The Great Mai Tai Rum Debate - Are we overthinking it? Some historical context provides guidance.| Rum Wonk
What was London Dock rum—and why did it matter just as much as the Navy’s daily tot? A chapter excerpt from The Rum Never Sets explains.| Rum Wonk
“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
A frequent question in rum groups with American members is, “Can I bring Cuban rum home with me to the US?”| www.rumwonk.com
Just released: The Rum Never Sets, a deep dive into Royal Navy & London dock rum by rum historian Matt Pietrek and Planteray Rum's Alexandre Gabriel.| www.rumwonk.com
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
The meaning of “Martinique rum” completely changed between the 1950s and today. Martinique rhum agricole wasn’t readily available to consumers in the 1950s, while today, it’s nearly impossible to find a Martinique rum that isn’t rhum agricole.| Rum Wonk
Hybrid stills are often mislabeled as column stills, confusing consumers and competitions—true column stills enable continuous, not batch, distillation.| Rum Wonk
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
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
Rum’s incredible diversity causes its greatest challenge: ill-defined styles like "overproof." An infographic shows how diverse high ABV rums are and suggests better names for them.| Rum Wonk
It’s time for Rum Wonk's end-of-2024 recap! We’ll tick through some stats and most viewed posts momentarily, but first, some personal rum-related highlights of 2024.| www.rumwonk.com
There is no truly global standard for distilled spirit, nor is rum the wild west of distilled spirits. It’s catchy, but wrong.| Rum Wonk
An infographic on one of rum’s biggest challenges: color-based rum categorizations. "White rum" is a wildly unhelpful way of specifying a type of rum.| Rum Wonk
A handy infographic to make it easy to see the relationship between Jamaica rum brands, the distilleries that make them, and who owns them.| Rum Wonk
Rhum DBM, a new brand from Guadeloupe, is big news because it’s made from molasses, not cane juice. An inside look at why it matters and Distillerie Bonne Mère, where it’s made.| Rum 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
If you aim to make a classic “1944 Mai Tai,” using rhum agricole won’t do it. The original Mai Tai recipe used only Jamaican rum, Martinique rum was only incorporated under duress, and Martinique rum in Vic's era wasn't rhum agricole. Vic himself said as such!| 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
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
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
Is Bumbu really rum? The answer depends on which Bumbu you're talking about. Here, we'll separate fact from conjecture to examine why Bumbu is controversial in some circles.| www.rumwonk.com
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
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
We can overlook that “white rum” is actually clear rather than white and accept that the term refers to rum with little or no coloring. The bedrock problem with using white rum as a category or style is that the rums encompass several well-defined styles that aren’t the same or interchangeable.| www.rumwonk.com