“Jamaica rum” once said it all. Today, with every producer making styles from unaged to long-aged, it’s time to break down the substyles.| www.rumwonk.com
Grenada's River Antoine is the most old-school rum distillery operating today. This story takes you inside the distillery with tons of photos.| Cocktail Wonk
A frequent question in rum groups with American members is, “Can I bring Cuban rum home with me to the US?”| www.rumwonk.com
The Banana Life, A Tiki drink from San Francisco's Pagan Idol - Recipe and background information. Plus a bonus recipe.| Cocktail Wonk
Think independent rum bottlers make big profits? In reality, a $100 bottle yields a shockingly low profit to the brand. A new infographic shows why.| www.rumwonk.com
Rum additives are more complex than just sweetening. Discover why and explore the regulations of 24 rum-producing countries.| www.rumwonk.com
In Part 1, I covered why Caribbean visitors may return home with less rum than hoped for. Here in Part 2, I provide tips for successful rum hunting.| www.rumwonk.com
When rum geeks ask, "Where's the best place to buy rum in the Caribbean?" the answer is complicated. Part 1 of this two-part series is a deep dive on the topic.| www.rumwonk.com
While Hampden’s appearance hadn’t changed dramatically since 2016, there is plenty to see with fresh eyes. Two 23,000 liter (5000 imperial gallons) double retort stills were installed circa 2020, increasing Hampden’s batch distillation capacity to the same level as Appleton’s. Two recently built aging warehouses enable a significant quantity of rum on-site for the first time in the estate’s history.| www.rumwonk.com
A photographic deep dive into operations at Worthy Park rum distillery in Jamaica, along with an overview of the distillery’s history excerpted from the Jamaica chapter of Modern Caribbean Rum.| www.rumwonk.com
A detailed look at the U.S. Duty Free limit for spirits, what happens if you have more, and how much it will cost you.| Cocktail Wonk
Occasionally a sorghum "rum" pops into the news. Here's why sorghum can't be used to make rum.| www.rumwonk.com
Solera aging of rum is often demonized by enthusiasts, but a closer look reveals that the problem is misleading age representations, not solera. Also, some rums that utilize solera without age-related controversies.| www.rumwonk.com
Many rums called high-ester may not be, and esters often play less of a role in a rum’s flavor profile than you might think.| www.rumwonk.com
Among the most sacrosanct tenets in the distilled spirits world is that an age stated on a label means every drop in the bottle aged for at least that duration.| www.rumwonk.com
Esters, volatile compounds, and congeners are different but related concepts. Without some technical background, it’s easy to misunderstand what each measurement conveys. In what follows, I’ll provide some necessary background and then wrap things up with real-world examples and guidance.| www.rumwonk.com
Jamaica rum's bold flavors stem from misunderstood fermentation components. Here, we'll examine dunder, muck and acid and learn how they create unique flavor.| www.rumwonk.com
An annotated English language translation of the 2014 Martinique Rhum Agricole AOC regulations.| Cocktail Wonk
A very detailed an in-depth look with many photos of Hampden Estate rum distillery in Jamaica, as well as its "great house"| Cocktail Wonk
Slumbering in anonymity in a Liverpool warehouse for two decades, two casks filled with rums from iconic distilleries have recently burst into the rum scene.| www.rumwonk.com
The obvious question is “What happens to the Renegade distillery?” It’s not publicly known who purchased Renegade or their plans, but we can provide some informed speculation on what happened and who may have purchased it.| www.rumwonk.com
A detailed look at the six types of rum essential to getting started making Tiki cocktails usin a rigorous statistical approach to the classic Tiki canon.| Cocktail Wonk
A deep dive into Plantation Rums' O.F.T.D. Overproof with detailed information about each component rum and backstory of the project.| Cocktail Wonk
Was the "Martinique rum" in classic tiki recipes like the Donga punch really rhum agricole? And if not, what should we use instead?| Cocktail Wonk
Do rum categories make sense to use in cocktail recipes? Even the new "technical" categorizations like Gargano and Smuggler's Cove? The insights in this article may surprise you.| www.rumwonk.com
A deep dive into dunder and another more exotic ingredient called 'muck'. They play a big part of making Jamaican rums very funky.| Cocktail Wonk
Now that Planteray Rum has released its new Mister Fogg Navy Rum, I can finally share my part in the project’s genesis.| www.rumwonk.com
Rum enthusiasts have recently had trouble finding Wray & Nephew White Overproof rum on store shelves, so wonder if there’s a production shortage or if it’s been discontinued. Here, we first examine why a rum might become hard to find and then look at the specifics of JWN’s White Overproof in light of the company’s recent statements.| www.rumwonk.com
A look at Tequila legend Tomas Estes and his new book, The Tequila Ambassador V.O. by Wonk Press| Cocktail Wonk
A brief look at the one slice of the wacky world of US distilled spirit regulations. It may seem only a matter for the lawyers, but when we debate whether something is "really rum" or not, it matters.| www.rumwonk.com
Jamaica is a haven for rum fanatics and visitors want to know where all the rum distilleries are and if they accept visitors. This story covers all those details and much more.| www.rumwonk.com
Some might say the now-classic Barbados rum profile is closest to bourbon’s flavor profile, but there's much more to the story. By looking at the relative intensities of fermentation and aging flavors, a more nuanced picture emerges and suggest others rums bourbon drinkers might enjoy.| www.rumwonk.com
Every spirit possesses some combination of fermentation and (usually) aging flavors. Without considering what those flavors are, we can assign values to our perception of the intensity of both types of flavor. By intentionally focusing on a spirit's flavor intensity rather than specific flavors, the intent of the spirit’s creators comes to the front| www.rumwonk.com
A detailed look at Oxbow Rum Distillery in Baton Rouge. Louisiana. 75% of the rum Oxbow makes is cane juice "Rhum Louisiane" (aka "agricole style"). Oxbow is unique among the state’s rum distillers because of its family connection to the Alma Sugarcane Plantation.| www.rumwonk.com
With 17 distilleries making a stylistically diverse range of rums, the good name of Louisiana rum has traveled well beyond just the United States. The first in a series of stories on Louisiana rum.| www.rumwonk.com
At a press conference today at the West Indies Rum Distillery in Barbados, Plantation Rum owner Alexandre Gabriel revealed the brand’s long-awaited new name, Planteray, which will first appear on bottles of Cut & Dry Coconut Rum.| www.rumwonk.com
When it comes to rum, seemingly simple questions often lead deep down a rabbit hole of more complex questions.| www.rumwonk.com
The ultimate rum book's 850 pages and 900 images tell the story of today's rum world, including detailed looks at 75 rum distilleries including Mount Gay, Foursquare, Appleton Estate, Havana Club, Worthy Park, Saint-James, and Bacardi.| WonkPress
Super-geeky details about Jamaican distilleries, the history of the Jamaican Spirits Pool, rum marques and much more.| Cocktail Wonk
What rums do you really need to make tiki drinks? The nine essential styles that you'll use most often for a wide range of recipes.| Cocktail Wonk
I recently realized Minimalist Tiki's falernum recipe could be improved. With the last of my current batch consumed, I set out to rebalance the recipe.| Cocktail Wonk
Outside of locales where French is the local tongue, Réunion Island rum gets little fanfare from enthusiasts obsessed with the latest limited editions from Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Martinique, etc.| www.rumwonk.com
Something that became clear while writing Modern Caribbean Rum is just how siloed the global rum industry is.| www.rumwonk.com
I recently received an email from Nikkhil of the Whisky Flu blog, asking me about Camikara, a cane juice rum from India aged for 12 years.| www.rumwonk.com