DESCRIBING of FLAVORS RUM the
A PRIMER
R
ecently on social media there have been postings complaining that rums and other spirits are defined in non-professional reviews with limited terms such as vanilla, molasses, baking spices, and little else. So, this begets the question: how do consumers or distillers distinguish the many different rums (styles and brands), or extol the virtues of premium products based on such a limited vocabulary? Additional training is needed to expand the terms used to assess rums as for any other spirit. As for any food or beverage, a little knowledge about the origins of flavors contributing to the whole flavor profile is a good start. Learning the terms associated with those flavors helps build up a better descriptive framework. Recently, more scientific studies defined the most prominent terms being described in rums as vanilla, oak, caramel, fruity, molasses and baking spices (1). So, let us try and build an essential vocabulary from there. The purpose of this article is not to get into an in-depth discussion of rum raw materials or production, but to draw out the beginnings of a vocabulary to better understand the profiling of this complex spirit. The reader is referred elsewhere for detailed descriptions of rum production (27). However, a very brief account of rum and cachaca production is presented in Figure 1 to set the stage, and that will have to serve for now. From raw materials through the entire rum manufacturing process, many aromatic substances with different threshold concentrations of detection and recognition are produced, and it is this rich chemistry which is the focus of this short review.
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WRITTEN BY GARY SPEDDING, PH.D.
figure 1 FRESHLY HARVESTED RIPE SUGAR CANE ING
ESS
PR
SUGAR CANE JUICE
CRYSTALLIZED SUGAR
BOILI
NG
FERMENTATION:
MOLASSES
NATURAL OR WITH ADDED CULTURE YEAST (+/- BACTERIA)
TION
DILU
“BEER” 7-8% ABV T N PO TIO ER ILLA P P T CO DIS IT LL S
MORE AROMATIC (HEAVY) SPIRITS: SOME RUMS & CACHAÇA APPROX. 65% ABV (DOUBLE DISTILLATION)
DILUTION SOMETIMES BLENDING & AGING IN WOOD SOMETIMES WITH ADDITION OF CARAMEL, SPICES OR FRUIT JUICE
ST CO ILL NT DI INU ST O ILL US AT IO N
LIGHTER SPIRIT: MOST RUMS & CACHAÇA APPROX. 95% ABV
DILUTION SOMETIMES BLENDING & AGING IN WOOD SOMETIMES WITH ADDITION OF CARAMEL, SPICES OR FRUIT JUICE
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