A basic guide to RUM for everyone!

[Music] i've been waiting a long time to hang up that sign today is the day welcome back friends it's anders today we are talking about rum and there is a lot to talk about because this is a crazy category of spirits because there are no rules when it comes to making rum well not really we'll discuss this later but it's confusing and intimidating my goal is to help break this down and make it less so intimidating i am going to touch on the history very briefly but primarily we're going to talk about categorizing rum because there are actually a couple different ways to categorize rum i'm going to hopefully make you confident about going to the store and buying some rum introduce some new bottles to you and i am going to be narrowed in a little bit more towards the rums that are produced in and around the caribbean because they are made all around the world i'm not going to talk about flavored rums like coconut rum pineapple rum spiced rum spiced rum is actually just a flavored rum and that didn't come onto the scene until way later so we are talking about rum in its purest form so let's get into it if you're new to the channel hit that subscribe button for more sips tips and recipes and let's try to unpack this mysterious world of rum to the bar [Music] all right so what is wrong by definition rum is a spirit that is distilled from sugarcane juice or a sugarcane byproduct primarily molasses but that's it that's all you have as far as rules there are no rules concerning aging or locale so you can make this anywhere around the world you can age it as long or as little as you want and you can still call it rum in fact there are some bottles that the general public might not consider rum examples cashasa out of brazil which is made from fermented sugar cane juice and batavia rock which is made from sugar cane but also red rice so this one is kind of a relative to rum that's for another time perhaps but both of these fall under the greater umbrella of rum now as far as let me get these out of the way here as far as what most people consider to be rum that originated in and around the caribbean so that's what i'm going to be talking about here today but even just that part of the world there are so many different kinds of rum so how do we talk about this we'll start with the history most likely it was being developed in different parts of the caribbean around the same time we're talking early 17th century so a long time ago and i should point out that it goes without saying you can't have rum without sugar and sugar back then was big industry now because of this sugar and rum have a shared history and we should acknowledge that that part of history was rather dark both sugar and rum relied heavily on slave labor in fact it is pretty commonly accepted that the first versions of rum were discovered by enslaved workers most likely they were doing this to escape their everyday life people were brought from africa to the caribbean forced in terrible conditions to work on sugar plantations and because of this the sugar industry thrived this is the truth it's not a comfy thing to talk about but this is where rum started and it became the rum industry now it certainly has developed as a spirit since then and the story of rum is quite fascinating it ebbs and flows in popularity it was the spirit of pirates for the longest time it was part of tradition of the royal navy it was the core of tiki culture there's a lot to be told in the story of rum if you are interested i highly recommend this book it's called and a bottle of rome a history of the new world in 10 cocktails by wayne curtis the history the story of rome has dark beginnings and there's a lot more to be told about rum but i'm not here to talk about the story of rum i'm here to talk about categorizing ram so how do we categorize rums well there are a few different ways to do this here one very common way to categorize rum is based on color you have white rum gold rum dark rum easy you can look at the rum you can look at the bottle and you know what category to put it into however as we discussed rum is made differently in different locations and so light realms can taste very different and dark rums can taste very different it's also a little deceiving in other spirits you can kind of more or less tell if it's been aged on wood based on color that's not the case with rum see with rum you look at a white rum and you think oh maybe this has not been aged at all like this one this is a white rum that has not been aged at all however this one is an aged rum three-year aged rum that's been charcoal filtered so the color has been stripped it basically makes a white rum that is smooth it's got depth in flavor it's really good but it's a little deceiving you look at it thinking it might be a young rum when it's not on the flip side of this there's no rule saying that you can't add color back into your rum or add color at all so a lot of times young rums can be a dark brown color like this this is a really dark brown color because color has been added into this they'll add molasses or something i don't know that they're actually trying to make this look like an older rum it's called black seal this is kind of their thing but there are a bunch of rums that do this i would like to point out that as a side note because of the lack of rules and regulations across the broad spectrum of rum there is nothing saying you can't add sugar back into the rum fairly common practice this happens and if you add a little bit of sugar to a quality rum it can enhance the flavor but if you add a little bit more sugar you can cover up the bad flavors of a not so good rum making it smoother making people like it is that wrong not necessarily there are some rums that add sugar back in that i think are really good and if you like that rum then you should drink it now what i don't like is the lack of transparency a lot of rums don't disclose this process not saying all rums don't there are some that mention that they're doing this they're being completely transparent and i appreciate that i think that's good i want to know what's going on what to expect in that room every country has their own rules or lack thereof which makes this category frustrating at times but also exciting because you get so many different expressions so that doesn't help us as far as color so then there's another way which is actually older this is the original way of categorizing rum that dates back to the 1600s the main three countries that were producing rum in the caribbean at the time were england spain and france so you have your english style these would be rums that were distilled in places like jamaica barbados guyana and these were a molasses based rum using pot stills the pot still gives a big flavor so it's a big bold robust rum then you have your spanish style these would be produced in places like puerto rico cuba dominican republic and these were also a molasses-based rum but used column stills so they were lighter a bit more refined just a lighter rum then there was the french style these would be made in places like martinique haiti guadeloupe these roms are all together different in fact these are called rum agricoles because they're not a molasses based rum like these two these are a sugar cane juice based rum so the end result is completely different these have a more grassy flavor more vegetable so rum agricole and then these were just called rums now when i learned this way of categorizing rom it made a lot more sense than the color-coded way and it taught me a lot on the origins of each style however this