Mount Gay Rum

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Thu 29 Jan 2009 22:38
Mount Gay Rum

 

When we were in Fowey at the end of the regatta week, August 2006, we were parked two along from a yacht proudly flying a Mount Gay Rum flag. I said there and then, it was a 'must do'. We decided to go in style by booking transport, lunch and tour. A bit naughty as the price was £40.00 each. I was told on the phone that we had to be in reception at the marina at 10:45 for an 11:00 pick-up, we were not too bothered for the first half an hour as we are now in "Caribbean Time". I rang at 11:30 and the lady was very sorry we had been forgotten and to get a taxi, that they would pay for (£25). En route there was a traffic jam, no beeping or swearing from anyone, lots of cars and buses turned round, people let people in, no worries. We arrive for our 12:00 tour at 12:30, no worries, "join our tour late, do the tasting, eat lunch and join the next tour for the bits we missed", "Oh and as we have put you out, have one of your tours for half price. Then we will pay for a taxi wherever you want to go next". Smashing.

 

         

 

The booty we left with.

Mount Gay Rum is produced by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited of Barbados. In 2003 the company celebrated its 300th anniversary of the Mount Gay Rum product which it first produced in 1703, making it one of the oldest. Mount Gay Rum is sold in 66 countries but the primary market place is the USA. Several varieties are produced, including White, Extra Old, Flavoured - Mango and Vanilla, as well as the flagship brand: Mount Gay Eclipse.

On site the bottling plant can bottle 400,000 bottles a day on the five lines. They never work on Bank Holidays and only work rare weekends if demand dictates, for which they get double time. The bottling lines operate from 08:00 to 16:30 a day.

Tradition.

Mount Gay Rum is closely associated with sailing. Tales were told of sailors returning home with a barrel of Mount Gay in order to prove that they had reached Barbados - considered one of the most difficult islands in the Caribbean to reach. Today, the Mount Gay Rum Company is one of the main sponsors of the United States Sailing Association. They also sponsor over 110 regatta events worldwide, with approximately 50 of those being based in the United States. Mount Gay is also one of the key ingredients in Stirling Punch, a drink named for famous yachtsman, America’s Cup winner and Vandebilt Sailing Club founder Harold Stirling Vandebilt. IF ONLY WE KNEW. Mount Gay sponsor the Fowey Regatta. Participants are presented with a Red Cap. If you arrive at Mount Gay Rum with a red cap on you get treated VERY specially.

 

              

 

The list of sponsored regattas, Fowey in the middle and the coveted red caps.

Mount Gay Sugar Cane Brandy, a careful blend of specially selected rums of age up to seven years, is a fine product whose link with the sugar cane of Barbados is proudly reflected in its character. Not to be confused with generic 'brandy', the product is entirely rum. The name is a legacy from times when the product contained such a high proportion of double distillate that its organoleptic characteristics were much like those of brandy. In some markets, because of legal restrictions, the name 'Sugar Cane Rum' is used in place of the original name 'Sugar Cane Brandy'. (From the Mount Gay Rum website) Mount Gay produces a "Pure Sugar Cane Rum" occasionally known outside of the US market as "Sugar Cane Brandy".

 

          

 

Bear with the sniff test of a single distilled at 98% proof. You have to swirl the alcohol, blow into it and inhale what comes back at you. On an empty stomach, straight to your head, Marvellous. In 2007 Mount Gay was rated as being the favourite rum of America's "rich and famous". The rum was chosen as the winner of the 2007 Luxury Institute's "Luxury Brand Status Index" (LBSI) survey for premium rum.

With sugar cane having been so long the lifeblood of Mt Gay, and one might suggest, of Barbados as well, Its fitting that a great rum should commemorate its qualities. Sugar Cane Rum is the result of a rigorous adherence to tradition, a continuing commitment to quality. A rich amber spirit, with a subtle sweetness, Sugar Cane Rum offers a harmonious fusion of vanilla and bitter almond in its taste, with a hint of smoky wood in the nose. The combination is achieved by deft blending of single distilled and double distilled rums of several ages, and by meticulous storage in charred oak barrels. The barrels come from Kentucky, US, and are used to age bourbon before they are used to age Mount Gay Rum. Such are the qualities of Sugar Cane Rum from Mount Gay. The world's oldest distillery dating back to 1703. Consistently smooth. Full bodied. Unique. An homage to the cane.

