The Rumcast

In this episode, we checked in with a relatively new rum distillery in Scotland that's already received some impressive praise in its early history—Ninefold Distillery! Owner and distiller Kit Carruthers took us through the journey of starting a rum distillery from scratch at Dormont Estate, a 450-year-old estate in the south of Scotland. We discussed:

The current landscape of rum production in Scotland

Kit's journey from climate change researcher to becoming a rum distiller

Ninefold's production process

Reactions to Scottish rum

Creating barrels from the estate's own trees

The unexpected history of Scottish rum

The ups and downs of starting a distillery

Releasing a rum with That Boutique-y Rum Company

Adventures with Watson, the distillery cat

And more!

You can learn more about Ninefold on the distillery's website. 

You can also check out some reviews of Ninefold's rums on The Fat Rum Pirate:

Unaged Rum

Aged Release #1

Aged Release #2

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we're checking the final (for now!) Barbados rum distillery off our list with an interview with the owner of St. Nicholas Abbey, Larry Warren. Unlike the three much larger scale rum distilleries in Barbados (Mount Gay, Foursquare, and WIRD), St. Nicholas Abbey focuses entirely on small batch production that includes everything from growing the sugarcane to bottling the rum. 

We talked everything from production process to the latest updates with the Barbados GI and everything in between with Larry, including:

What inspired him to not only purchase St. Nicholas Abbey in 2006, but turn it into a working farm and distillery

How their rum differs from other Barbados rums

Getting rum advice and feedback from Richard Seale

Why they uses sugarcane syrup rather than molasses or cane juice

St. Nicholas Abbey's current lineup of rums (and what that will look like going forward)

What's next for the Barbados GI (and a response to recent criticism)

And much more!

Relevant Links:

Learn more about St. Nicholas Abbey on their website.

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we're continuing what we started with The Rumcast Guide to Jamaican Rum by hopping over to a typically less familiar locale when it comes to sugarcane spirits: Mexico.

Mexico has a relatively unique rum landscape that includes everything from small, family-run farm-to-bottle operations that have been producing fresh sugarcane juice-based spirits for generations, to larger scale operations producing rum more closely aligned with typical mass market products found throughout Latin America. There are way too many distilleries to discuss in one episode, so rather than attempting to be comprehensive, we chose to focus on the two Mexican rum styles that most interest us right now: aguardiente de caña and Charanda.

After discussing some background on both rum styles—including a look at the Charanda Denomination of Origin—we dive into the following brands and distilleries:

Uruapan Charanda

Sol Tarasco Charanda

El Tarasco Charanda

Gustoso Mexican Rum

Paranubes

Dakabend

Tso'ok

Camazotz

Cañada

Ron Aconte

As noted during the episode, we are keeping a running list of all known Mexican rum producers (including the many not covered during this episode) on our website: https://www.rumcast.com/episodes/mexican-rum-guide

For more information on Paranubes and Mexican rum, check out Episode 24, featuring our interview with Francisco Terrazas of Paranubes.

For a deeper look at the distillery behind Uruapan Charanda, check out this virtual distillery tour.

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we sat down with a veteran of the independent rum bottler world, John Barrett, owner of Bristol Classic Rum. The UK outfit has been sourcing, aging, and releasing rums since the '90s, giving John a rare perspective on how the category has evolved over the past few decades and where it's going next. He's been to all your favorite distilleries, he was among the first to purchase remaining Caroni stock, and he's full of stories from the better part of a lifetime in rum. You'll hear about:

The path that took John into rum sourcing and bottling nearly 30 years ago

The delicate art and science of aging rum

Why John thinks cask strength rum is overrated

His process for determining the right bottling strength

Where John thinks the next wave of great rums might come from

How Bristol got in early on sourcing Caroni—and proceeded to make one of its biggest bets ever on their rum

And much more!

You can learn more about Bristol Classic Rum at their website. 

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we sat down with Steffen Mayer, who spent the last five years writing the ultimate book on Caroni (Caroni: 100% Trinidad Rum). Caroni, of course, is the legendary Trinidad distillery that closed around 2003, leaving behind a cache of aged rum that subsequently became some of the most sought-after rum in the world after bottlers like Velier built up its legend. And that's before getting to the rum's entirely unique flavor profile.

