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The Orange in Pyrat Rum

A great rum mystery is finally solved! If you've had Pyrat rum, you've probably noticed its very strong orange taste- so strong that many people have wondered if something was added to the rum. Well, now we know why Pyrat tastes so much like orange. 

I was at the Patron tequila distillery last night meeting with their master distiller Francisco Alcaraz. He also developed the formula for Pyrat rum, which is made in Guyana. 

I asked Alcaraz why Pyrat tastes so strongly of orange. He said that like how Patron's Burdeos tequila spends time in an ex-Bordeaux wine barrel, Pyrat rum spends time in a used cask: one that previously held orange liqueur. 

As I've not seen this information previously, I didn't press the issue too much and don't know how much time in the orange liqueur cask or which orange liqueur it is used. I do not think it is Patron's Citronge orange liqueur though. 

Aging or "finishing" a spirit in a cask that previously held another spirit (that imparts flavor to it) is common among tequila, whisky, and rum. However this might be the first time I've heard of a spirit aged in an ex-orange liqueur barrel. 

Anyway, that finally solves that. 

The Great Rum Debate That Was More of a Great Rum Panel

Last week after a group of bartenders took a boat ride from San Francisco to Oakland, where we were treated to a rum debate starring:

• Ed Hamilton, founder of the Ministry of Rum. 
• Martin Cate, tiki expert and owner of Smuggler's Cove
• David Cid, Bacardi brand master apprentice
• Gerry Schweitzer, founder of Leblon cachacha

It wasn't nearly as boring as Cate and Cid make it look in the picture below. 

The event was called the Great Rum Debate, but it was more of a nice focus group on what's happening and what should happen with the rum industry. 

Here were some of the topics discussed:

The future of the rum industry

• Schweitzer says that regulation should be coming to Brazil as the country reemerges into the world. He said, "I think we're looking to other sugar cane producing and Caribbean countries for cues."
• Cid says, "What I would like to see is more standard definitions between the major producers."
• This topic came up a few times- there is no standardization of statements on rum- bottles, what 'vieux' means, dark rum vs. aged, etc. Yet nobody seemed to think that the brands would all get together and agree on anything. They all want it to be done to match what each individual brand is already doing, which makes it impossible.

Is the industry prepared for increased rum production as consumers get more turned on to aged rum?

• Hamilton says the rum industry benefited from the price increases of the single malt scotch industry.
• Cid said Bacardi spent over 100 million dollars in the last 10 years increasing production capacity and in environmental improvements. 
• Cate said that the fast aging of rum in the tropics helps, as they don't have to think as far out as the scotch industry does. In terms of where the industry is in improving its image and production, he said, "It feels like rum has been lagging about 10 years behind tequila... and fortunately I think that gap is getting a lot shorter."

The direction of the rum industry

• Schweitzer says, "More education, more communication is needed to break down the pirate thing (image of Captain Morgan and partying associated with rum). With transparency comes knowledge."
• Cid agreed with Schweitzer's last statement. "My position didn't exist three years ago," he said. (More on Bacardi's increased transparency on yesterday's post. ) 
• Cate said the challenge now is to raise rum's credibility, and noted that there is no flavored scotch- the industry prevents it. "If you think it's a big party and this is not a spirit to be taken seriously then it's not good for the industry," he said. 
• Cate and Hamilton also noted how many rums obscure their origins and how hard that makes it to learn about them. Cate said,  "I love a rum that's proud of its country of origin." 

A great panel and lots of good information. Thanks guys!

  

The Bacardi Boat of Truth

The day after the Ministry of Rum festival, there was a rum event put on for bartenders that involved a boat ride sponsored by Bacardi followed by a debate from multiple rum producers in Oakland. 