system is dated rum as a spirit has evolved and now you can get a dark rum that's made in cuba or you can get a lighter rum that's made in barbados and it doesn't fit that template anymore in fact they're blending rums and using different stills so there has to be a better way to categorize rum so the third way and my preferred way to assess and categorize rum is to know and understand three things about your bottle number one what is the base is it sugar cane juice or is it molasses if it's sugar cane juice you're going to taste that sugar cane more it's going to be grassier not so much the case in molasses-based rums most common rums are molasses based number two is how old is that rum the older the rom typically the more mellow it is is it unaged lightly aged or long aged if it's long aged those old drums are nice for sipping nice on the rocks the younger rums are going to be a bit hotter a stronger rum flavor these are good rums to mix with because they hold up to syrups and juices so you want to know the ages just a side note sometimes determining the exact age of rum is a tricky thing because a lot of rum companies will blend different ages and they'll give you an average of all those ages that are put into one bottle but overall if the age of that rum is higher if it's older typically it's going to be more mellow the third thing is what still is being used is it a pot still or is it a column still or is it a blend if it's a pot still it's going to be more robust these are bold flavored rums and if it's column still it tends to be a lighter style rum as an example right here this is what i'm drinking this is the real mccoy 12. i happen to know that this rum is molasses based because it doesn't say rum agricole it doesn't say anything that would lead me to believe that it's sugar cane juice number two how old is it this says aged 12 years so 12 years is what i would say and that means it's a little bit older so it's going to be really nice on its own sippy neat you can sip any rum neat but this is going to be a bit more mellow and third and finally what still is being used and i picked a prime example here and i love this about the real mccoy is they write all of this information on the label so this one is a blend of column stills and pot stills so it's not quite as robust as an all pot still but it's got a bit more depth and flavors than in all column still room that last bit is a little tricky a lot of rums don't list on their label what still they're using or if it's a blend when this happens i will pull out my phone at the liquor store and i will look up to see what still they're using if i don't know or i'll ask somebody who wants to help me somebody said hey sir can i help you they'll say hey what still is do they use in this and sometimes they have to go look it up but it's good to know what still is being used number one what's the base number two how old is it and number three what stills are being used in the production of that rung with those three things you can have an idea of what to expect in your bottle of rum before you even open it a good resource for this is smuggler's cove basically breaks down a number of rums using this method and he takes it a step further by including black roams overproof rums and he goes much deeper into it and so if you are interested in this sort of thing i would highly recommend smuggler's cove by martin kate and rebecca kate now as far as what are some good rums to start your journey well this is exciting this is the fun part if you are just starting out in rum i would probably avoid the overproof rums like ray and nephew um or smith and cross even which is a navy strength these are going to be a quite a bit hotter very bold nice roams to build up to not necessarily great for starting out some good ones for starting out if you like lighter spirits i would go with a column still room such as angostura 1919 i really like this one quite a bit florida kanye makes some really nice rums and you could even try a blended rum that has a little age on it like the real mccoy 3 year i've used this one in a lot of videos so these are some good starting points if you're looking for some rums with a bit more flavor then appleton estate is a real popular one and a good one i like it quite a bit of jamaica it's a blend of pot and column still has a little age on it but it's got some good flavor i also really like hamilton 86 which is a demerara rum out of guyana this one is bold this is great in mixed drinks and then the probitas which uh here in the states is called probitas if you get it outside of the states i believe it's called veritas it's the same stuff inside the bottle this is a light rum but it's got really good flavor it mixes great and i like it on its own it's a blend of rums from barbados and jamaica a lot of character good rum as far as some older sipping rums i really like the el dorado 15. this is a case where a little bit of sugar is added after it's distilled but it's done so well i have no problem with it at all i think it's actually quite delicious if you want to try an aged rum agricole the rum jm vsop this is a nice one for sipping if you want something a bit grassier but it is an agriculture so it's going to be very different than the el dorado um what else what else ah here this one i actually i just got i have not tried yet i could i could just taste it this is the uh the clarin it's a haitian room it's known as the rome of the people i've been meaning to get this one for a long time i'm gonna drink it not intending to do this but uh gonna do it i honestly know little about it but that's why i was excited to get it i just picked it up yesterday so this is a blend of four distillates look at that they've got the village is that right on there i'm i'm not sponsored by this by the way i don't know if i'm gonna like it or not i love the nose though there's a sweet smell to it it's it's very tropical less grassy smelling than i was anticipating that's pineapple banana [Music] it has a silky texture this one has kind of like a a banana flavor to it i was expecting more grassy but it does have that agricol that that rum agricult quality to it really good in fact i think this would be a fun one to mix with so if you feel like venturing out this is what you do you just grab a bottle and you taste it i hope that this helped to reveal some of the mysteries of rum for you and i hope that you are more confident in going out and buying a new bottle of rome i covered a lot today i tried to keep it concise i know that we could go a lot further into this and that's why rum is my favorite spirit i think it's just fascinating and i even like the frustrating elements about it also yeah what did you think of that sign i i really i'm really happy we got it i know that most this video you haven't seen it but we'll show a shot of it at the end tell me what your favorite bottle of rum is cheers big ears i hope you learned a thing or two i hope you had fun and here's to you and your bottle of rum bye everyone [Music] you

Channel: Anders Erickson

Views: 552,575

Keywords: rum for everyone, rum, rum explained, mysteries of rum, what is rum, understanding rum, how to pick rum, rum types, how i understand rum, what to know about rum, big rum episode, rum classifications, organizing rum, rhum, rum history, picking a rum, enjoy rum, caribbean rum, know rum, understand rum, i love rum, history of rum, light rum, gold rum, dark rum, rum secrets revealed, rum education, rum collection, this rum is good, rum recommendations, Rhum agricole

Id: F4BFb5sknGY

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 12 2022