Category: Spirits Tasting

Rum is a distilled spirit made from molasses which is the byproduct of refining sugarcane, or from fresh pressed sugarcane juice. It comes in white, dark, aged and flavored versions.

It’s usually associated with the tropics but is made in non tropical countries as well, including New York State. Most are made from molasses but Rhum Agricole from the French West Indies, Clairin from Haiti and Cachaca from Brazil and made from local, fresh pressed sugarcane juice.

On August 16th I attended the Brooklyn Rum Festival, which was held at BK Loft 26, an event space at 153 26th Street in Brooklyn.

I think that good, aged rum is an underappreciated spirit, compatible with other brown spirits on the market. Rums age quicker in the warm climate of the Caribbean as opposed to the climate in Scotland. While for a Scotch, I would go for the oldest bottle I can get my hands on but with aged rum, I feel that the sweet spot is 10 years of aging.

I have a preference for the Rhum Agrigole, there is so much character in those rums but for some reason, at this tasting there were not many if any of those rums being poured. In the interest of expanding my knowledge base, I decided to focus on white rums a category that I normally bypass at these big tastings because I find most of them, bland and neutral only to be used as a mixer in a cocktail.

I decided to sample some Clairin style rums from Haiti and I was pleasantly surprised at the character and distinctness of the rums I sampled. Clairin rums have their own particular rules and regulations such as the use of local pressed cane juice, the use of indigenous yeast and the pot still method of distillation. I spoke with some of the representatives at the festival and they told me that rum production in Haiti is comparatively primitive compared to other countries so the rum your drink is like the rum made a century ago.

The way I could describe the flavor profiles of these rums is to imagine walking through an open hay field filled with the smell of grass and earth with a whiff of funky barnyard. They are white rums that I would sip on their own.

White Haitian rums from Saint Benevolence, Navat 1804 and Barbancourt (though the Babancourt is not a true Clairin but more of a Agricole style rum).

Producers at the festival: