Rum makers distill unsavory history into fresh products

In most modern cocktails, the spirit is meant to provide buzz without tasting like booze. Vodka's ability to lie hidden has made it the No. 1 spirit category since 1976. Rum sales are far behind.

For most cocktail drinkers, rum is a vodka wanna-be. Light rum, which accounts for the majority of America's rum sales, is neutral and at its best smooth. Bacardi Light rum, which aspires to both, is America's No. 1 premium brand of spirit, a position it occupies around the rest of the world as well.

Hiding behind the taste of, for example, limes and mint in mojitos has been good for rum. In 2003 rum sales rose about 5 percent. Rum sales increases for the last two years are about the same as those for vodka; they far outstrip bourbon, Canadian whisky, Scotch whisky, brandy and Cognac. This is against a background in which spirits sales in American have been flat for the last decade. Much of the increase can be credited to flavored rums, which taste only a bit different than flavored vodkas.

But rum is far more diverse than any other spirit. While vodka exists in two forms -- white and flavored -- rum arrives in guises white, dark, flavored, very high proof and aged.

Aged and artisan rum is nothing new. George Washington was fond enough of rum from Barbados to demand a barrel of it for his inaugural party.

How old is rum? We can't be certain. To most people, sugarcane -- from which most rum is made -- is a Caribbean product, but the plant originates in the Far East, in Indonesia or Papua New Guinea. About 300 B.C., Alexander the Great saw it in India and called it "the grass that gives honey without bees."

Christopher Columbus brought sugarcane from the Canary Islands, west of Africa, to the Caribbean. It found fertile soil there and quickly became one of the primary fuels running the engine of the colonial machine. Because that engine was fired by the lives of slaves, rum's story is also the story of the slave trade.

The styles of rum vary from island to island. For example, Puerto Rico is known for clean, mild white rum, while Jamaica is known for dark, pungent rum. But unlike wine, where geography and climate usually determine style, nature has very little to do with styles of rum -- history is more important.

Many Caribbean rums are created from molasses purchased from other sugarcane-producing countries, much of it from Brazil. And the aging conditions are pretty similar from island to island. What separates one rum from another is the methods and manners of production.

Each island has adopted techniques that were in vogue when it was most important as a sugar producer. Each island's dominant style is a snapshot of rum production at a particular time.

When George Washington celebrated his inauguration in 1789, and insisted that at least one barrel of rum had to be from Barbados, he was in accord with the common belief of that day, that Barbados rum was made richer and more complex than other rums by its sojourn in barrels.

Barrel aging of rum was not unusual at that time. What put Barbados ahead of other rum-producing islands was the amount of aged rum it could bring to the market because the island was a vast and efficient sugar-producing slave- run factory.

A British jewel

In the 1680s English bankers referred to Barbados as "the most important jewel in his Majesty's crown." There were about 77,000 slaves on 175 plantations then and the slave population grew even more, averaging more than 100,000 people between 1715 and 1834.

Some Barbados distilleries have very long histories; Mount Gay has produced rum since 1703. They sell some lovely rums today, such as Mount Gay Eclipse Rum ($15) and Mount Gay Extra Old Rum ($33). Both have the caramel and honey sweetness of barrel time.

The West Indies Rum Distillery creates Cockspur V.S.O.R. ($35), a peppery, earthy rum with chocolate hints at the finish. Foursquare Distillery is a star with its elegant, honeyed, Foursquare Spiced Rum ($25) and the great French oak-aged Doorly's XO ($35), which offers an even more pronounced spicy aroma and flavor, with a hint of ginger.

The French and former French colonies of Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe have created similar complexity by distilling their rums from cane syrup instead of rum's typical base of molasses. The choice has been dictated by their history.

Just west of Barbados, Hispaniola island was divided between the French and the Spanish. The western portion, known today as Haiti, offered sugar and rum opportunities to French interests. By the end of the 18th century, Haiti's sugarcane factories were cranked into high gear, and slave boats struggled to keep up with demand. The tales of deprivation and torture that history records from that time are horrific. In Haiti, unlike most of the rest of the Caribbean, the slave population rose up in revolt.

The high ideals of the French Revolution resulted in the abolition of slavery in Haiti in 1793, but the other European powers took umbrage. The British attacked in the same year but were repulsed by armies of former slaves.

In 1801, Napoleon tried to reinstate slavery in Haiti at the barrel of a gun. The French were defeated but not before the revolt's brilliant leader, Toussaint l'Ouverture, was captured. He died in a French prison.

Napoleon's revenge against the Haitians was the creation of a new domestic sugar beet industry designed to compete with the Caribbean sugar producers; more than 300 factory farms were created in France within a decade of the loss of Haiti.