Steffen took us through his journey of writing the book and shared insight after insight that he learned from the 100+ interviews he conducted, including:

Why Caroni closed

The truth about Caroni using Jamaican rum in some of their blends

Which distilleries around the world have used Caroni rum in their blends

Why the value of Caroni's aged rum was so heavily disputed following its closure

Caroni's use of neutral spirit in its blends

The differences in Caroni's rum marks (and which ones are more worth seeking out)

Where Caroni's "dirty" notes come from

The most memorable interviews and tasting sessions he had while writing the book

And much more!

Here are links to some of the retailers carrying Steffen's book:

https://www.spiritacademy.it/en/libri/caroni-book-100-trinidad-rum-5030.html

https://www.whisky.fr/en/steffen-mayer-caroni-100-trinidad-rum.html

https://www.armagnac.de/products/caroni-book

https://www.whiskyboeken.nl/en_GB/a-72158467/library/steffen-mayer-caroni-100-trinidad-rum/

https://www.whiskytempel.de/shop/caroni-100-trinidad-rum-volumne-1-2-book-by-steffen-mayer.html

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we're doing something new—a distillery-by-distillery guide to a single rum-producing country. And what better place to start than Jamaica? After a quick overview of the Jamaican rum category, we take a closer look at the rums of:

Appleton Estate

New Yarmouth Estate

Worthy Park Estate

Hampden Estate

Clarendon Distillers

Long Pond Distillery

In addition to offering some background and a look at what sets each distillery apart, we also recommend a couple of our favorite options from each distillery.

For further reading on these distilleries, we recommend perusing the Jamaican Rum section on Matt Pietrek's website, Cocktail Wonk. (His Jamaican Rum Distillery Cheat Sheet is a good place to start.)

Also, here's a link to the VinePair article on Coruba Rum recommended during the episode.

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get cool extra stuff? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we caught up Peter Holland, the man behind The Floating Rum Shack, Foursquare's UK brand ambassador, and general rum guy for That Boutique-y Rum Company. Peter has been writing and educating on rum since 2008, giving him a unique perspective on a ton of rum-related topics. We chatted about:

Rum's evolution since 2008

Developing new releases for That Boutique-y Rum Company

Spreading Foursquare throughout the UK

The exciting world of Madeira rum

Alternate bottle size fantasies

The perils of rum labelling and categorization

And more!

Follow Peter on Instagram 

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get cool extra stuff? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we caught up with Kate Perry and Johann Jobello of La Maison & Velier to learn about Arhumatic—a French brand that's quite different from anything else in the LM&V portfolio. Arhumatic specializes in rhum arrangé, a traditional preparation of rum in islands with French ties like Réunion, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. Rhum arrangé involves macerating rum (either rhum agricole or molasses-based rum, depending on the island) in fresh fruits and/or botanicals, typically for months at a time. While commercial brands are common in France, Arhumatic is possibly the first to become available in the United States. In the interview we discuss...

The history and origins of rhum arrangé

How rhum arrangé varies between the French Caribbean and Réunion

How Arhumatic produces their rhum arrangé and develops new ideas

The perils of the term "flavored rum" (and why it doesn't feel fitting for products like this)

Why La Maison & Velier decided to partner with a brand that's so different from the rest of their rum portfolio

How Arhumatic going beyond rhum agricole in their rhum arrangés with Jamaican rum, clairin, and more

The challenges of bringing unfamiliar types of rum to new places

The best ways to use rhum arrangé

And more!

Additional Resources on Arhumatic:

Arhumatic website

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get cool extra stuff? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

In this episode, we sat down with Don Q's new master blender Liza Cordero and maestra ronera Silvia Santiago to dive deep into an iconic distillery of Puerto Rican rum. Although Liza only recently became master blender, she's worked at the distillery for nearly two decades, and Silvia has been there for 48 years. There's an absolute wealth of knowledge between the two of them, so we hit a bunch of different topics, including...

Don Q's single barrel and cask finish releases (and what we'll see next)

The distillery's production process and approach to blending

Why they choose not to sweeten their rums

The differences in their light rums and heavy rums

The Sherry cask solera that's been at the distillery as long as anyone can remember (and how it gives them a unique blending component)

The role of intuition in blending

The perils of molasses sourcing

A humble request for higher proof rums

And more!

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get cool extra stuff? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.

Check out the photo of the rum pilot plant scientists mentioned near the end of the episode at The Rumcast website (scroll down).

In this episode, we challenged each other to build our own personal budget home rum bars featuring 5 rums under $30. 

But wait! There were more stipulations!

Each rum had to be from a different country, at least one rum had to be unaged, and at least one rum had to be made from cane juice.

We laugh, we argue, we come to agreements to disagree.

Listen in and let us know what your picks would be!

P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get cool extra stuff? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.