Historian and flagship of the current Tiki, we probably have Beachbum Berry to thank for this World return of the current Tiki. He is the author of Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log (1998) and Intoxica! (2002), combining these two in 2009 in the Remixed which also contains many additions.
Case files: the debate on the redefinition of rum
The rumour has been going around for some days and it is now official, Ferrand has finally won…
It is true that there is a lack of clarity concerning the amount of sugar in certain rums (which could soon be improved by nutritional information labels on spirits), and equally that one often imagines that rum producers use local sugarcane juice, or molasses from local sugar refineries, even though the molasses could, in fact, have come from several thousand kilometres away as many islands no longer have refineries.
To respond to this question directly, a rum stops being a rum if, when tasted, it no longer exhibits the characteristics of its base material, which is sugarcane, in any one of its different forms. This principle is key.
When is rum no longer rum? To respond to the ritual question of 2016, François Longueteau decided to choose a positive angle and to spin it differently. His responds by saying “this is what rum is for me”.
Here, we are no longer witnessing the Marc Sassier of Saint James rums, Martinique, a true rum expert with a technical, historic and strictly regulatory approach: a real Occam’s razor!
Richard Seale is undeniably one of the producers who is most present at exhibitions to defend his vision of rum against any alteration. Here he makes his position clear on some other points.
This is the question which was posed by Ian Burrell during a conference and debate at Tales of the Cocktails in New Orleans.
Case file – The great debate on the redefinition of rum : Olivier Couacaud – Commercial Director of the Rhumerie de Chamarel, Mauritius
This is the question which will be posed by Ian Burrell during a conference/debate at Tales of the Cocktails in New Orleans. For our summer series, we have chosen to give the floor to those who make rum. We will ask each of them the same questions and will start off with a strange bird from Grande Terre: Hervé Damoiseau.