A History of French Rum- Part 4: Mauritius, The Enlightenment and Rum

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                            A HISTORY OF FRENCH RUM  

              4. MAURITIUS, THE ENLIGHTMENT AND RUM   

In the second half of the 1700s, French Planters had lagged behind in distillation technology. According to F. H. Smith, “Caribbean Rum”, “The average British West Indies plantation … would be more likely to possess two stills, one of 1,200 gallons and a smaller one of 600. In contrast, French distillers appear to have continued their seventeenth-century pattern of relying on small, antiquated stills. In 1768, for example, a distillery in Haut-de-Cap, St. Domingue, possessed two stills of about 300 gallons each. In 1786, a series of articles published in St. Domingue’s main newspaper, Affiches Américaines, described the use of 300-gallon stills of an inferior design. The anonymous author complained that in order for French Caribbean distillers to successfully compete with British Caribbean rum producers, they would have to follow the practices of British Caribbean distillers and increase the size of their stills, lengthen the necks of their still heads, and increase the length of their cooling worms.” And, later: “The rum factories are rather important for our commerce and for our colonies, and we should address them seriously. America consumes a great deal of rum, and the British islands cannot give them sufficient quantity. As they are not able to get it from our colonies, which do not distill much, the Americans come and take our molasses and distill themselves. … [our rum is] repugnant to foreigners.”

Fortunately for the French planters, that was the century of the Enlightenment and France was at

the cutting edge of scientific and technological progress. The State and various private societies promoted and funded studies to improve the quality and earning power of products and production processes. Great attention was devoted to wine and brandy, two fundamental products for French economy and culture.

For example, according to R.J. Forbes, “A Short History of the Art of Distillation”, in 1777, Antoine Baumé with his essay “Mèmoire sur la manière de construire les alembics …” (more or less, Essay about the way to make the pot stills …) won the first prize in a competition which asked: “What are the most advantageous forms of stills, furnaces and all the instruments used in the work of the large distilleries?” Baumé himself propagated the use of the hydrometer, the first reliable instrument for measuring the strength of  alcohol in a beverage, gauged in 'degrees’. The nature of alcoholic fermentation, on the other hand, was still not known. Microbes were first observed and described in the second half of 1600s, but it was not until the time of Pasteur that the scientific community attributed unequivocally the phenomenon of alcoholic fermentation to yeasts.

In this climate of lively scientific debate, and of clash of conflicting economic interests, there was a real war of reports in favor of and against rum.

Let’s see for instance a liqueur makers’ pamphlet published in 1764: “self-interest, that passion which nature seems to have placed in man’s heart only to degrade him, has inspired some residents of our colonies to make a branch of commerce out of the invention of types of eau de vie made from sugar that are as pernicious to health as they are unpleasant to taste. As this strong liqueur is cheap, the blacks use it, since their poverty will not allow them to numb themselves with a more satisfying brew. If there were no need to profit from the product of their labors and if human and divine laws did not order one to watch over their conservation, perhaps it would be an act of humanity to let them hasten the end of their days by its usage, but at least it is incontestable that one cannot excuse the effort to introduce this poison into our lands and climes, where the inhabitants, true men, enjoy the favors of humanity.”

Here, on the other hand, is a pamphlet in favor of the free trade of rum, published in 1775 by a group of French merchants.  “It is proven that this liqueur is good for the stomach and for injuries; that it had been used in the colonies … for almost two centuries without accident; and that doctors prescribe it for their patients with happy success. … Although worth only a fraction of the value of even muscovado, rum could mean the difference between financial success and failure, particularly for smaller refineries and plantations.”The literature on the subject is ample, too ample for us. To give an idea of it, I will confine myself to quoting a few excerpts from two works by Joseph-François Charpentier de Cossigny, apologizing in advance to the readers for the somewhat amateurish translation.

Born in Mauritius (then a French colony with the name of Isle de France) in 1736, De Cossigny was an engineer, botanist, explorer, revolutionary Member of Parliament and, finally, Academician during the Napoleonic Empire. 

The first essay is entitled “Mémoire sur la fabrication des eaux-de-vie de sucre …”  (Essay on the making of the sugarcane spirits … ) and was published in Mauritius in 1781.

“For a long time, in the French and English American Colonies, a strong liquor has been made called Guildive, or Tafia, or Rum: the last name is English, the other two are French. The authors I consulted seem confused by the names guildive & tafia. It seems to me, however, that the name guildive is more particularly suitable, with the strong liquor that is removed by the distillation of sugar cane juice, which is called vésou, & which is left to ferment, without mixing. The name tafia, with the liquor, which is removed by the syrups & skimmings, in the manufacture of sugar, after having let these substances dissolve in pure water. Following this distinction, guildive would be the product of cane juice, and tafia the product of skimmings. The molasses spirit that was once made in France was the product of the fermentation of syrup mixed with wine dregs, which was a type of tafia”. In spite of De Cossigny’s attempt to clearly define the terms indicating the various kinds of sugarcane spirits, in actual fact in French they were commonly used without consistency for a long time. 

