Lesson III - Regarding Bottle Selection and its Consequences
(To read the previous lessons, please visit the “Got Rum?” Archives page)
Having a bottle in which to put the rum seems to be such a basic proposition that many new private label owners take it for granted.
The bottle shape, the quality of the glass and its decorations can say a lot about the rum that is contained therein, but selecting a glass bottle based on its attractiveness alone can have devastating financial consequences.
Let’s start by exploring why glass is the preferred bottle construction material and then we will go over the consequences of our bottle selection decisions.
As we explore the history of human made containers for liquids, we see examples of leather pouches, hollowed bones, carved shells and many more artifacts. Prior to the use of glass, these containers presented one or more flaws:
• they were too porous, resulting in losses due to leakage
• they imparted undesirable flavors to the liquids they contained, or
• they did not have the structural integrity to resist the rigors of transportation or storage Glass, when first used to create storage containers, solved all these problems, but so did plastic when it was introduced later on. So why is it that we are not using plastic bottles for our distilled spirits? The answer is that plastic did not completely solve the second weakness outlined above, as it contains a wide array of chemicals that may leech into the contained alcohol. Glass, on the other hand, is completely taste-neutral.
So now that we’ve decided that glass is the way to go, can we assume all glass bottles are created equally? The answer is “No”! Due to the intricacies of glass manufacturing, including the cooling processes and raw material purity standards, some glass bottles are more crystalline than others. When reviewing bottle catalogs, terms such as “flint ” and “super flint” refer to increasingly purer (i.e. more transparent, fewer defects) quality ratings and higher prices.
The higher the quality and price of the rum inside the bottle, the higher the quality of the bottle that is usually selected for it, to the point that many brand owners have been known to spend more money on the glass bottle than on any other element of the production, including the rum!
Assuming that we want to produce a premium aged rum, chances are we’ll use a flint or super flint glass bottle, in a shape that satisfies our overall interpretation of the brand’s image.
All glass bottle manufacturers have “stock” bottles that are usually kept in inventory, ranging in sizes, shapes and quality. This provides would-be buyers with a great starting point. But beware: just because the manufacturer considers a bottle to be “stock” does not mean it will always be in inventory, so please double check with them before assuming! But the choices don’t end here, as many of the bottle manufacturers will of ten offer the same bottles with different “closure” options:
1. Cork, also known as “T-Top” or
2. Screw Cap, which can be either plastic or metal and
3. Pilfer-proof, designed so the bottles cannot be re-filled by unscrupulous bar owners or operators
If the desire is to close the bottle with a cork, one always must select an outer “capsule” as well, one designed to cover the cork until it reaches the final consumer. This gives assurance that the product has not been tampered with. Typical options include PVC heat-shrink capsules and Tin or Aluminum Capsules, the latter of ten reserved only for the more expensive products.
For brands that are going to be commercialized only in the USA or only in Europe, this is usually the end of the decision-making process, as those rums will usually be bottled in either 750 ml or 700 ml (70 cl) formats respectively.
But what happens when a brand owner anticipates selling the same product in both markets? The answer, unfortunately, is that the number of bottle choices is drastically reduced, as most of the bottle manufacturers do not offer the same bottle in both sizes. The issue, incidentally, of WHY the alcohol beverage industry has adopted different sizes for different regions, is to avoid the “parallel” or illegal sale of merchandise destined for one region in another.
The answer to this 750 ml vs 700 ml size challenge is custom bottles. These bottles come from molds that are created/altered by the glass manufacturers to satisfy the specific demands of their clients. They can, for example, add a monogram, embossed text, etc., to a bottle, thus making it unique and non-generic. They can also modify the body of the bottle to increase or decrease its capacity.
• The drawback of custom bottles is the expense required in the mold production and the size of the initial order required (usually in the tens of thousands of bottles).
• The drawback of stock bottles is the lack of originality, since those bottles can be -and are- used by many different brands.
While searching for the perfect bottle, I encourage brand owners to keep all these facts in mind, but to also check with their bottling facility, to get feedback on particular bottle sizes, shapes or finishes that work better than others or that are more or less expensive to label, cork, etc.
Next month we’ll talk about the actual rum selection and its consequences.
See you then!
Luis Ayala, Rum Consultant