

The rums are aged up from 6 to 12 years and then aged again in another barrel for another 18 months. Hope this clears this up. It was surprising to me that the single barrel was considerably lighter in flavor than the Estate Diamond which has always been on of my favorite rums.

Thanks I was just given the website for the BBS group. The French seem to be very slow in utilizing the internet but I do look for improvements in these sites.

Both of these rums are molasses distillate. The notable difference is that the Estate Diamond is considerably heavier on the palate. The Single Barrel is a blend of rums which are then aged in a single barrel for up to eighteen months depending on the taste of the blender. After drinking both I prefer the heavier flavor of the Estate Diamond, but kee a bottle of the Single Barrel around for the research.

I for one would be hard pressed to spend 47 Euros on English Harbour XO, the same for the cacique millenium. All too often these are just collector bottles and labels and not worth the money, of which none have excesses.

Just got a bottle of the new Eleve Sous Bois from La Mauny. It's a deep copper color, aged 18 months in a 40,000 liter vat and has some color added. At only 40% alcohol I can't wait to make a ti punch with it as soon as I get back to the research vessel.

What you found is just sediment from the barrels. The larger distilleries cold filter their rum to remove what may eventually percipitate. If you find it distasteful decant it like you would wine, carefully.