I learned a couple things about Bacardi rum on the boat before things got tense:

• Bacardi Superior (white) is a blend of two rums, one high proof and fairly neutral; the other distilled to lower proof with more flavor. In Puerto Rico rums have a minimum of one year aging before bottling. The two rums are distilled and aged separately then combined in some ratio at bottling time to make the final product. 
• Bacardi Solera is an aged blend. The "solera" isn't anything like a traditional solera system (I am beginning to think that it's not in any rum brand that puts the word on the label), but is blended rum that is "married" in another cask before bottling. I believe this product is made in Mexico. 
• Three countries in Europe accept sugar beet distillate as rum. In the US and in most countries, to be called rum it must be distilled from a sugar cane derivative. 
• Puerto Rico put into place minimum aging laws after WWII. During the war they ran out of aged rum so people started selling basically moonshine fresh off the still. Laws were put into place to protect the quality of rum after this period. From the discussion that followed it seems that the law initially required several years of aging then it was reduced down to one year.  

 

Then Things Got Interesting.

But the point of the cruise seemed to be to address the negative perception of Bacardi by top bartenders and rum connoisseurs. I am not so sure the cruise was successful at changing peoples' minds, but it was a step in the right direction. 

"This is the most transparent Bacardi has ever been," said David Cid, Bacardi Brand Master Apprentice. 

True enough, I learned that some of the rum is made in Mexico, that some used to be made on another Caribbean island,  and a few other pieces of information that might have been previously glossed over. Cid says the press kit in the most extensive in the brand's history as well. 

But the discussion went south when once again they tried to assert that the product is exactly the same as it was when it was made in pre-Castro Cuba before moving to Puerto Rico, and thus if bartenders are making classic rum cocktails they should make them with Bacardi. 

The bartenders pointed out that the still was once a four-column still and now it has five columns, that they buy molasses on the open market, and that the product is bottled with local water in different markets and at different proofs. Also, some of the bartenders have tasted vintage Cuban Bacardi and say it tastes different than it does today. 

Cid said that the product is distilled differently for bottlings of different proofs- it's not just a matter of adding more water. He also  acknowledged that because distillation technology is better they would have to filter less now than they did previously to achieve the same flavor. He did a good job at explaining how Bacardi white could be the same as it used to.  

At the end, the bartenders would not concede that the product is the same today as it once was. Cid would say that it is "scientifically possible" that the product tastes the same now as it did. 

 I think this could be mostly solved with a minor change of phrase. Perhaps Bacardi could state that it is an accurate recreation of the product as it was made in Cuba produced with today's more efficient, consistent, and environmentally-friendly technology. Then the bartenders could choose to believe it or not. 

Opening Up

In any case, this boat trip was a case of another brand dipping their toes into the new model of transparent business practices. Patron tequila seems to be doing the same thing by bringing people to the new distillery and bringing around the master distiller for interviews. 

It's a tough place to be for companies that have relied on secrecy (and many would say disinformation) in the past and have built up a lot of distrust in connoisseurs of their categories. It will be interesting to see if and how these companies can work to change their reputations and working relationships with bartenders. 

Important business relationships happen on the front lines- between the sales, PR, and brand ambassadors and the bartenders and consumers. In the newer business environment fostered by the advance of social media these relationships are becoming even more significant, and now some business decisions result from front line interactions rather than meetings in corporate boardrooms.   

So hopefully the higher-ups at Bacardi will listen to front-line conversations like this one on the boat and keep taking  steps toward increased transparency. 

The Fading Beauty Cocktail

I created a drink last night that is simple and tasty. 

 

The occasion was Thursday Drink Night (TDN), over at the Mixoloseum chat room. On Thursdays starting at 7PM EST all the folks in the chat room makes drinks according to the theme of the week. One person will suggest a recipe then everyone who has the ingredients will go make the drink and critique it. We do this for several hours until people fade out or pass out in their own homes. 

Last Thursday was one of our sponsored TDNs, where we make all drinks with a product sponsor. Last night was Zaya, so I made this cocktail with the rum as the base. 

Fading Beauty
by Camper English

1.5 ounces Zaya rum
.5 ounces Small Hand Foods Raspberry Syrup
.75 ounce fresh lime juice (the drink can take an ounce of it if you want it more tart)
1 barspoon absinthe

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.  