With sugar production coming from sugar beets and not sugarcane, the French colonies didn't have molasses for rum production. Far less stable than molasses, cane syrup or juice creates a different style of rum called "Rhum Agricole." The Rhum Agricoles of the French colonies of Guadeloupe and Martinique represent rums with true personality.

Some brands from these islands can be a challenge to find. Martinique's J. Bally makes intense vintage rums and J. Bally Vieux ($35) has earthy complexity. From that same island, St. James XO rum ($30) is full and rich, while Clement XO ($45) is wickedly rich but well balanced.

While these rums are multi-layered, the French style can tend toward a more herbal, even vegetal character. Blame Napoleon.

Haiti's Napoleonic legacy is reflected in Barbancourt's continued use of cane syrup instead of molasses. Barbancourt Special Reserve 5 Star ($26) is stylish stuff, and its Reserve du Domaine 15-year-old ($45) is one of the great aged rums.

By 1720, Barbados had been surpassed in sugar production by Jamaica. There life was particularly hellish; the island was run by mutineers and buccaneers. The famous Captain Henry Morgan was a privateer who was so successful that he served as governor of Jamaica.

Jamaica's dark drink

Traditionally, Jamaican rum was treacle-dark, with the earthy weirdness typical of the use of dunder scooped from pungent pits hidden behind some Caribbean distilleries. Dunder is the yeast-rich, partially fermented molasses sometimes used to start the fermentation of a fresh batch of molasses, and the source of the word dunderhead.

Fewer and fewer distillers are willing to use mock pits, which is good because the resultant rum is likely to exhibit odd, rubbery aromas. Myers dark ($15), the most famous Jamaican brand, is a very sophisticated commercial rum, with different bottlings produced for different markets in the Caribbean, the United States and Great Britain. To most rum drinkers, it's good for mixing, but not a true aged rum. Its spicy, sweet, raisiny flavors deserve a more charitable response.

Appleton Estate dates back to 1749, and its rums are delightfully smart; Appleton V/X ($20) is a terrific bargain, with delightful vanilla and fig notes and Appleton Extra ($32) is a world-class example of the layers of cooked and tart fruits, baking spices and earth that typifies great rum.

The impact of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 was to demand that the Caribbean (as well as Latin America) was reserved solely for American exploitation.

In 1898 the United States took control of Puerto Rico. By the early 20th century, U.S. interests were enjoying huge tax advantages conferred upon their sugar refineries in the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, local producers were banned from shipping sugar to the United States, according to Dave Broom's fantastic book "Rum" (Wine Appreciation Guild, 176 pages, $45).

In order to create lighter, sleeker rums, new production methods were used. The most important development was the creation in the 1830s of the continuous still, which could create higher proof, cleaner spirits in a much shorter period of time. Today's vodkas are made by these more efficient stills.

The greater expense of the continuous still meant the poorer Caribbean distillers didn't bring them in until the 1930s. By that time Cubans and Puerto Ricans had been using continuous stills for decades. In the late 1800s the Bacardi family of Cuba laid claim to a cleaner style of rum, with multiple distillations and charcoal filtration, methods that remain crucial to Bacardi's success around the world.

Today many Caribbean distillers use continuous stills, and their products include rums which have been distilled to vodka-like softness and neutrality. Some accuse these rums of blandness, but their popularity is proof that most people prefer a softer, more modern rum.

The Bacardis opened their Puerto Rican facility in the 1930s, and as the Cuban revolution threatened their ownership in Cuba, they transferred more production to Puerto Rico. By 1960 the revolutionary government had confiscated their Cuban plant. The issue of ownership of the name and those facilities is in still in court today.

Great Cuban rums

Cuba may have lost the Bacardi family but the island still makes great rums. Havana Club makes a delightful 7 Year Old and a wonderful 15 Year Old that you won't likely find in the United States.

Over the last several centuries, the Virgin Islands made funky, pungent rums in the manner of Jamaica. But the promiscuous history of these islands (Denmark, Holland, France, Spain, England and the United States have owned all or part of them) birthed a modern style as clean as Puerto Rico and as rich as Barbados.

Cruzan on St. Croix typifies this blending of old and new. Cruzan Estate Diamond ($20) provides sleek, layered flavors of dates, honey and oranges, and Cruzan Single Barrel ($32), delivers the same flavors with even greater spice and richness. But Cruzan's growth is in flavored rums, all of which are pretty and slickly marketed to reflect the image of its island origin.

This island image continues to spark rum sales. Most of the best-known rum-based cocktails evoke tropical vacations: Mojitos, Daiquiris, Zombies and Mai Tais.

Their popularity is welcome news in the Caribbean. Rum provides many islanders steady and even gainful employment; estimates are that about 10,000 islanders are dependent upon rum production for their livelihoods.

The islands' producers are finally being rewarded for maturing and blending the most exciting rums in the world. While rum once meant slavery, the new growth in rum and the jobs it brings offer instead the possibility of economic freedom to these islands.