The Truth About Sugarcane Waste

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The Truth About Sugarcane Waste

Sugarcane is a very generous plant. Processing it yields sugarcane juice, evaporated cane juice, sugar crystals, molasses and bagasse. Which of these by-products are the ‘waste’? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines waste as:

“damaged, defective, or superfluous (un-necessary or of no value) material produced by a manufacturing process.”

Under this definition, none of the byproducts of processing the cane can be considered waste. Agricole rum producers (and their fans) often chant about how molasses is a waste and rums made from that waste are therefore inferior. To this, some molasses-rum producers are responding by pointing out that the un-pasteurized, un-refined fresh juice is full of undesirable bacteria that are safely removed through the clarification and crystallization processes at the mills.

The reality is that most molasses used to produce rum contains an average of 50% fermentable sugars, this is why it is very useful in the manufacture of rum. If you think that something that is still 50% usable should be considered waste, then start throwing away your wine, milk, water and rum bottles after they are half empty!

For rum producers who also cultivate and process sugarcane, the only byproduct that could be considered waste is bagasse. Bagasse is the dry sugarcane fiber that comes out of the presses after all the juice has been extracted. But even bagasse is being used as a fuel to heat up the boilers needed to produce the steam required by sugar mills and distilleries. There are alcohol plants that are even hydrolyzing the bagasse to produce fuel-grade ethanol.

Producers and brand marketers are always looking for ways to differentiate their rums from their competitors’. Just like politicians running a campaign, some rely exclusively on strategies to exalt their own virtues, while others opt instead to attack and criticize their peers.

Solid brands stand atop solid foundations that do not derive their integrity from other companies’ actions or inactions.

The more solid rum/rhum brands we have in this industry, the better off we’ll be.

Meanwhile, in Cuba...

Thanks to all the readers who reached out to me asking for on-going commentary on the USA-Cuba situation. You won’t want to miss Philip’s article this month, as it has very useful information for anyone traveling to Cuba in search for good cigars.

A few additional observations regarding the normalization of Cuban-American relations:

• We are already getting requests from some of our clients to bottle their rum in Cuba. Many things have to fall into place before this is a reality: the first of these is that the FDA needs to update its procedures to include the registration/certification of Cuban facilities.

• Once Cuban rum is being imported freely into the USA, how long until the Cuban government seeks a Denomination of Origin, that would prevent the use of “Cuban” or “Cuban style” on products not made 100% there?

• And how long until the “honeymoon” with Washington is over and the Cuban government joins the rest of the Caribbean nations in their quest to put an end to the Puerto Rico and USVI rum subsidies?

As you can see, we are having numerous discussions with many companies interested in -and worried about- the outcome of the “normalization” of relations between the two countries.

Cheers,

Luis Ayala, Editor and Publisher