New Orleans Rum / Celebration Distillation

[Jason Perlow]

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=97&t=31882

Note the new branding for the upper end rum, "CANE". This is distinguished by the addition of cane syrup during the distillation process to give it a distinctive flavor.

New Orleans Rum also now has new packaging and label artwork and is no longer "N.O. Rum". The lower end product is simply "New Orleans Rum" in both white and amber.

[Ed Hamilton]

Like a few other rums, namely English Harbour 5 yo and their Extra Old, New Orleans rum is coming of age and even the packaging is maturing. Glad to see people who are so passionate about their product succeed.

[Jason Perlow]

One of the things I asked Mark Stewart was if it was possible for Celebration to produce a true Rhum Agricole. He said that they had researched it and determined that if you do not have the distillery right by the cane fields, it is essentially impossible because the cut cane degrades VERY quickly and needs to be processed IMMEDIATELY into cane juice and into rum. The cut cane stalks are apparently very sensitive to being moved around. Even with the Louisiana cane fields less than 2 hours outside New Orleans, the distance is too far.

Celebration is working on a Cane 7 year old right now, it should be avalaible in the next year or two.

[jhlurie]

Note the new branding for the upper end rum, "CANE". This is distinguished by the addition of cane syrup during the distillation process to give it a distinctive flavor.

Just tried some of this tonight. It's VERY interesting, especially the smell. Kind of a combination of molasses and vanilla. The finish is pretty good, but it suffers a bit if you keep it in your mouth (maybe 'cause its 80 proof). It's for drinking, not sipping.

[Jason Perlow]

This is the full line of Celebration Distillation (New Orleans Rum) products.

From left to right: New Orleans Crystal Rum (White), New Orleans (Amber), Cane White, Cane (Amber/Gold)

The Cane is distinguished by the cane syrup flavor. New Orleans Amber is what used to be marketed as "N.O. Rum"

The New Orleans Crystal and Cane White are still pretty interesting for white rums, because they both have a very strong blackstrap molasses taste.

[Jason Perlow]

Tragic news from New Orleans Rum:

We were hit extremely hard. We lost a great deal of aging inventory, almost every barrel. We, like every business in New Orleans, are currently fighting with insurance companies so that we may rebuild. It's going to be a while before we're back to normal, but then again we were never "normal."

It's important for people to understand that even though Katrina is fading out of the national spotlight, New Orleans is still in total shambles. Our situation is far from unique, every business and every homeowner is living the same nightmare. We'll be back, but it's going to be while.

-Lynae LeBlanc

Marketing Director

[Kristian]

Uh, I was afraid that they might have suffered greatly in the Katrina event. I actually thought about them when I saw the newscasts from N.O. at the time.

I really hope that they get back on their feet, but I suspect they were set back almost to what they were when they first began...

[Jason Perlow]

I would imagine the stills and what not are salvageable and can be cleaned, but they are going to essentially need to start from scratch with their barrels. I am sure they can produce a new white rum fairly quickly, but Cane was a 3 to 5 year blend aged spirit. We're probably not going to see another aged spirit of Cane's quality from them until at least 2009 or 2010 -- this is providing after they collect insurance money, they decide not to fold the business entirely.

I have several bottles of Cane and New Orleans Amber left from when I last went down and bought a case back in 2003. I'm not so keen to drink them now. Some of the liquor stores on the 'net probably still have some current stock -- if you want this rum I would order some now before the stock is gone.