The rusty red of the drink and the green lime wheel reminded me of an empty landscape of red soil and the full moon above. For some reason I felt it was a sad moment so I called the drink Fading Beauty for the feeling it gave me. 

Maybe I should go write a poem or something.

Rum Judgement

Last week I helped judge the Ministry of Rum competition in San Francisco. 

We only had to judge 50 or so rums over the course of two days, so it wasn't nearly as grueling as other judging competitions, but it was still pretty interesting. 

 

Ed Hamilton, who runs Ministry of Rum and the competition, said a major challenge is deciding on categories of rums to judge. When I write about rum (which is all I seem to be doing this year) I typically divide them into regional and historical categories based on where the rums are produced. 

But at the competition we looked at them in terms of what was in the bottle. Some of the categories we considered were

• Sugar cane-based spirits (agricole, cachaca, and other rums made from sugar cane instead of molasses)
• White rums
• Dark rums (rums without an age statement)
• Aged rums (rums with an age statement)
• Premium rums (some of the higher-end aged rums)
• Flavored rums and spiced rums
• Overproof rums

Then we could further look at cross-over categories such as aged sugar cane spirits, flavored overproof rums, etc. If we looked at every rum on the market we could come up with a ton of categories. Luckily we weren't judging every rum on the market- only the ones that entered the competition. 

Judging spirits can be difficult if you have too many- it's hard to be a good judge when you experience palate fatigue. But more importantly it's always a pleasure to challenge what you think a spirit tastes like by doing blind tastings.

In this competition I was surprised to find that I gave low scores to some brands I thought I loved and high scores to brands I had previously ignored. That always happens and it's a good, if embarrassing, thing. 

I also noticed I am oblivious to certain flavors that can seem artificial (including vanilla and chocolate) and I have a high sensitivity to certain other flavors including rose and jalapeno.  I also have a low sensitivity for spirits and cocktails that are too sweet until about the third sip whereas other people react right away. Every blind tasting helps further tune your palate. 

When Hamilton talked about the spirits we'd just judged (after we'd judged them, of course), he'd constantly note how the different brands were changing over time: most of them for the better, I'm happy to report. 

Hamilton often says, "If you haven't tasted every bottle behind your bar in the past six months, you don't know what they taste like." We think of spirits as a constant, but they do change. 

Anyway, after the competition we went out drinking. First we started at Heinhold's First and Last Chance Saloon where Jack London used to hang. 

 

Then we took a bus to Smuggler's Cove for some flaming tiki drinks. 

Delicious. 

Tiki Drinks in Fine Cooking Magazine

Oh hey, my latest story for Fine Cooking magazine is online already. 

Tiki Time

Showstopping tiki drinks are back on the menu, and they’re causing quite a stir. Here’s how to create these tasty cocktails at home—don’t forget the swizzle sticks and umbrellas.

by Camper English

Sipping from opposite sides of a cocktail served in a hollowed-out pineapple, a young couple poses for a photo by a waterfall. This isn’t a scene from a Hawaiian vacation in the 1960s, but one I observed earlier this year at Smuggler’s Cove, a buzzing new San Francisco bar. This establishment, and the many others just like it springing up across the country, is a tiki lounge, serving classic Polynesian-themed cocktails. These once-out-of-favor joints and their kitschy cocktails, like the mai tai, zombie, and planter’s punch, are making quite a comeback.

So what makes a cocktail a tiki cocktail? These drinks have several common characteristics.... 

Read the rest of my feature on the return of tiki. 

     

 
 
Not only does it contain thrilling information on tiki, it has recipes from three people you may have heard of:

• Lift Off! by Blair Reynolds, alias Trader Tiki
• Chi Chi Pache by Martin Cate, alias Shoeless Martin Cate
• Barbary Swizzle by Jeff Berry, alias Beachbum Berry

What's a Good Gift Rum?

A friend asks:

A buddy of mine helped another of mine get a job and now he'd like to buy her a nice bottle of somethin' somethin' as a thank you.

She's alllllllll about rum as long as it's not spiced and she *probably* has a bottle of Jamaican something or other at home as they go to Jamaica every year.

