Wine Related Articles

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of...Huh? - Rum vs Rhum

By: Jennifer Rosen	<< back Page 2 of 2

Then there’s sipping rum, quickly elbowing its way into the cigar and leather-filled province of single malt scotch and cognac. It takes many years in barrique to mellow this rum and infuse it with smoky vanilla flavors. After all, rum was not built in a day. Still, exactly how long it ages is a tricky question. Caribbean heat evaporates up to 15% of the rum in a barrel every year. After twelve years, there might be less than five gallons left in a 52-gallon barrel. Which makes 24-year-old rum every bit as suspicious as it's delicious.

But none of that makes it Rhum. It's still part of the 95% of the world’s production distilled from fermented molasses. But there's another way. Here's how it came about. In the mid-19th century, the rise of beet sugar began to threaten the cane market. Faced with a glut of sugar cane, Martinique producer Homère Clément thought of squeezing fresh cane juice and fermenting it just like wine before distilling. That fresh-squeezed cane-juice rum became known as Rhum Agricole (as opposed to Industriale - the molasses kind). In Brazil, they call it cachaça (ka-shah-sa), and it's the key ingredient in their signature drink, the caipirinha (kai-pure-en-ya), a delicious but dangerous drink that inflicts women with an uncontrollable desire for liposuction and breast implants and causes the damndest men to think they look fine in a thong.

While regular rum is a by-product of sugar, Rhum uses the entire cane crop. Rum is made year-round, but Rhum can only happen during the short harvest season. All this makes it a tad more expensive.

Is it worth it? Depends. Like the highest-price wines, it can be quirky. Along with rum's usual buttery, caramel flavors you get complex, grassy, vegetal notes plus mysterious reminders of rocks and rain. As befits a product that reflects Mother Nature more than the factory, the flavors can vary tremendously from producer to producer. Some are exquisite enough to leave poor old rum crawling through the dust wondering who you need to know around here to get an H. But like everything that goes in your mouth, it comes down to personal taste. Whichever you end up preferring, let me know if you're planning on making cocktails. I’ve got some parasols to unload.

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