Now let’s read something about distillation and quality. “If we want to have a sure rule, to determine the moment when to distil the fermented wash … a thermometer will indicate the temperature at which the liquor ferments. It is constant according to the experiments that I have done, that the fermented liquid, as long as it ferments, has a higher heat by a few more degrees, than that of the atmosphere, even in the hottest time of the day; and this same heat decreases as the fermentation takes off. If we hold a thermometer dipped and hung vertically in the liquor, since ten o’clock in the morning, until four o’clock in the afternoon, & if one tentatively watches it, it is judged that the fermentation has reached the appropriate point, when the same thermometer will only increase by one degree, or a half degree, for the whole time; then it is the time to put the liquor into the still."  

“In any distillation, the first portions of water that drip are rejected.  We look at them as insipid phlegm; but as soon as it starts to trickle, we collect it in the container. … It is claimed that some distillers in St. Domingue distil new washes on the residue of their distillations. I do not know any workshop in the Isle of France which follows such a bad practice: it does not give any more product... bad taste & bad smell ... We are not afraid to repeat it again: the wash-off is the main cause of the bad taste & the harmful quantities of spirits.” 

“To distinguish the quality of a liquor, smell and taste are enough. The liquor, which is strong, smooth, high in alcohol & which does not feel empyreumatic is good. This last odor above all is a proof of its unhealthiness: so, any guildive which smells of fire, must be rejected by the consumer, not only as bad tasting, but still as harmful.” 

Much later, in 1803, when rum was by then well known in France, De Cossigny published a book entitled “Moyens d’amelioration et de restauration, proposee au gouvernement et aux habitans des colonies” (“Ways of improving and restoring, a proposal to the government and the settlers of the colonies”)  Here are some relevant excerpts: 

“... and the manufacturing of cane spirit. This latest product of art will become very important for the settlers, if the importation of their tafias was permitted in France, as it is in England for the English settlers. It is claimed that this product forms a third of the revenue for a sugar company in Jamaica” 

“It was noted in the Tableau de l’état agricole de St.--Domingue ( … ) that in 1789 there were one hundred and eighty-two distilleries. This number seems very significant, if we were not careful that the consumption of guildive and taffia on the island would have been very great as there are four hundred and fifty-two thousand Slaves, not counting the Whites, Mulattos and Freedmen; that commercial vessels which approached their shores consumed too much of during their trip, they were importing it into our ports and the Americans took shipments...”

"The sugar producers do not convert their large syrups into spirits; they sell them to distillers who only focus on this product. But, since 1789, the popularity of this liquor, which was introduced to France more than 20 years ago, has grown and extended. We are now making ponche au rome, in Paris, in all the cafés, and we drink a lot in the sea ports, and on the ships: the fact it’s drunk hot and very high in alcohol content prevailed.” 

“Even though our colonies make a cane spirit as good, and of the same quality as the English liquor … the flow of French taffia is considered as rubbish in Europe, while the rum from Jamaica (De Cossigny calls it rome) is very popular in Germany and the whole of the North. It is perhaps slightly the fault of our settlers, who did not pay enough attention to the preparation of their spirits..."

"I will insist on the advice I gave to the burners, to rectify all the liquor destined for export, and not to deliver to the trade, which is, at least on the Baumé hydrometer, twenty-one proof.  They must understand that this product can become very important for them, and that if they want their rum to compete with that of the English, they must make it better quality, because they have to fight a reputation. The first quality is the strength of the liqueur: one will always prefer the strongest in intense spirits, because it takes less in the mixtures that one makes; because it is easy to dilute, by adding water; because it is cleaner than the weaker ones and has a lot of uses, and can only be strengthened by rectifying it; which requires time, costs, and decreases the quantity; or they must add sugar-spirit, the flow of which has not yet been introduced in Europe."

"In Tenerife, I had a bit of rum from Jamaica, coming from an Anglo-Saxon outlet: it was twenty and a half proof, it was a little colored. I had another which was twenty-one and a half proof, also colored. In Paris, even in retail, we sell spirits, including ones with nineteen proof, some with twenty, others with twenty-one, they go up to twenty-two and even twenty-two and a half proof. It is easy to guess that the latter are more expensive; and yet, in general, they are preferred."

"In Brest, I saw in a State shop three English stills from an outlet. I was offered to do experiments in Ile-de-France; but their form seemed so defective to me that I refused. They do not give a very flattering idea of distillers beyond Jamaica, for whom these stills were destined. Moreover, their rum has the same odor as all cane spirit … So, these are several points of perfection that must be sought, if we want to make this liquor popular …”

“Thus, the introduction of the sugar spirits in France cannot harm the consumption of French alcohol; especially since the alcohol from the colonies is not of general use; because its taste does not pander to the greatest number of consumers. By prohibiting the importation of the latter into mainland France, the settlers’ income is reduced, and a profit is given to foreigners who will provide France and Europe with rum.”

Well, I think this is enough for this month.A few years ago I spent a week in Mauritius, attending a Rum Festival and visiting the distilleries. An eventful week, steeped in meaningful experiences, in a stunning island. De Cossigny is a fascinating figure, a real local glory and he would deserve to be rediscovered more than I can do with this article. Perhaps someone in Mauritius could rediscover his work, study it the way it deserves, translate it into English and publish it with an appropriate critical apparatus to make it fully comprehensible to the modern reader. I’m definitely booking a copy! 

Marco Pierini