(Taken from a bottle label)

 

   

 

Each liqueur store has to be registered, the Mount Gay site just happens to be 007. All liqueur stores on the island are independent, but, if they are painted bright yellow and red they are sponsored by Mount Gay. The first drink James Bond orders, thirty minutes into the film, Casino Royale (2006) is not his trademark martini but a Mount Gay rum and soda. Outside I was wondering if this taxi driver had 'had a few'.

About Rum

There’s nought no doubt so much the spirit calms as rum and true religion" – Lord Byron

Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest, Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of Rum. – 17th century 401(k) savings plan for buccaneers

Depending on the recipe, the "wash" (the cane juice, or molasses and water) is fermented, using either cultured yeast or airborne wild yeasts, for a period ranging from 24 hours for light Rums up to several weeks for heavy, full varieties.

Rum Regions

The Caribbean is the epicentre of world Rum production. Virtually every major island group produces its own distinct Rum style. Barbados produces light, sweetish Rums from both pot and column stills. Rum distillation began here and the Mount Gay Distillery, dating from 1663, is probably the oldest operating Rum producer in the world. Cuba produces light-bodied, crisp, clean Rums from column stills. It is currently illegal to ship Cuban Rums into the United States. The Dominican Republic is notable for its full-bodied, aged Rums from column stills. Guyana is justly famous for its rich, heavy Demerara Rums, named for a local river, which are produced from both pot and column stills. Demerara Rums can be aged for extended periods (25-year-old varieties are on the market) and are frequently used for blending with lighter Rums from other regions. Neighboring Surinam and French Guyana produce similar full-bodied Rums. Haiti follows the French tradition of heavier Rums that are double-distilled in pot stills and aged in oak casks for three or more years to produce full-flavored, exceptionally smooth- tasting Rums. Haiti also still has an extensive underground moonshine industry that supplies the voodoo religious ritual trade. Jamaica is well known for its rich, aromatic Rums, most of which are produced in pot stills. Jamaica has official classifications of Rum, ranging from light to very full-flavored. Jamaican Rums are extensively used for blending. Martinique is a French island with the largest number of distilleries in the Eastern Caribbean. Both pot and column stills are used. As on other French islands such as Guadeloupe, both rhum agricole (made from sugar cane juice) and rhum industriel (made from molasses) are produced. These Rums are frequently aged in used French brandy casks for a minimum of three years. Rhum vieux (aged Rum) is frequently compared to high-quality French brandies. Puerto Rico is known primarily for light, very dry Rums from column stills. All white Puerto Rican Rums must, by law, be aged a minimum of one year while dark Rums must be aged three years. Trinidad produces mainly light Rums from column stills and has an extensive export trade. The Virgin Islands, which are divided between the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Island. Only the US Virgin Islands still produce Rum, predominately making light, mixing rums from column stills, although there are some fine dark and aged sipping Rums made by the most significant producer Cruzan. These Rums, and those of nearby Grenada, also serve as the base for bay Rum, a classic aftershave lotion. Guatemala and Nicaragua are noteworthy in Central America where a variety of primarily medium-bodied Rums from column stills that lend themselves well to aging. They have recently begun to gain international recognition. Brazil produces vast quantities of mostly light Rums from column stills with unaged cane spirit called Cachaça (ca·sha·sa) the best-known example. Venezuela makes a number of well-respected barrel-aged golden and dark Rums. The United States has a handful of Rum distilleries in the south, producing a range of light and medium-bodied Rums that are generally marketed with Caribbean-themed names. Canada’s 300-year-old tradition of trading Rum for dried cod fish continues in the Atlantic Maritime provinces of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia where golden Rums from Antigua, Barbados, and Jamaica are imported and aged for five years. The resulting hearty Rum is known locally as Screech. Europe is primarily a blender of imported Rums. Both the United Kingdom and France import Rums from their former colonies in the Caribbean for ageing and bottling. Austria is called Inlander Rum. Australia produces a substantial amount of white and golden Rums. Also Tahiti, Asia, Philippines and Thailand.

