The Rums Of Cuba...
First of all, you need the best blackstrap molasses, a raw material whose quality varies with the degree of ripeness, the type and the freshness of the cane. In Cuba, obtaining the best is easy.
The process of fermentation starts with the molasses, which is supplied by the sugar mills in the region, thus ensuring a constant, uniform quality. The molasses is diluted with water in tanks called corbatos; yeast is added, and the mixture is allowed to ferment for 30 hours
Then comes the distillation process. A jet of steam at 70 pounds pressure is passed through the molasses and carries off with it all the volatile substances. These pass through the condensers, then through the distillation towers, and within their four tall columns the alcoholic content of the distillate rises to 150 proof, 75% alcohol.
The end product is aguardiente, “burning water”: pure cane spirits, newborn but powerful.
This young creature, which will grow up with time into smooth Cuban rum, now begins its first ageing process. It is stored in oak barrels, placed along the maturation corridors and moved according to a strict schedule that takes into account to the height, the trade winds that blow inland fro the coasts and ventilate the warehouses, the very vibrations that guarantee that the spirits will move around in contact with the barrel’s inner surfaces, ripening, becoming smoother, mellowing: ageing. In its oak cradles the young aguardiente stays for three long years. But becoming rum is still far off. At the end of that time they are diluted with pure water to lower the alcohol content.
Then they are filtered: the liquor trickles through layer after layer of activated charcoal, each layer having a different specialised structure. What comes out is free from all impurities, clear and transparent. Almost ready to be drunk. But it not yet rum.
At least, not Cuban rum. Now is the time for the blending, for the skill necessary to unite different batches of aguardiente, to instil life, tradition, style, art. To blend in old memories and recent ones, all come together at this particular point in time. To infuse an awareness, an identity…
This is the moment when the maestro de ron, the master blender, old in skill and practise, will bring about the miracle, letting his keen nose and expert palate tell him, once more, the old story of rum, until the tale is just right… and then, again, it is times turn. The blenders new creation is returned to other oak barrels to ripen still further, slowly, for two, three, four...up to seven years…”
“ Cuban Rum – especially the white label rum- has only a faint, elusive flavour and, since this flavour is delicate and subdued, the rum will blend with almost any other liquor, fruit juice, fruit syrup, liqueur, or whatever you have. Like gin, therefore, it is the cocktail base par excellence. Jamaica rum, on the other hand, has a pungent, al pervasive bouquet that definitely refuses to be subdued, tamed and overcome by any other flavour whatsoever. It should therefore not be used as a cocktail base but as a flavouring agent. In cocktails, Cuban Rum should used by the jigger; Jamaican by the dash. Jamaican rum blends beautifully with all fruit flavours and with nearly all liqueurs – even those that are highly aromatic. You can readily understand the characteristics of the two rums if you mix both of them equally with Apricot Brandy. In the case of the Cuban Rum mixture you will have a apricot drink with a faint rum flavour; in the case of the Jamaican Rum drink, you will have rum drink with a faint apricot flavour.” (David Embury, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, 1965)
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