Rum, the International Spirit
Some alcoholic beverages are inexorably bound to their birth country, so much that their consanguinity is scrutinized and verified in order for them to be bestowed their sought after nomenclature. A few of the most famous examples are: the Mexican Tequila, the American Bourbon, the Japanese Sake and the French Cognac. Anyone attempting to produce their namesake equivalents outside the respective country will quickly find himself at the end of a world of legal and commercial trouble.
Luis Ayala with snifter in Belize
Even though some countries have tried, rum as a whole has never succeeded in gaining a geographical denomination. Sure, there are some rums that have defined and protected their origin, but these denominations only serve to separate them from other rums. Again, as a whole, rum remains a distilled spirit that can be produced by anyone, just about everywhere. Perhaps this openness is what makes rum such an approachable spirit (although its association with paradisiac tropical locations works like magic attracting consumers too!).
As inclusive and altruistic as this openness may seem, it is also rum’s inevitable fate to not be tied to any one locale: the sugarcane at its core is said to have originated in Papua New Guinea, very far from where most of the world’s sugarcane is cultivated today. Also, the barrels employed in most of its aging come from the USA, mostly from Bourbon-country. Much of the distillation equipment is also made outside of the countries where the distillation takes place and, in many cases, the yeast cultures themselves originate abroad! The kaleidoscopic nature of rum’s provenance fits perfectly with the broad consumer base to which it caters, asking neither social nor ethnic adherence.
Thus I feel that celebrating rum’s intrinsic diversity can only help us learn to acknowledge and to appreciate the diversity in our own societies.
Cheers,
Luis Ayala, Editor and Publisher