Rum: Its History and Significance

The history of Rum is the history of sugar. Sugar is a sweet crystalline carbohydrate that occurs naturally in a variety of plants. One of those is the sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum), a tall, thick grass that has its origins in the islands of present-day Indonesia in the East Indies. Chinese traders spread its cultivation to Asia and on to India. Arabs in turn brought it to the Middle East and North Africa where it came to the attention of Europeans during the Crusades in the 11th century. As the Spanish and Portuguese began to venture out into the Atlantic Ocean, they planted sugar cane in the Canary and Azore Islands. In 1493 Christopher Columbus picked up cane cuttings from the Canaries while on his second voyage to the Americas and transplanted them to Hispaniola, the island in the Caribbean that is now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Portuguese explorers soon did likewise in Brazil. The Caribbean basin proved to have an ideal climate for growing sugar cane, and sugar production quickly spread around the islands. The insatiable demand in Europe for sugar soon led to the establishment of hundreds of sugar cane plantations and mills in the various English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Dutch colonies. These mills crushed the harvested cane and extracted the juice. Boiling this juice caused chunks of crystallized sugar to form. The remaining unsolidified juice was called melazas (from "miel," the Spanish word for honey); in English this became molasses. Molasses is a sticky syrup that still contains a significant amount of sugar. Sugar mill operators soon noticed that when it was mixed with water and left out in the sun it would ferment. By the 1650s this former waste product was being distilled into a spirit. In the English colonies it was called Kill Devil (from its tendency to cause a nasty hangover or its perceived medicinal power, take your choice) or rumbullion (origins uncertain), which was shortened over the years to our modern word Rum. The French render this word as rhum, while the Spanish call it ron.

 

           

 

Locally, Rum was used as cure-all for many of the aches and pains that afflicted those living in the tropics. Sugar plantation owners also sold it, at discounted prices, to naval ships that were on station in the Caribbean in order to encourage their presence in local waters and thus discourage the attentions of marauding pirates. The British navy adopted a daily ration of a half-pint of 160 proof Rum by the 1730s. This ration was subsequently modified by mixing it with an equal amount of water to produce a drink called grog. The grog ration remained a staple of British naval life until 1969. This naval-Rum connection introduced Rum to the outside world and by the late 17th century a thriving export trade developed. The British islands shipped Rum to Great Britain (where it was mixed into Rum punches and replaced gin as the dominant spirit in the 18th century) and to the British colonies in North America where it became very popular. This export of Rum to North America, in exchange for New England lumber and dried cod (still a culinary staple in the Caribbean) soon changed over to the export of molasses to distilleries in New England. This was done in order to avoid laws from the British parliament, which protected British distillers by forbidding the trade in spirits directly between colonies. This law was, at best, honoured in the breech, and smuggling soon became rampant. The shipping of molasses to make Rum in New England distilleries became part of the infamous "slavery triangle." The first leg was the shipment of molasses to New England to make Rum. The second leg was the shipment of Rum to the ports of West Africa to trade for slaves. The final leg was the passage of slave ships to the sugar plantations of the Caribbean and South America where many of the slaves were put to work in the sugar cane fields.

 

 

History

The precursors to rum date back to antiquity. Development of fermented drinks produced from sugarcane juice is believed to have first occurred either in ancient India or China, and spread from there. An example of such an early drink is brum. Produced by the Malay people, brum dates back thousands of years. Marco Polo also recorded a 14th-century account of a "very good wine of sugar" that was offered to him in what is modern-day Iran. The first distillation of rum took place on the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean in the 17th century. Plantation slaves first discovered that molasses, a by-product of the sugar refining process, can be fermented into alcohol. Later, distillation of these alcoholic by-products concentrated the alcohol and removed impurities, producing the first true rums. Tradition suggests that rum first originated on the island of Barbados. Regardless of its initial source, early Caribbean rums were not known for high quality. A 1651 document from Barbados stated, "The chief fuddling they make in the island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Divil, and this is made of sugar canes distilled, a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor".

Grades and variations used to describe rum depend on the location that a rum was produced. Despite these variations the following terms are frequently used to describe various types of rum:

Light Rums, also referred to as light, silver, and white rums. In general, light rum has very little flavor aside from a general sweetness, and serves accordingly as a base for cocktails. Light rums are sometimes filtered after aging to remove any color. The Brazilian immensely popular Cachaca belongs to this type. The majority of Light Rum comes out of Puerto Rico.

Gold Rums, also called amber rums, are medium-bodied rums which are generally aged. These gain their dark colour from ageing in wooden barrels (usually the charred white oak barrels that are the byproduct of Bourbon Whiskey).

Spiced Rum: These rums obtain their flavor through addition of spices and, sometimes, caramel. Most are darker in colour, and based on gold rums. Some are significantly darker, while many cheaper brands are made from inexpensive white rums and darkened with artificial caramel colour.

