White Rum

[Ed Hamilton]

What are your impressions of molasses-based white rum, do you drink it?

Or, do you avoid it?

Personally, I love it with ginger ale if the mixer isn't too sweet and if the rum is good. By good I mean a well distilled rum, preferably aged and then carbon filtered to remove the color from the oak barrels.

A few of my favorites are Brugal, Barcelo Gran Blac and Don Q which I drink with coconut water and a slice of lime.

Cheers,

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

I like that rich, sugar-cane flavour, such as in:

Flor de Caña 3 años (Rum of Nicaragua)

Ron Varadero 3 años (El Ron de Cuba)

Ron Havana Club 3 años (El Ron de Cuba) (a pale yellow in colour)

Tasting Notes (NOT mine, cut & paste): Aromas of sugar cane and fresh herbs. Mouth-filling, clear and correct.

I've not had the Brugal White Rum, only the Brugal Añejo, which I find very good, especially for the inexpensive price.

Do these fit in that catgory, Ed?

[nightscotsman]

I don't drink white rum by itself, but it is essential in many cocktails (mojito, daiquri) where the strong flavor of even a light amber rum would be overpowering and cloying. That said, I mostly use Meyers white rum as I haven't found another easily available, realatively inexpensive white that's better.

[Ed Hamilton]

Flor de Caña 3 años (Rum of Nicaragua)

Ron Varadero 3 años (El Ron de Cuba)

Ron Havana Club 3 años (El Ron de Cuba) (a pale yellow in colour)

Of these only the Havana Club would be considered white even though it hasn't been carbon filtered to make it as clear as it was when it was distilled. The color hasn't been clarified but neither has it been colored.

[laura]

Ed. you are obviously not referring to rhum agricole such as Clement from Martinique orLe Mauny also from Martinique. Those white rums are essentially pure , distilled

from sugar cane, as I understand it. Somewhat raw but extremely fragrant and

always brings me back to the caribbean when I open the bottle . Are there places

to purchase these white rums in the united states?

[Ed Hamilton]

Laura, you are absolutely right. I did mention 'molasses-based white rum.'

Presently there are only a couple white rhum agricoles being sold in the US. St James is one, but it is extremely hard to find. But I would expect that situation to change as America discovers the fragrant rhums from Martinique, Guadeloupe and Marie Galante.

How do you drink the Frech Caribbean rhums?

[laura]

Ed My husband was a great fan of the white rums and would drink it as they

do in the FWI a little ice and some lime. I usually will add a lime sugar mixture

with the rum, and sometimes with orange juice, lime and ice. We would usually

bring back bottles of white rum when we went to the FWI primarily because we

could never find it here. Why do you think it will become popular here if no one

ever has a chance to drink it and see just how good it is?

[Ed Hamilton]

You are absolutely right! But, people like yourself are searching the French Caribbean rums out when you go to the islands, as did Jason on his last trip to St Maarten.

As something of an industry insider, I get asked every day where to buy French Caribbean rhum in the US. Right now the answer is only a few places but that is changing, as importers look for new rhums to fill an expanding rum market.

There are a couple of reasons why there is so little rhum agricole imported to the US.

1) Rhum is bottled in 70cl bottles in the islands. The US standard is 750ml or 75cl. So in order for a distillery to export to the US, they would have to retool their bottle packaging line which isn't a big deal except the distillery then has to make an investment in bottles for a new market. In addition to the bottles, new labels have to be printed to comply with US BATF regs.

2) Since French Caribbean Rhum is quite a different spirit from the molasses based spirits that are currently on the market, consumers will have to be educated as to how to drink it. If a consumer buys a bottle of

rhum agricole and mixes it with Cola, he will probably never buy it again. The French don't drink it with Cola and neither should you.

Since most liquor distribution is done by large companies that handle hundreds of different labels, unless the sales people know and understand rhum agricole they won't be able to sell it. From a salesperson's point of view, if something is hard to sell, why bother since there are a lot of other items in the basket. As a case in point, Dillon from Martinique recently lost distribution in the US because their US distributor didn't want to bother with a product that was different from the other spirits in the rum list.

I will be visiting the distilleries in Martinique and Guadeloupe before Christmas and will let this forum know when we can expect to see French rhum on the shelves in the US.

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

Ed, I'm a bit confused, the Vardero 3 años is almost indentical in colour to the Havana Club 3 años.

Ron Varadero 3 años (El Ron de Cuba)

Ooops, but there is NO Flor de Caña 3 años (Rum of Nicaragua) . I was thinking of the 4 year old, which is NOT white, but rather, brown:

http://www.flordecana.com/

[Ed Hamilton]

Bolivar,

You're right, those Cuban rums are almost the same color, very pale yellow.

There is no legal designation for white rum, but it is commonly associated with spirits that haven't been colored or acquired a lot of color from aging in oak barrels. After many years, barrels will be essentially leached clean of their tannins, which impart color to rum. So confusion isn't out of order. If you ask a Cuban which is his favorite ron blanco, white rum, no doubt he will name a rum that has at least some color.

The difference between these 3 yo rums and one from, Puerto Rico for example, is that the Cuban rum hasn't been carbon filtered to remove the slight color, or more of the congeners that account for at least some of the taste and aroma of the rum.

I hope this adds, I mean subtracts, from the confusion.

In fact, we aren't talking about 'white rum' at all but actually clear, or as it's called in Barbados, 'see through, ' a much more accurate description.

[Dan Smith]

Greetings,

This thread has caused me to open my bottle of Carta Blanca Matusalem from Cuba. I must first tell you this sad but true story. A friend of mine went on a vacation to Cuba a few months ago and of course I jumped on the occasion to get some rum. I told the person in question to bring back Matusalem Anejo Superior and Santiago de Cuba Anejo. Well I got both of them, but he grabbed the wrong Matusalem and I ended up with the Carta Blanca

Having said that and as I previously stated, this thread inspired me to give the Carta Blanca a shot (no pun intended). Here are my tasting notes from late last night:

• Color: Very pale yellow, nearly white.
  
• Nose: Fruity
  
• Tasting Notes: There is no sweetness in this rum. It starts off harsh, strong and hot, yet it remains very drinkable. It soon develops some very pronounced fruitiness and maybe even a buttery? finish. It embarrasses many dark anejo rums in my collection and has changed my view of white rums. It tastes like my last vacation to Cuba!
  
  

[Bolivar Petit Corona]

Thanks for clearing that up, Ed. Part of my confusion was not understanding why the Varadero would not be considered a white rum.