Still Life
by Stephen Faure
Barrels that once held Kentucky bourbon await a taste of Old New Orleans rum, which Celebration Distillation ages in the recycled whiskey barrels. 72
LOUISIANANS—THE PEOPLE of the New Orleans area in particular—have a reputation for raising the celebratory consumption of any and all alcoholic beverages to an art form. One distilled spirit, however, has a unique connection to the state—rum. Regulations regarding rum require that it be made of sugar cane products—sugar, syrup or molasses, the thick, dark and sweet liquid left after sugar crystals have been removed from sugar cane juice. Given that the state’s 400,000 or so acres of sugar cane produced almost a million and a half tons of sugar and nearly 70 million gallons of molasses in 2011, it’s a wonder that the state is not awash in rum. The question is, “Where’s the rum, Louisiana?” The answer is that it’s here, and there’s more
Inside Northside
coming your way, along with some vodka and absinthe for lagniappe. A distillery in New Orleans has produced rum for almost 20 years, and distilleries in Thibodaux, Lacasine and Lafayette began production within the past year. Author Wayne Curtis wrote the book on rum, well, at least one really good book about rum, called And A Bottle of Rum, A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails. “One of the things I talk about is whiskey being the distilled essence of beer, brandy the distilled essence of wine and rum the distilled by-product of industrial waste. When you crystallize sugar, you make molasses; molasses isn’t that valuable, and it’s harder to ship than the dried sugar. Molasses in the early days was thrown away. The French would just
photo: STEPHEN FAURE
Making Spirits Bright in Louisiana