Dark Rum, also known as black rum, classes as a grade darker than gold rum. It is generally aged longer, in heavily charred barrels. Dark rum has a much stronger flavour than either light or gold rum, and hints of spices can be detected, along with a strong molasses or caramel overtone. It is used to provide substance in rum drinks, as well as colour. In addition to uses in mixed drinks, dark rum is the type of rum most commonly used in cooking. Most Dark Rum comes from areas such as Jamaica, Haiti, and Martinique.

Flavored Rum: Some manufacturers have begun to sell rums which they have infused with flavors of fruits such as mango, orange, citrus, coconut or lime. These serve to flavor similarly themed tropical drinks which generally comprise less than 40% alcohol, and are also often drunk neat or on the rocks.

Overproof Rum is rum which is much higher than the standard 40% alcohol. Most of these rums bear greater than 75%, in fact, and preparations of 151 to 160 proof occur commonly.

Premium Rum: As with other sipping spirits, such as Cognac and Scotch, a market exists for premium and super-premium rums. These are generally boutique brands which sell very aged and carefully produced rums. They have more character and flavour than their "mixing" counterparts, and are generally consumed without the addition of other ingredients.

 

        

 

The tasting, we tried Old, Eclipse, Ponche Kuba (a milky cocktail like Painkiller and a bit like Baileys) and a fruit/rum cocktail. Bear with his head in a 1760 Pot-still and standing outside where we had lunch

Fermentation

Sugarcane is harvested to make sugarcane juice and molasses. Most rum produced is made from molasses. Yeast and water are added to the base ingredient to start the fermentation process. While some rum producers allow wild yeast to perform the fermentation, most use specific strains of yeast to help provide a consistent taste and predictable fermentation time. Dunder, the yeast-rich foam from previous fermentations, is the traditional yeast source in Jamaica. "The yeast employed will determine the final taste and aroma profile," says Jamaican master blender Joy Spence. Distillers that make lighter rums, such as Bacardi, prefer to use faster-working yeasts. Use of slower-working yeasts causes more esters to accumulate during fermentation, allowing for a fuller-tasting rum.

Distillation

As with all other aspects of rum production, there is no standard method used for distillation. While some producers work in batches using pot stills, most rum production is done using column still distillation. Pot still output contains more congeners than the output from column stills and thus produces a fuller-tasting rum.

Aging and blending

Many countries require that rum be aged for at least one year. This aging is commonly performed in used bourbon casks, but may also be performed in stainless steel tanks or other types of wooden casks. The ageing process determines the colouring of the Rum. Rum that is aged in oak casks becomes dark, whereas Rum that is aged in stainless steel tanks remains virtually colourless. Due to the tropical climate common to most rum-producing areas, rum matures at a much faster rate than is typical for Scotch or Cognac. An indication of this faster rate is the angel’s share, or amount of product lost to evaporation. While products aged in France or Scotland see about 2% loss each year, rum producers may see as much as 10%. After ageing, rum is normally blended to ensure a consistent flavour. Blending is the final step in the Rum making process. As part of this blending process, light rums may be filtered to remove any colour gained during ageing. For darker rums, caramel may be added to the rum to adjust the colour of the final product.

 

     

 

We went in for our buffet lunch on offer was; coleslaw, salad, roast chicken, jerk sauce, cocktail sauce, breaded flying fish, battered fish balls, tropical rice, macaroni pie (macoroni cheese gone firm - yummy)vegetables of carrot, plantain, pumpkin and swede. For sweet was rum cake (a delicate cake of the island richly laced with rum) and Rum and raisin ice-cream (I have always loathed the stuff, but made with real rum not flavouring it was quite georgeous). We had a jug of water, two fruit rum cocktails and two rum and Ponche Kuba each. Feeling soporific we felt it was the big photo moment, but first I had to repair my lippy. Never been able to do it free hand but alcohol made me brave enough to try.

 

    

 

Yipee and with our very own flag to fly on Beez Neez. Here in Barbados we can buy and drink 43% proof. Overseas law means they have to water it down to 40%. Lucky us.

 

      

 

Bear tottering out with his booty bag, like a child leaving a birthday party - but - drunken. Leaning on the post waiting for a taxi into Bridgetown.

 

ALL IN ALL we fell out the door and could have stayed in there for several weeks, their generosity and kindness MORE than made up for the shaky start.