I know that you love the stuff so i was wondering if you have any good recommendations?

Why as a matter of fact I do! This is what I'm feeling at the moment. (It could change in a minute.)

 

For sipping rum you can't go wrong with Zacapa. It's friendly and delicious. People into weird wild rums might find it overly soft-and-easy but I don't know of anyone who wouldn't happily drink it. 

If they're cocktail freaks and might like challenging flavors try Smith&Cross- the new favorite of top bartenders. Funky, musty, stanky rums like this one (and most rums from Guyana you can find) are sort of like the Islays of scotch, or the mezcals of tequila. Also it's relatively inexpensive compared to these others.

For something really special, dark, and a little funky seek out Rhum J.M. and get the oldest (most expensive) one you want to pay for. It's like rum trapped in a grass prison in a way that tastes delicious. 

 [Disclaimer: I've been to two of these distilleries on press trips, but I've also been to many other rum distilleries not mentioned here.]

More Fun With Distillery Waste

I am a big fan of distillery waste. Not bathing in it, but learning about it. 

In most cases where a grain is distilled into whiskey or vodka, the spent grain (after all the sugar has been removed to be fermented) is sold off as animal feed. In Cognac (at Hennessy anyway) the spent lees (grape parts) are taken to an industrial distiller to get more alcohol out of them, and the "heavy sediments" of the grape juice go for cattle feed and for use in pharmaceutical products. In tequila production, the spent fibers from the agave pinas are sometimes put back on the fields as fertilizer, sometimes mixed with the heads and tails of distillation. 

 (There is a lot of leftover vegetation in tequila production.)

Many sugar cane distillers (either at the sugar factory for rum or at the distillery for rhum agricole) burn the spent sugar cane stalks to heat the steam engine that powers the distillery. 

(Spent sugar cane to be burned at Rhum Clement distillery on Martinique.) 

(Huge steam-powered gears at Rhum Clement distillery on Martinique.)  

The heads and tails are the waste products of distillation, made up of alcohol, water, and undesirable flavor compounds that distillers don't want in their final products. These are also recycled. In scotch whisky, these are put back into the still for the next batch of distillation. (Somehow they never build up and overwhelm the spirit- weird.) Many companies sell the heads and tails to industrial distillers who make pure spirit, cosmetics, and other products. Some use this alcohol as fuel to heat their distilleries in winter. 

(The condenser at Fettercairn.) 

Speaking of heat, many (if not most) distilleries are mainly powered by hot water; heated either by an oil burner or by burning waste materials like the sugar cane stalks mentioned above. The hot water heats the stills to convert the liquids into steam. Cold water is also needed in the condensers of the still to convert the alcohol in steam form back into liquid form. Typically this cool water comes from a nearby stream or river. After it is used in the condenser it is now hot water, which isn't usually suitable for dumping back into the water stream from whence it came until it is cool. In some distilleries such as the one for Blue Ice Vodka, this hot water is used to lightly heat a warehouse in the winters. 

What About the Water in the Still? 

On my recent trip to the Isle of Jura, The Dalmore, and Fettercairn distilleries I learned about more industrial waste. This made me very happy. 

For some reason nobody talks about the leftover water from distillation. Distillation is really just separating alcohol from water in order to concentrate the alcohol. Concentrate alcohol in beer and you get (unaged) whisky or vodka. Concentrate it in wine and you get brandy. The heads and tails contain alcohol and this is valuable so it gets recycled, but there is still the water left in the still. 

(Stills at Fettercairn.) 

At Fettercairn, Jura's master distiller Willie Tait explained it: After the first distillation, the leftover water also contains yeast bodies from fermentation. This water/yeast mix is called "pot ale," and it can be boiled down into a high-protein syrup used as cattle feed or as fertilizer. 

After the second distillation the leftovers are mostly water with a high copper content with some congeners. Tait said this mixture is called the "spent lees," which is confusing because in cognac this means something different. I also failed to write down how this water is recycled if it is at all, so I have more fun facts about distillery waste to learn!